Infection 1; Antibiotics 0

Now for Round 2 . . .

I called for an appointment as soon as the line opened this morning, but the only one they had was at 3:40. I knew that wouldn't work, since I would be stuck in rush hour going home, so I decided to go back to Bethesda's ER. I had prayed last night that if I was supposed to go back there, there wouldn't be any good appointments left at the Fairfax clinic, and there weren't. Nothing like clear direction!

I didn't get there until 12:15, and it started out badly, as there were no parking places at all by the ER door. I had to drive around the complex (it's huge) to the other side where there was a parking garage. Fortunately, I found a place there. The check-in lady even recognized me ("Hey, didn't you have a breast infection on Friday?!" "Yes, it's the same one, in fact.") When the doctor came in to see me, she also recognized my case! This has never happened to me before in military ER medicine! She was the head ER doc on Friday too, so the doctor I saw then had discussed my case with her. She remembered my allergy to penicillin, and their drug discussion. She said that I didn't have an abscess, but that the infection was obviously not responding to the antibiotic they had given me (clindamycin). She decided to start an IV antibiotic on me then, and to change my prescription to Keflex. This is what I took when I had mastitis with Caleb, although I would never have remembered without someone saying it first. She told me they didn't try that first because some people who are allergic to penicillin are also allergic to Keflex. Thankfully, not me.

Well, you know how ERs are-- it took awhile to get a corpsman in to put in the IV, another while for a nurse to come in to hook up the actual solution, awhile for the solution to run, and then an even longer while for someone to come back to check on me and take it out! I did 2 crossword puzzles and took a nap, LOL. But then I had to go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription, and let me tell you, this is where I really missed having Bob there in uniform! When I got up there and saw that there were no seats left in the waiting area, and people were basically waiting all over the place, that was a bad sign. They have a number system, like at Wright-Pat, and I was able to get in a different set of numbers because I was "discharged from the hospital", so I didn't have to wait AS long, but it was still a wait of about an hour and 10 minutes. Whew! Other people were waiting well over 2 hours. Ridiculous. Active duty in uniform get a whole different set of numbers, and their numbers are called immediately! They only have to wait about 10 minutes, as their prescriptions are just immediately filled. Ah well. I eventually made it out of there at 4:30. I was so worried that I would totally get stuck in rush hour traffic on the Beltway, and if I had been traveling on the Inner Loop, I would have. There was an accident, and they were stopped! But the Outer Loop was moving, albeit sluggishly, and I made it home by 5:30, ravenously hungry and desperate to pump.

Anna has been a real trooper through this whole ordeal, taking a bottle like a champ when I've had to be gone for a feeding (or 2, LOL). That was such a relief, to know she would do that without making a huge fuss about it! And I've certainly been pumping a freezer full of milk, so it's good to know she'll use it. Mom did yeoman's work (don't you love all these Navy terms I'm sprinkling in here? It's a whole 'nother language!) here at home with all the kids, both Friday and today. I probably would have had a nervous breakdown if she hadn't still been here! The Lord knew she needed to be here for such a long time! As for me, I'm pretty tired, but--call me a cock-eyed optimist--I think that possibly I am less sore now. Oh, I am so praying that I will feel better tomorrow!!!