It's great to be feeling well again. On Monday I found myself in the doctor's office with a suspected urinary tract infection. I'll spare you the details of my symptoms, but suffice it to say that I was in complete disbelief that the rapid-developing "dip" test they do in the office was completely normal. I'm sorry, but there was no way that urine was normal. The doctor I saw (my regular doctor was unavailable) said that it's not uncommon for her to see a patient come in with symptoms that are resolved by antibiotics even though the urine tests normal, so she prescribed Bactrim, an antibiotic that treats most of the common bacteria found in the urinary tract. And she sent the rest of my sample off for a full culture.
Fast-forward to Thursday. I get a call from the doctor's office and find out that the culture came back, and surprise, not normal at all. In fact, the broad spectrum antibiotic is not going to work on what I have. So they've called in a new antibiotic to my pharmacy, and I should switch to that one when my next dose is due. Now, in the meantime, I'm on day three of the headache from hell. No, really, I know I say that a lot, but this one really is. I've taken my aspirin/acetaminophen cocktail three times. It has had little to no effect, and the headache keeps getting worse. It's actually keeping me from sleeping at night. For some reason, after getting off the phone with the nurse, it occurs to me for the first time that this headache might actually be linked to other things. So I go to WebMD and look up Bactrim's side effects. Lo and behold, persistent headache is listed in the highly unlikely but very serious, seek immediate medical attention category.
Oh, lovely. Knowing that I'm switching drugs anyway, I'm not sure whether the order to seek immediate medical attention still applies. And being completely incapable of logical thought myself due to the pain in my head, it is Daniel who comes up with the brilliant idea that I should call the pharmacist. To my relief, the pharmacist assures me that once the Bactrim is out of my system, the headache should go away and I will be fine.
And she was right! The pain was mostly gone by the time I got home from work, and the remaining dull pressure had subsided by the time I took the first dose of the new antibiotic last night. I have my music on here at work for the first time in three days, and much to my coworkers' delight - or maybe their fright - I am singing and dancing along like I always do... when I feel good.
So now I will be on antibiotics for the next week, when I was going to be done tomorrow. But I can already feel them working, which is good. And my head feels great, and I can have the office lights on again, and look at my computer screen without wanting to puke. Yes, it's great to be feeling well again.
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