It has been a slow recovery, I felt bad all the time I was on the antibiotics which was 7 days in the hospital and another 14 when I got out. Although I started to feel better in myself when they stopped, just over a week ago, being on antibiotics that long has had a detrimental effect on my body.  The flight down here to Orlando probably didn’t help but I don’t think that caused my problem.

I didn't give it a thought but antibiotics kill the good with the bad, which means my defenses are down even further now.  Case in point, last week I had a can of Progresso Clam Chowder for dinner, about 7pm.  It's gluten free and I love it.  By midnight I am having REALLY bad cramps.

One am and the diarrhea starts. 3am hubby drove to an all-night Walmart and gets me Imodium and an expensive ear thermometer.  He's freaking out that maybe I need to go to ER again but at least the new thermometer reassures him I have no temperature.  The doctors in the hospital really drummed into him that I should go in at the first sign of a raised temp.

Anyway, the Imodium seems to work and the cramps stop around 5am.  LONG night! My guts really hurt from all the cramping. 

This week I had a homemade salad, most of the ingredients are the same as the salad I ate the night before.  My hubby has way more of a dickey tummy than me and can and will throw up anything suspect almost immediately.  He had the same salad and was fine.

Me, around 1am I knew I was gonna lose it.  I felt a bit 'off' after eating dinner around 8pm and just felt worse as the evening progressed. But you just KNOW when the time comes.  At least it was quick and I felt much better afterwards, was even able to sleep the rest of the night.

The only thing we can think of is that my immune system was compromised back in June with the surgeries and blood transfusions and then the Spanish UTI's which were not eradicated with Utah specific antibiotics causing the sepsis/blood poisoning further reducing my immune response.

I'm thinking the slightest bacteria now is overwhelming what good flora and fauna is in my gut.  I have been on pro-biotics and vitamins since I got out of the hospital just over 3 weeks ago.  Anyone got any other suggestions for boosting my immune system (apart from washing my hands which I do ALL the time)?

Other than that, I am getting better.  That weak feeling I had where I couldn't shower, dress myself, go upstairs etc. after getting out of the hospital has receded.  I am still not strong enough to do PT and my 3 month xrays are due now.  I am going to hold off on them for a bit as getting irradiated right now may not be in my best interests ;o)

My back does not hurt for the most part YEAHHHHH but it does ache a lot when I have to sit for more than an hour.  Not having that all-encompassing back pain means I can take all these setbacks in my stride.  Nothing can be as debilitating and soul destroying as that old back pain so every cloud has a silver lining.

I will try to get back here as often as I can to keep you updated but I guess the long and short of it is, I am still here for better or for worse and I am slowly gaining ground even if it does feel like two steps forward one back sometimes.

It's the monsoon / hurricane season here in Orlando and it chucks down with rain almost every afternoon.  Humidity is around 90% with the temperature around 92F.  Wet, hot and sticky.  Still the water birds seem to like it.

Heron around one of Florida's ubiquitous water areas in a raging downpour! Its raining so hard you can barely see him which makes me wonder why I took the picture except it makes a differnce from the usual beach, sun, blue sky ones everyone takes ;o)