Tuesday April 1, 2008 10:15 PM

Update with a funny twist here (or at least I thought it was funny)...Jim had his appointment with infectious disease today. I wasn't going to go with him because he's been there before, but then I reconsidered. Jim tends to leave details out and I don't want to have to go back and try to play clean up over the phone, so off we went.

It POURED here right at the time we had to walk across the Patco lot to the train. Jim was being a little bastard hogging the umbrella, so I put my hood on and schlepped it. We were both soaked, but I don't care what Jim says....I was soaked worse. Even my sweater was soaked under my rain jacket. Jim said I looked like I was lactating. Ha ha ha. There's nothing worse than sitting around an air-conditioned doctor's office in soaking wet jeans.

So I asked Jim if he wanted me to do the talking. He's still embarrassed to talk without teeth, so he said yes. I said, "Then don't get annoyed with me when you don't like what I'm saying." Belden comes in, and I reminded her who we were, reminded her that she said not to worry about MRSA unless Jim developed a skin infection, told her that it looked to me like Jim had folliculitis all over his chest and his back, and told her I thought the folliculitis might have been brought on by MRSA still in his body. She looked at his red lumps, turned to me and said, "You're exactly right. Do you have a medical degree?" and I said, "No, but I'm like the guy who has had everything go wrong with his cars, so I can tell what's wrong with YOUR car because I've been there already." And I've seen folliculitis because my ex had it once. So she wrote a script for an antibiotic, I can't remember the name but it's in the tetracycline family so it's what they use for zits, and sent us on our way. I guess I shouldn't be sharing a bath sponge with Jim. Duh. I should have thought of that before.

Jim's still hacking and coughing up phlegm balls. Getting soaked in the rain didn't help at all. This drug is also a mild anti-inflammatory so I'm hoping it may help his goopy lungs too. We just have to watch if it makes his c-diff flare.

Sunday March 30, 2008 8:45 PM

Friday morning Jim woke up with that nasty flu-like bug that's been going around. He was down for the count. Since his lungs have been hammered by pneumonia and MRSA infection I wasn't going to wait a week for him to develop bronchitis...I just made him take Zithromax from the get-go. I have it in the house because I used to get bronchitis every year. And I made him do his breathing treatment with his nebulizer. By the next day he was feeling much better. Not great, but better. Everyone calls Dr. Pam when they get sick. Just today my mother showed me Joe's MRI results to see if I understood what they said. Unfortunately, the only reason I know what I know is because I've had so much shit go wrong with me over the years, or people close to me have had a lot of shit go wrong. It's like the person who knows alot about car repairs because they've had everything under the sun go wrong with their own car. Had I lived two or three hundred years ago I would have been the old biddy in the village digging up roots and herbs that people called instead of a doctor. "Ezekiel! Go fetch Mamma Primiani!" And then they probably would have stoned my ass for being a witch if the kids in the village laughed too much.

So I guess Jim will live. He's got an appointment this week in Philly with Dr. Belden in infectious disease. In the meantime, I've relegated myself to the guest bedroom so I can stay away from his germs as much as possible.