Since I wrote originally, I continued asking people at work and my friends for any left over antibiotics they had, and one blessed woman at work gave me a whole 21 day supply of keflex, and various other 10 day penicillin and erythmycin. my brother also gave me a 14 day penicillin supply he had. So I kept taking everything until I ran out, and it helped stabilize the spread but it never made it go away. My foot remained huge and all summer. i couldnt wear my shoes unless i took all the laces out and didnt wear socks. but at least it went down somewhat on my shin and knee. It still remained red and clammy and itched all the time though.

Then i got laid off from my job at the end of July. I had no antibiotics by then but it remained stable. But I always thought that it was just laying dormant and could blow up at any time. I also still could not bend down very well. my knee could only bend so far and then stop because it was still slightly swollen right below the knee and down, getting fatter as it went down to my foot. my foot never stopped being real fat and red, and the feeling was like pins & needles all the time in the foot like it is when your foot falls asleep.

So fast forward to end of september. I was not eating very well because I still could not find a job and was only getting unemployment comp which was less than I needed to live on. behind by a couple hundred bucks each month and had to cut food out my budget to pay the rent & utilities. ate only a little bread & peanut butter daily and what money had left went for my cat’s food.
So my immune system suffered from the lack of food. Then about october 1st I ate a can of mandarin oranges my mom had given me from storage and it must have been too old and I immediately got very sick and threw up so violently that my chest muscle all felt pulled.

Next day a friend came over to give me some canned food and he had a cold. So the day after he came, my chest was hurting even worse. I seemed to have picked up his cold, and my chest muscles ached so bad i had to take ibuprofen round the clock just to be able to cough without unbearable chest pain. This went on for the rest of the month, it just would not go away, and my nose began tobleed from takeing the ibuprofen so much (i think it thinned my blood so it wouldnt clot and if i blowed my nose it would start bleeding). so i stopped taking them but it made my chest hurt so bad.

To go with this, my leg blew up as well, but even worse IT NOW SPREAD TO MY OTHER LEG!. My other foot was now as fat as my left foot. I looked like i had elephantitis. I also could barely walk and bend either knee. It took me 15 minutes to just go outside and get my mail. I could hardly bend to get in my car either.

Just going out to get some bread & milk became a major ordeal, and I was also burning up. I was in a grocery store one day and got so hot i had to take my shirt off and went all the home that way. My landlord saw me and told me I looked terrible, the worst he’d ever seen me, he said. Even my cat seemed very concerned and empathetic to my plight. I couldnt even get out of my chair in front of my computer to go to bed at night and I would sleep that way for many days.

I finally got to the point that I wanted to go to the ER but could no longer get into or drive my car. I called my sister late one night on Thursday November 3rd and asked her if she could drive me to the ER. I could barely put my shoes on, that alone took 20 minutes. She kindly came and we went and were there till morning, and they said I probably had pneumonia but wouldnt know without tests and I told them I have no money so I couldnt, and i was given a very weak antibiotic (doxycycline) which I knew wouldnt probably do anything.
I went home and even took double the dose for two days but I felt even worse. I called her again to take me back to the ER, and we went back Sunday afternoon.

They insisted I get a catscan and all the tests, and wouldnt let me leave. It sucked because I wasnt prepared but I had no choice. They confirmed i had pneumonia in 4 places of my chest and admitted me to a bed. I was put on IV of 4 different antibiotics round the clock. azithromycin, amoxycillin, and two others I forget now. the azithro burned like mad going into my vein. They said that is normal. After 4 days of that, they added the bomber antiobitic, Vancomycin (very expensive too). I was feeling better in the chest, but my legs were still swollen. They gave me socks to put on but they wouldnt fit on my feet and i had to cut them to get them on.

At least I was given vicodin every six hours for my sore ribcage. The 3 meals a day were heavenly and i needed the nutrition desperately. They also gave me klonopin to make me stop being so anxious about going home. I just wanted to take care of my cat, but at least my sister was feeding her once a day.
I remained in bed on the IV all week and by Saturday my pneumonia seemed to be going away.

But my arms were ripped apart from the needles, having had to switch IV arms midweek, and they also took blood constantly too.
My legs were only beginning to get better at that point. I wanted to leave so bad and bugged them every day to let me go home, and finally Sunday they gave in. my arms coudnt take any more punishment anyway by then. They gave me a 10 day script for Augmentin and once home I purposely took a swig of pepto bismol with each dose because I heard that potentiates the augmentin, making it stronger. The augmentin gave me horrible diarrea, but I could live with that as long as it made my legs continue to improve.

After 10 days I knew I needed more augmentin and called the doc to extend my script at least to 14 days, which he did, thank God. I am sure that extra 4 days made all the difference. By the end, my legs and feet finally were back to normal. My shoes fit easy now and I have feeling back in my feet. I kept working my feet and legs the whole time to get the blood flowing and let the augmentin get in there deeply. It took a lot of hard work to get my knees to bend again correctly.

I ate yogurt for a week after that to get my good bacteria back in my digestive tract because augmentin is so strong it just wipes out all bacteria, good and bad. I had a big lump on my left elbow from the IV. I read that its a normal thing that happens after having an Iv, and they actually just call it “elbow lump”, as silly as that seems. It slowly went down after a couple months but I still have a slightly mis-shapen elbow even now, like the shape of that wicked witch’s chin in ‘wizard of oz’.

I wished I had loaded up my ipod for the hospital stay. I brought it, but i didnt have it fully loaded like I’d wished. I learned my lesson and now keep it fully stocked at all times with my two favorite bands Deep Purple & Rush, and all my favorite preachers’ and theologians’ sermons and lectures which I love to listen to everyday. (Dick Lucas (especially), Alistair Begg, Don Carson, Carl Trueman, and some others). Listening to my Dick Lucas sermons was the one main thing that made my bed-ridden hospital stay bearable. (“Man doesnt live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD” – (Jesus said that, and its the most basic thing anyone ever needs to now.). Also I watched tv there for the first time in a year since I had to cancel my cable. Thanks to The Sopranos, House, & NCIS it helped my stay be bearable as well.

So far my feet & legs have stayed well & normal. And it’s all because I almost died from severe pneumonia that I got them healed. I probably would never have gone to the ER otherwise. But I now owe a tremendous bill which I cannot pay, and I’m still barely paying my rent & utilities and still eating only bread and peanut butter (at least now though I am taking a daily multi vitamin).. I am working daily at trying to get another job, putting my resume out there and interviewing, etc. at least so i hope something comes soon.

Life is always a struggle and a tribulation but God said in the bible that this is what his pilgrims are to expect in this world if we are to remain true believers and worshippers. It doesnt say life will get any easier anywhere in the bible, at least until our journey is complete and we are resurrected to the true life as He meant it all along (At that time it becomes all worth the stuggle we went through on earth). The only ones who say life will get easier on earth and we will be prosperous are the false teaching ‘word-faith’ tv preachers, and they aren’t getting that from the bible.

Hopefully somebody will get something out my ordeal, maybe if it’s only to remember to have your ipod loaded up in case you get stuck in the hospital for a while.