After the Trip to the Doctor
I came back from the doctor's office about 20 minutes ago, after a stop at the pharmacy to pick up medications.
My doctor, Doctor Blake, isn't in town at the moment as he's on vacation, but I got to see the fellow who shares the office with him, Dr. Orbach, a somewhat older gentleman who's been practicing for somewhat longer and is a bit more hands-on. After describing all of my symptoms to him, and his actually feeling parts of my body and checking me for symptoms, the conclusions he drew were...interesting.
First off, the chronic diarrhea is very much due to a secondary infection that came about as a result of taking the antibiotic that supposedly cured the toe infection that I had. To treat the diarrhea and the loss of water and electrolytes as a result of the diarhea (but see below), he proscribed Gastrolyte, and oral rehydration salt (with citrate), as well as a variant of Levaquin to fight the infection in the bowel (whatever it is). He also proscribed a narcotic drug, Lomotil, to help with the diarrhea, so that's going to raise some interesting problems with driving and getting to work and that sort of thing.
However, that's not the whole of it. It turns out that the jaw popping that I have is actually a salivary gland infection of my left salivary gland in the area of the cheek near and below the ear. He thinks this is bacterial, and what is called an infection of opportunity, and so prescribed the Levaquin variant to help fight that. In addition, my coughing is a solid case of bronchitis, and so the Levaquin should help combat that as well. At least, that's the hope.
So there you have it. The current state of my health, and lots of extra medication to take and all. Whether it helps, and whether I get back to feeling like me again is another matter.
My doctor, Doctor Blake, isn't in town at the moment as he's on vacation, but I got to see the fellow who shares the office with him, Dr. Orbach, a somewhat older gentleman who's been practicing for somewhat longer and is a bit more hands-on. After describing all of my symptoms to him, and his actually feeling parts of my body and checking me for symptoms, the conclusions he drew were...interesting.
First off, the chronic diarrhea is very much due to a secondary infection that came about as a result of taking the antibiotic that supposedly cured the toe infection that I had. To treat the diarrhea and the loss of water and electrolytes as a result of the diarhea (but see below), he proscribed Gastrolyte, and oral rehydration salt (with citrate), as well as a variant of Levaquin to fight the infection in the bowel (whatever it is). He also proscribed a narcotic drug, Lomotil, to help with the diarrhea, so that's going to raise some interesting problems with driving and getting to work and that sort of thing.
However, that's not the whole of it. It turns out that the jaw popping that I have is actually a salivary gland infection of my left salivary gland in the area of the cheek near and below the ear. He thinks this is bacterial, and what is called an infection of opportunity, and so prescribed the Levaquin variant to help fight that. In addition, my coughing is a solid case of bronchitis, and so the Levaquin should help combat that as well. At least, that's the hope.
So there you have it. The current state of my health, and lots of extra medication to take and all. Whether it helps, and whether I get back to feeling like me again is another matter.