-- Makes you STRONGER! --
It is SMA awareness month. It would not be complete if I didn't manage to get sick.
For someone with SMA, catching a common cold can be as dangerous as double pneumonia. I have just 30% of my lungs working. Thankfully, this time it's not my chest that is playing up.
On Monday evening I went out with my PA turned friend to see the supposed horror film The Conjuring. Because it was a scary film I thought I had goosebumps. When we got home we discovered I had spiked a 38.4 degree Celsius fever. Over the next twelve hours my temperature kept climbing, until it hit 39.4 while I waited on an ambulance to pick me up and get me to hospital.
For the first time in two years I felt too flat to get out of bed. I was dizzy, dry, hot, thirsty and I felt sick. All I wanted to do was get the guy from The Green Mile to take the infection from me. I was angry at myself, as I knew I had probably missed symptoms, and I lost my fighting spirit for a few hours.
I was due to go out with another friend on Tuesday evening. I was angry that the infection had picked one of the few times I find a slot when I'm free to go out with friends to show it's ugly head. Some vitamin water helped cool me off slightly, and I managed to text round those who absolutely needed to know at that moment and put a quick status up on Facebook and Twitter. It took me almost 5 minutes to get through those first 140 characters because my tremors had taken over and I felt like a zombie.
But as I cooled off over the following hours, my natural instincts kicked in. I did this all the time. I will beat it again. I'm going to fight.
That night we started 250mg of cipro. A well known antibiotic sometimes referred to as bleach for the bladder. I almost certainly have a urinary tract infection, or UTI. We'll have that confirmed within the next 24 hours hopefully. By evening, I was nibbling on Tayto cheese and onion crisps and my sarcasm had returned.
This infection is most likely caused by the fact that there are only three places in the whole of Northern Ireland where I can pee outside of my own home, not including hospital.
In December 2011 I suffered an anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, to Tazocin. I had been using Tazocin to treat a number of infections for 4 years. My reaction caused me to stop breathing with nobody on site capable of putting me on life support. My mum and dad worked with the teams around me to use my own equipment, and together they saved my life.
As a result, I have to increase the dosage of antibiotics over consecutive doses surrounded by people who are capable during a crash, one of my parents included. One of them is with me round the clock as a watch guard, and my epipen is always at hands length.
We're currently on 375mg of a 500mg dose. Today was a good day. Although I drove like someone under the influence I finally got out of bed and into my chair. I'm still struggling with food, and tea is hard to drink. But I'm getting there. The good moments are outnumbering the bad, and my heart rate is coming down. Provided my infection levels, or CRPs, are down from 96 tomorrow and I keep improving I should get home before the weekend.
Prayers, thoughts and virtual hugs only give me more fight. Thanks so much for all the love, strength and light you've been sending. I'm on my way up the mountain again, and I'm going to keep running up.
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