CD5: I'm Free!

I'm free of my PICC line at long last. A kind home nurse came by the house today shortly after 12pm and she quickly and efficiently removed the line from my arm. Being one that isn't easily grossed out, I watched intently as she pulled the 45cm long line out of my upper arm. I expected it to be covered in blood. I expected to be grossed out and to gross J out by making him watch. I'm evil that way. But it was rather clean til she got to the end of the line. They cover the line where it meets the arm with an "IV pad" that is supposed to catch any blood, but there wasn't much to see. At the end of the line it was a tiny bit bloody, but not much. I was somewhat surprised that it didn't hurt at all when she removed it.

What am I left taking now that I'm free of the dreaded clindamycin PICC line?

The treatment cocktail du jour includes the following:

Items prescribed by RE:

• BCP
  
• 1500mg flagyl
  
• 500mg zithromax
  
• 2.5mcg synthroid
  
• Baby Aspirin
  
• Prenatal
  
• Folgard 2.2
  
• 1g calcium
  
• Diflucan, 1X week while on abx

Items I've added on advice from other IFs:

• 4g Fish Oil
  
• Sublingual B-12
  
• 800iu D3
  
• 400IU Natural E
  
• 50mg 5-HTP (in lieu of lexapro)
  
• High Potency 100 B Complex
  
• 400iu D3 2X's/day
  
• 500mg Ascorbyl Palmitate (H2O soluble vitamin C)

On advise of my acupuncturist I'm laying off of the java, which I will sorely miss. She stresses that the oils are just bad for fertility in general and urges me to drink teas and eat "warming" foods, which makes perfect sense to do in this cold weather. I also think that because I am taking so many antibiotics that it makes sense for me to stay away from foods that encourage yeast (wine, beer, raised breads, sugars, etc). It's easy to stay away from alcohol as flagyl can't be consumed with alcohol, but not eating bread is a bit difficult for me. I really should be cutting out wheat products entirely.

Why? Well there's some research that shows that people with a DQ-alpha of 4.1, which DB fondly called the "killer gene" or "Viking gene", have an immune reaction towards wheat. I'm one of those folks that carry a 4.1 gene varient, so to avoid wheat could help my immune system to keep from freaking out when I start stims. I love things like biscotti, wheat toast in the morning, etc. Wheat really is hard to cut out of one's diet as it hides in many products, but it's not forever. I was doing rather well until today when we went to a place called The Counter lunch and I lost control and had myself a turkey burger.

There's half a bar of Ritter Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts on top of the refrigerator in jeopardy of being eaten...and I'm off...tomorrow's another day and I'll be back on the diet wagon in the morning.