Half Way In

Today, represents the half-way point for me taking IV Antibiotics at home with the end day being August 11, 2020  so when I complete my 3 pm infusion, I am half-way into this process and begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, so I am coming out.

My night sweats continue but not every night nor are they are severe anymore and my weight loss continues although it has slowed down a "tad".  My weight is now 225 and back in February, 2020 it was right at 250, so 25 pounds have been lost over the last 5 months with the understanding that 12 pounds have been lost over the last 13 days.

As mentioned before, I have been counting my calories since February and before I was hospitalized, I was eating about 1900 calories/day and after my hospitalization, I was eating about 1300 calories/day and over the last couple of days, I have increased to about 1600-1800 which is returning me to normal although I am not eating all the PROTEIN that I should be eating daily...  and food still does not taste that good which is a byproduct of the antibiotic.

In any event, 12 more days, not counting today.

Home Health Nurse Visit

My insurance pays for the cost of a Home Health Nurse to visit with me twice a week while my wife is administering IV Antibiotics to make sure my health does not decline, to change my dressing covering the PICC line,to answer any questions, to monitor my daily weight/temp chart, and to collect blood for analysis once a week.  These visits will continue until August 11, and I am pretty sure that this Nurse will be responsible for removing my PICC line when the treatment is over.

The nurse is supposed to call the day before but this nurse has been calling about an hour before she arrives, letting us know that she is on her way.  I have no problems with the last minute call, but my wife does because she wants to make sure that she has the opportunity and sufficient time to present a clean environment.

I suppose that this is one of the differences between some females and some males and will perhaps never change.

The results from my blood work last week indicate that there has been no damage to any of my internal organs as a result of these antibiotics except a slightly elevated blood/sugar count of 135 and an elimination of my good bacteria which I try to replace daily by eating a container of Yogurt each day.

My body only lost a half pound between yesterday and today so perhaps it is finally adjusting to the antibiotics although I am still fatigued and sleeping in the early evening before my 11 pm treatment and every night there continues to be moderate sweating of my upper body during the night.

My only other concern is that it will be 2 months since I had my last OPDIVO infusion for Melanoma and 1 month since I have taken any daily pills for LYMPHOMA...   The good news is that I had a CT scan performed while in the hospital and it showed no significant growth...