Well its been awhile but it appears it was time for another hospital visit. Once again, i was able to contract an unusual virus RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). Some of you with kids might know about this virus as it is common among children under the age of 2. So once again, I went out and found something unusual to deal with. The doc’s have two main treatments that they are going to work with: first is called Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)- a blood product administered intravenously. It contains the pooled, polyvalent, IgG antibodies extracted from the plasma of over one thousand blood donors.The goal with this one is to super boost my immune system and help my body be in the best shape to take on the second treatment. This IVIG treatment requires 5 sessions each 48 hours apart. The other treatment is an inhalant called Ribavirin.This one has some potent stuff in it. To the point that my hospital bed (with me in it) is shrouded with a plastic tent and a “demistifier” is attached to catch and filter all the excess medication floating around. It really is quite the show to see the nurses setting up everything in full hazmat suits. They don’t want to be exposed to the med or me at this point so there has been a lot of dressing and undressing gowns just outside my door. I feel bad for them to have to go through all that work just to do something as simple as checking my vitals. Basically, I just need to sit in my tent with a nebulizer device for 2 straight hours, not too bad. What makes it challenging is that I have to have 15 treatments and they are every 6 hours. So with these treatments and other nurse duties I can can expect to get no more than 2 hours of sleep at any one time, and if you’ve done the math I should be in the hospital until next week Monday (Mar 2nd). Oh well that’s the way the new me goes sometimes, it’s a bit like a car- I need to come and get maintenanced every now and then.
