Tracking my efforts to beat Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), aka CFIDS, aka CFS

Tracking my efforts to beat Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), aka CFIDS, aka CFS

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Is the Rifampin working?

I wrote in an earlier post that my ME/CFS specialist, Dr. C, recommended a drug called Rifampin that has been shown to "correct" the flagging immune systems of some PWMEs.  Dr. C prescribes a one week course of the drug.  When it works, the patient usually develops a flu about one to two weeks after starting the drug (so, sometime after finishing it).   I started Rifampin two weeks from yesterday.

I woke this morning feeling crashed and flu-ish.  My wife asked, "could it be from that medicine?"  To be honest, I had forgotten about the Rifampin when nothing happened after about 10 days.  Just another failed experiment, I figured.  Plus, it seems like months ago that I took Rifampin.  I had to check and recheck my calendar to verify that it wasn't.

I dragged myself in to work today and, as I started to feel worse and worse, I gained more and more hope that this could be it.  This could be the flu that resets my immune system.  I'm perspiring on a cold day!  I'm achy all over!  I can barely sit up in my desk chair!  Sniffles!  Surely I have a fever.  Hallelujah!

...until I took my temperature with a spare thermometer from my desk drawer.  97.7.

I suppose that this "flu" that Dr. C speaks of might not require a fever, per se, but somehow I doubt it.  Probably this is just another crash...the worst in months.

As of yesterday, I was scheduled to examine witnesses in two all-day depositions today and tomorrow, but thankfully they were postponed late yesterday afternoon.  I would have been in a "world of hurt" if I were trying to take a deposition today.  Now, I just have to hold on for the next two hours, pick up my daughter from daycare, drive home and get in bed.

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