Had my LLMD appointment last week and she wants to add to my treatment. I'm relieved. After two years I'd hoped to be further along. After one year I felt so much better that I thought for sure another year would whoop it! Yet, here we are another year later and I think I'm right where I was last spring. She added another antibiotic and herbal to treat some more/other possible co-infections. I've still got to go to the pharmacy to get the new meds -- I've been feeling so bad with a herx that I don't want to add to it; however at this point I might as well have one herx with both meds together than go through two separate ones, so I'll go get them today. Then maybe I'll be feeling better by the time my mom comes on the 18th.
And she mentioned that at my next appointment (at the end of April) we'll change directions in treatment so I need to be thinking about if I have a preference of IV antibiotics or penicillin injections. IV antibiotics require a port or PICC-line; which can be hard to keep clean (thus risk for infection), you can't get them wet in the shower/bath and you have to go in to the Dr office for each treatment. Penicillin injections are self administered at home three days a week, BUT penicillin shots are expensive and not always covered by insurance.
I think the first step is to call the insurance company and see if they cover the shots. If not, then we still have options - My LLMD did say that the same bicillin that you buy at the feed store is the same USP human grade so if we wanted, we could buy veterinarian bicillin and take the shots that way ... I laughed and told her my dad, being a rancher, would know all about that! The main difference is that human penicillin comes in pre-dosed syringes and what we would buy at the feed store comes in vials and would have to be drawn up -- not to mention a cost differential of about $750 per month!!! Drawing it up could be worth $750.
I still think the shots are my first choice b/c of ease ... any thoughts and suggestions from some of you who may have done one or the other?
3 comments:
PJ, I want to let you know that a PICC line really isn't all that much hastle. It is and it isn't. If that makes sense.
If you have an excellent picc line team, your insertion goes very smoothly. Are you sensitive to tape (band aids/tegaderm)/cleaning solution (bedadine)? This is where my only problem came in. I was so sensitive to these items that it gave me a lot of problems until we found the right combination (micropore roll for the dressing & just using alcohol for cleaning). Mine lasted almost 7 months. It has been one month since it's been pulled.
It was the best decision I could have made.
Though I didn't not use it for IV antibiotics. I was using it for alternative medicine.
I feel the same way, after two years I wish i was further along....Hope that things go well for you. There are both pros and cons to IV antibiotics...will your insurance cover IV's too? For more than a month? I have a friend who did the shots for 2 yrs or more but then switched to a different protocol, ending up with 3 in all. Now after 4 yrs she is much better. There is hope! I know several who did PICC IV and my doctor would have gone that route and still may......I think she changed her mind for now due to abnormal EKG I had with Zithro and mepron....she is pulsing now with those due to that I think. So each person is different in what they can handle and what is best....You will find peace with what is right for you!
I just had a PICC put in last week and it's really not bad. The insertion can be a bit painful, but it goes quick. Keeping it dry isn't hard either, just some sarane wrap and waterproof tape. I too am sensitive to the tagaderm, so they just order a different type and it works fine for me.
I don't have to go to the doctors office for my infusions of antibotics, I do it at home every night. My insurance is paying for a home nurse to come once a week to change the dressing, but that part could be done at your docs office.
I would rather have the PICC then do injections.
Just my 2 cents :)
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