I had an appointment with Dr C today. It’s an hour drive from where I live, and about 25 minutes into the drive, this overwhelming feeling of drunkenness overtook me. It’s happened before, with onset about 2 months ago, but it’s rather unpredictable as to when it will actually happen. And when it flares when I’m driving, it’s scary. And potentially dangerous.
I got off the highway and took the longer, slower road into town, since it was the only available precaution I could take, aside from stopping alongside of the road, but without any confidence the feeling would pass soon. And it didn’t.
The reason I went to Dr C was to square away why my acid reflex had suddenly returned, but the focus quickly turned into a 60 minute visit trying to unravel the mystery surrounding my sudden cognitive downslide. We narrowed it down to a few possibilities. The symptoms have coincided with the new nasal meds I’m taking for what Dr J thinks was a mold exposure that has infected my sinuses. Dr C seems to think that Dr J is on the right track, but that the newest information coming down the pipe is that what frequently happens with the fungal infection is a staph infection. It’s as if we have peeled away one layer, revealing a new layer that is potentially causing a problem. We won’t know for certain until she get the MARCAN nasal swabs into her office and we can test. MARCAN is an acronym for something, but I was in such a haze, not much penetrated. Very unlike me.
In the meantime, she ordered more blood. Some of which is testing for a persistent Bartonella infection. She thinks we’ve conquered the actual bacteria that cause the Lyme, but since I got a 3 for 1 when I got bit, she’s wondering if it’s one of the other 2 bacteria also complicating things.
And boy did we pull some blood. I’m pretty sure that there were at least 15 tubes she had to fill. We had so much to fill, in fact, that the line clotted off before she could finish filling the tubes on her first stick. This meant she’d have to stick me again, and while I have good humor about these things, I was disappointed when the second stick didn’t give as generously as we needed. She was going to make it work though, with the tubes she did have filled.
Before I left, we discussed the fact that I had clinical today. I’d be dealing with patients. I expressed to her my concern that I could potentially hurt someone, with my judgement and perception so off kilter today. She agreed and wrote me a note to excuse me for today.
So while the drunkenness has largely passed (I still get off balance sometimes just walking around the house), the fatigue as settled in pretty significantly. The good news is that it should pass after a good night’s rest. This is important since I have a sociology exam tomorrow, and I need to be able to focus.
Wish me luck.
Once Bitten Bella 