According to my training log I got sick on May 27th. I had congestion, a low fever (100 degrees) and a pretty constant headache. It gradually got owrse ov er the next 8 days to include all the standard cold symptoms: Sore throat, loss of voice, fatigue, loss of apetite.
I had Epstein-Barr disease in 1994 and ever since then my immune system has been compromised to a degree. When I get sick, it usually lasts for quite a while. That is frustrated by my schedule and inability to take sick days from work. Obviously, I stopped training since I had symptoms both above the neck and below the neck. There is a commonly held belief that if your symptoms are above the neck you can continue to train lightly, but if you have symptoms in your chest you should not train.
We were having a warm spell with highs in the 80’s and 90’s, odd for this time of year in Michigan and that was frustrating since I wanted to train.
Finally got to the doctor. He prescribed Allegra as a decongestant and Ammoxicillan as an anti-biotic, a 10 day course. The last day was Saturday.
I’m still sick but the majority of the symptoms have subsided. I tried riding once about a week ago and it only made me worse. I do still have an ear infection and a lot of congestion and drainage. I phoned the doctor’s office and asked him to prescribe a stronger anti-biotic like Z-max for the next 3 days and see if that has any effect. Haven’t heard back from him.
Still sick. Not too much fun. Symptoms better though.
Yeah, lose the Amoxil Tom - not a great spectrum of activity, and resistance to the pen. based drugs is pretty high these days. Sinus are tough because it is such a deep tissue site for infection. See if you can get a Macrolide (Zithro, Biaxin) from your doc - g+,g-, & atypical efficacy, plus resistance is better.
Sorry to hear about your troubles… But misery loves company so i’ll tell you that i’m right there with you. Doesn’t sound like i’m as bad… but pretty close. I had to pull the plug on a big race this past weekend. I went for a ride on Sunday (just an easy one) and I was still hacking up crap. I’m counting it in weeks… not days.
Thankfully, today i’m finally cough free… However, I still feel like somebody took a 2x4 to my quads (and it was an easy ride) The bigest thing I noticed was climbing. I really started to huff and puff at the top of climbs (and i’m fairly solid climber). Hopefully a few more days taking it easy will help. I wish you the best.
Make sure your Allegra has decongestant as plain Allegra does not. You need to stay on the decongestant to keep things open. Also, get some of that cortisone nasal spay which also reducing swelling and keeps things in the nasal/sinus area open. I am not a doc but an expert at all things allergy or sinus related. You may have a real stubborn one that can take months to get rid of. See a GOOD ENT doc.
Tom,
Keep an eye on this. My wife has been battling fatigue and digestive disorders for years. Been on every stomach med known to man. In Jan. got bad sinus infection. They gave her Levaquin for a month. By the end it was better then came back. Levaquin again. Came back. Doc ordered a CAT scan. The ended up doing what they called “basically a D and C on your sinus cavity”. Told us “you have been battling this for a long time. We grew a bacteria out of that that no antibiotic in the world would have fixed”. Bottom line, if any of the docs previous had thought to look in her sinus instead of down (and up) her digestive system, this would have been fixed long ago.
She says she feels ten years younger now.
I know how you’re feeling, got Epstein-Barr early this year (no idea how, although I was a bit overtrained and stressed) and it knocked me out for about two months, thought I was ok but then a few weeks later I got an ear infection (first time in my life, doc prescribed 10 days of amoxycillin too) which seemed to go away, but then came back with a vengeance a week after the antibiotics were over (mid-grade fever for 7-8 days and feeling like crap) and infected my sinuses as well not to mention that it gave me tinnitus: doc this time prescribed a stronger version of the same (ampo-amoxicillin I think) which gave me nausea for the 2 weeks I had to take it for (not fun).
The last antibiotic seems to have done the trick although I got a cold about two weeks after and my ears were hurting which freaked me out as I thought I might end up with the sinus infection again too, which fortunately didn’t happen. Definitely my immune system is nowhere near as good as it was before EB, I wonder if it will ever be the same again.
All of this of course screwed up my season and I ended up not going at the NB 1/2IM yesterday and withdrew my entry from IMC as well: this totally, totally, totally sucks as I was really looking forward to doing both of them, but what can you do, if the health does not cooperate…
The doctor warned me about the amoxicillan and stomach problems. I had a cast-iron stomach until about 1999 when I simulatneously had my colon colonized by a small East-African village and started dating a girl who gave me a perpetually irritated bowel she was such a pain in the ass.
I got rid of her and my stomach is fine. Imagine that. The doctor fixed the East African colony that was hitching a ride in my intestines.
The amoxicillan didn’t create any stomach problems for me at all. But then again, it hasn’t entirely cured it either.
I don’t think it was the amoxy, as when I was only on amoxy my stomach was perfectly fine (although of course it didn’t cure the infection), it was the second one (the apo_amoxy) that was nasty with the nausea… that unless the second had more amoxy in it, who knows.
My doctor dialed me in with the Z-Max pack, the fout day treatment: 2 pills the first day, then one per day following.
This is day 2. I already feel better and got ina ride this morning with Sarah the Bikesport girl, Aderhold, Pierre, Frankie, Downriver Mike, Aderhold and Mario.
