Please excuse my use of Lactnet for this. I have received 60-70 emails a day since my daughter posted her message to all of you. I could never write to thank you all individually. Those messages of love and support came from people all over the world ,of all beliefs, tied together by a common thread--Lactnet. I feel like George Bailey in that American Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life." In the very beginning of the movie, voices are calling out his name in thought and prayer. The Deity cannot ignore their pleas and sends an angel to help him through his troubles. You were the voices. You are all my angels. O :-) I was started on IV antibiotics last Sunday. They wanted to use Vancomycin but I had a severe reaction to it in less than 10 minutes. So I was switched to Gentamycin and Clindamycin. After battling with this since June, early Tuesday morning, I was feeling like an human being again. The low grade fever, cold sweats and fatigue were all gone. My appetite even returned. (I've lost 30 pounds during this ordeal). I received the good news Friday that the Gallium scan showed no evidence of a bone infection. The odd thing is that whatever those gram negative rods were, they refused to grow in a culture dish with antibiotics (sensitivity). They only grew in the original blood culture vials. A number of other tests showed no infection except for large colonies of yeast in my intestine. Did the gram negative rods disappear magically or were they never a threat in the first place? I prefer to think it was all that positive energy directed my way. The infectious disease specialist still isn't sure what happened but she has an idea. Here's the scenario on how it may have gotten in my blood stream: The antibiotics killed off all the good intestinal bacteria and caused a colitis type situation. I had vomiting and horrible diarrhea during my previous 6 weeks of IV antibiotic treatment. The offending bacteria, one that was most likely a part of my normal intestinal flora, was absorbed into the blood stream through the irritated wall of the GI tract. There was just enough bacteria to give me vague physical symptoms but nothing that drew the doctor's attention in the direction of infection. [I won't go into all the things my ortho doctor thought were going on but suffice it to say he didn't think it was physical.] I had my last IV dose on Saturday (after 7 days of treatment) and I still feel very well. If (God forbid) the symptoms return, the infectious disease doctor wants to do all the lab tests BEFORE they start antibiotics again. I am taking Acidophilus (10 mg equal to 100 million active lactobacillus acidophilus) three times a day for the yeast in the intestinal tract. If anyone knows if I should be taking more or something else, please let me know. Also how long should I take it? The LC in me learned that we can never take the use of antibiotics lightly. Wether used during labor for prophylaxis (I have to take antibiotics just to get my teeth cleaned) or used for treatment of mastitis. We must remain aware when prescribing, that any antibiotic can cause a superimposed infection. Most often we as LC's see yeast as a result but other pathogenic bacteria are also possible. One last thought: we, a medical providers, have to LISTEN to our patients and our instincts. We can not let *vague complaints* or *vague concerns* misdirect our thoughts and point us away from further investigation. Our popular culture is such that, on a whole, we believe that illness is a sign of weakness in personality. We tend to think that people are just complainers, or overly concerned new mothers, or (worse yet) malingerers, especially when we can't SEE anything wrong. Thank you and keep me in your thoughts. I'm not out of the woods yet but I sure can see a LOT of daylight!!!! Marie Davis RN, IBCLC