Why antibiotics are not fun

Well the cold-like illness that I have been struggling with since February is finally starting to ease up. I'm coughing less often, and the coughs sound a lot less like a moderately successful attempt to bring up a lung. I'm also no longer going through a box of tissues a week. Best of all, my ears, which have been constantly plugged, are finally clearing up and I am no longer asking everyone to repeat themselves and watching TV with subtitles. All this is partially due, no doubt, to the IVIG treatment starting to have a gradual effect. It also doesn't hurt that I currently have nothing to do but sleep and relax until I start a summer job.  However, I'm sure the antibiotics my primary doctor prescribed are also playing a large factor. Unfortunately.



As I understand it, one of the problems of having CVID is that when you get sick, you are sick for far longer than a normal person, and you often need a much stronger and prolonged course of treatment. Hence, my family physician prescribed a very strong and apparently rarely used antibiotic to help clear up my ears and sinuses.  I am to take the antibiotics for two weeks, with option to refill for another two weeks if I don't feel like I'm better.  However, since day 2 of being on the antibiotics ended with me incapacitated with indigestion, the worst headache of pain I ever remember experiencing, and vomiting which has left me weak and with a delicate stomach and a slightly less painful headache the day after, I feel disinclined to get a refill. 

On the plus side, I actually managed to hear from my immunologist when I called one of his offices yesterday seeking more information, since I'm currently lost and adrift as to what the next step is. Turns out, as he is a very busy man, he had delegated a number of tasks to other doctors and staff. Thus, someone was supposed to have called me and talked to me about what the IVIG treatments meant, what I could expect, how to prepare, etc. so that I didn't go in uninformed. Apparently said person felt making the arrangements for the treatment was enough. I also learned that I am supposed to get the treatment every four weeks, and that I should have a follow up visit with my immunologist at the end of the month to see how my immunoglobulin levels are doing. 

Now that I know the general lay of the land I feel a lot better. Which, I suppose, is part of the idea behind the phrase "knowledge is power".