I’m Still Alive and Kicking!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post!!!  I left Santa Fe on April 26 and have been sickly ever since; also have no wifi signal at all at my new place.  Here is a twilight photo of the house I’m caretaking…..isn’t it magnificent!

I am still living in my camper here; the house is vacant and empty. My main jobs are to scare away potential burglars and distribute money to the yard, pond & pool maintenance people, in exchange for full hookups and a carport roof overhead.  It’s a tough life. The only bad thing is that my wifi hotspot doesn’t work here at all. I’m trying to figure something out that won’t be too costly.

While I was in Santa Fe I had a really bad toothache so I started taking Keflex that I’d gotten in Mexico. Then the day I left, I got a urinary tract infection….while still on the Keflex! I tried some home remedies like cranberry capsules and of course drinking tons of water, and taking vinegar and water (ewww, nasty!). It’s hard to try to drive cross-country with a UTI!  Several times I had to pull off the road, throw up the camper roof & sides and use the porta-potty! I finally gave up and went to a walk-in clinic in Conway, AR. I told the doc there that sulfa drugs did not work well for me but he coerced me into taking Bactrim anyway. He also offered prescription-strength of the analgesic orange dye pills like Cystex.  He said they were a lot stronger than the OTC version, and I wanted that because I was having so much trouble sleeping. You can only take the OTC ones every 8 hrs. but they really only last for about five, and once you take the new ones, they take a more than two hours to get to work!  So I was usually awake for at least 4 hours in the middle of every night. The prescription version, however, was not covered by my insurance and cost $28!!!  And when I got them, I discovered the sad truth….it’s the same drug as the OTC stuff, but prescription strength is 100 mg. The OTC strength is 97.5 mg!!  I paid SEVEN TIMES as much for 2.5 mg extra strength!!!  No wonder the insurance wouldn’t cover them. So let that be a lesson to you, don’t bother with the prescription version.

I continued on in misery, as the Bactrim did not kick in at all until the 4th day of the 5-day course. I was not able to drive as long each day, as I was so tired from not getting much sleep!  It altered my schedule enough that I was able to stop off in Nashville and visit my old grade school friend Nancy Cotter & stay overnight in her driveway. Yes, she did invite us to stay inside but I’m more comfortable in my own bed, and I especially appreciated my porta-potty being only one step away! We finally arrived in Asheville on May 1. And finally I felt better for one day. The very next day I had a slight fever. And the next. And at night my back hurt quite a lot, around my waist area. So I went to another walk-in clinic the third day and apparently since the Bactrim was so slow to work, some of the bacteria crept up into my kidneys and was trying to wreak havoc. It was a very mild kidney infection, with low-grade fevers. Since the bugs seemed resistant to two other antibiotics, she prescribed a one-dose drug, a powder that had to be dissolved in water and drank.  It also was not covered by my insurance (I’m starting to see a pattern here) and cost $80!!!  For one dose!! But it finally did the job. I’m feeling much better now, though having fevers for a week has really made me weak as a kitten, even though they were not very high!

So…overall, a really bad couple of weeks for me health-wise and money-wise. I hate to beg, but….please try to remember to use my Amazon Associates link when you order from Amazon! (And order lots!!!) I just looked and I’ve “earned” less than $10 for the first week of May.  A normal month for me is between $150 and $200, and it makes a huge difference to me! Even small orders help, as the % is figured on number of items shipped. (Digital orders count too, even your $.99 Kindle books!)  And it doesn’t cost you any more than ordering the normal way. Thank you so much! Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/?tag=litbitliv01-20