Playing with Drugs

Only the kind prescribed for me, of course.

I finally broke down and started taking the antibiotic prescribed by one of my PCP's partners. I'd had some bacteria show up in my urine, and they did a culture to see which antibiotic would tackle it. By the time the results came back, my PCP was off on vacation to Hawaii (where her family lives, lucky her!) so it went through one of her partners.

I got a call from my PCP's nurse saying the other doc said the bacteria levels were pretty low, so he'd prescribe if I was having symptoms but otherwise could just wait and see. I had her fax a prescription over to my pharmacy, but then I waited to pick it up for over a week before deciding, you know, maybe I am having symptoms that could be attributed to a urinary tract infection. It wasn't the typical symptoms, but when do I ever do anything by the book?

So I started on Macrobid on Friday, and I guess I'm glad I did because I am feeling a bit better. I think I was having some kidney pain, although I wasn't really sure if it was back pain that had migrated. But it's gone now, which is Good. (As an aside, I hadn't ever heard of Macrobid before and was worried it was going to be one of the "new" antibiotics that was expensive, yet another reason for waiting to see if I really needed it. So it was a nice surprise at the pharmacy to find it had a generic that was cheaper than my normal co-pay for generic meds.)

Meanwhile, I put myself back up to 20 mg per day of Prednisone since the 10 mg wasn't cutting it, and that's helped my joint pain improve again, which is lovely.

The hot, hot weather here isn't helping though, even with our central air conditioning. I've always been a heat wimp, but since I got sick two years ago, I just melt in the heat and my symptoms flare. Good thing I don't live in Arizona or something! At least heat waves in Portland don't last too long ...