My Drug Holiday

Looking back now, that race on December 9 seems like an amazing triumph. I don’t know how I did it. Right now, I can’t even walk a straight line across the room.

I made it 9 whole days on the Vancomycin before the poison affected me noticeably. Then, what a spectacular crash! So, I was switched to Clindamycin, the second choice drug for my antibiotic-resistant staph infection. I was nervous about switching (with good reason, it turns out). As they say, “better the devil you know”.

I made it only 32 hours on the Clindmycin before my body hollered “stop” with a rash. The doc put me on an official drug holiday until December 26, the day after Christmas. No more medicine balls. No more waking up just to hook up an IV line. I just have to take Benadryl every 4 hours, until I am no longer red and puffy.

I’ve never had a drug holiday before…..what should I do? Am I supposed to decorate? Go out to eat? Surely there must be a proper way to commemorate the occasion. I’m afraid my brother and his family won’t be here until after the drug holiday is over. That’s okay, our family has never worried much about celebrating holidays on the proper dates anyway.

(Note #1: This entire blog post was originally written longhand in the free-writing portion of a paper journal on 12/21. It was fueled by a toxic concoction of drugs, and I cannot vouch for its content or coherence.)

(Note #2: This blog post was not copied to the computer and posted to the blog until 12/25 for a very good reason: the next day, the Clindamycin-induced reaction worsened. One of those big SUV’s with the red-and-blue flashing lights gave me a ride to the hospital, where I stayed for three days…got out on Christmas, to my great delight. I have a feeling the drug holiday might just get extended a bit.)