I had my infectious disease follow up appointment today. It is becoming more clear that I will be on antibiotics most likely for the rest of my life. There are no hard and fast statistics on such things but the evidence shows that installing metal into an infected area is risky. They took that risk to save my life and a lifetime of antibiotics so the infection doesn’t come back is my payment for that luxury.
My doctor threw out numbers like 30-50% chance of re-infection if I were to stop the preventative antibiotic treatments. If it got re-infected, most likely the hardware would have to be surgically removed from the area. None of that sounds like much fun.
The good news is that I’m changing to a kinder and gentler antibiotic. The one I’ve been on is like a nuclear bomb to all the bacteria in my gut. The new one will be much nicer to me long term. It’s also $4 a month compared to $400 a month. The glass is half full today I guess.