Wednesday, September 03, 2008

How Did He Get In There???

I went to the pulmonologist today for results of my lung biopsy. Great news. Not leukemia cells infiltrating my lungs. Not another cancer. Not pneumonia (at least he never used the term). So what is it? Nothing I would have ever come up with playing the guessing game.

E. Coli infection in my lungs!

Strange I am happy about having an E. Coli infection, but everything is relative, isn't it? My pulmonologist didn't seem worried, so neither am I. In fact I don't even go back to see him again...hmm. I see my oncologist tomorrow for my regular appointment and I will get his opinion on all of this.

Of course I did my usual research but didn't discover very much. Here is a quote from an article in the Journal of Clinical Biology:

"Escherichia coli is the most abundant facultative anaerobic bacterium in the normal human intestine. Its presence is clearly associated with infections of the gastrointestinal tract, urogenital tract, and peritoneum and occasionally with infections at distant loci after bacteremia. However, it is rarely associated with pulmonary infections "

If your eyes glazed over in the last paragraph, basically Mr. E. Coli is often found hanging out in the colon causing problems, and even in the urinary tract, but he is rarely found lounging around in the lungs. I found lots of references to the colon. I don't think I want to know how he got up into my lungs, the high rent district. I do know I want him to vacate the property. And soon! I got my extra strength prescription of Levaquin and I served my first eviction notice this evening. I will serve him one notice a day for seven days and then he better be gone. I want him out and back in the slums where I will flush him out for good! I am hoping my onc will at least order a chest x-ray in a couple of weeks to make sure Mr. E. Coli really did vacate the premises and didn't leave any of his kids behind.

As I said in the previous post, I don't follow the norm with things, so why should I start now?

I promise I will cover my mouth if I cough around you.

Thanks for your prayers!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. I just stumbled onto your blog about CLL/SLL. My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 CLL/SLL at the age of 25. He is recovering from a Cord Blood Transplant...he is day 88 after Transplant. His oncologist is Dr Wierda also...his Transplant MD is Dr Shpall at MD Anderson.

Hang in there. And, most importantly stay positive and rely on God to get you through.

Visit Care Pages.com then adammontgomery.

Sending prayers your way,
Missy
From Kentucky

David Arenson said...

John,

It is a bizarre world we CLLers live in when an E-Coli infection in the lungs is good news (all things being relative of course).

Let's hope the Levaquin sends him packing.

David

Anonymous said...

My name is Chris Brown and i would like to show you my personal experience with Levaquin.

I am 50 years old. Have been on Levaquin for 21 days now. Started feeling achilles tendon pain 5 days after starting levaquin. Physician and pharmacy NEVER provided information about this side effect, as the prescribing information states they should. I never made the connection that an antibiotic could cause this side effect so I finished the regimen. Six months later, including three months of physical therapy, walking better, though still feel occassional pain. Fault is with physician and pharmacist. Levaquin is an important drug for fighting infections, but should be prescribed second line. There are other proven options to try first. Indiscriminate use by physicians is causing needless side effects and dramtically increasing resistance problems.

I have experienced some of these side effects-
Achilles tendon damage, wrist pain

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Chris Brown