ESBL

I was lying on the couch in my dressing gown. I wanted a drink of water. The glass was on the coffee table in front of me. Half an hour later, I finally discovered enough inner drive to reach out and grasp that tumbler. Thank heavens for the recent Olympics. After the holiday in Turkey, I seem to have spent every day sprawled on that sofa, feeling like shit as Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps won their medals. The only medal I would have won would have been in couch potatoing!

At first I believed I could do what I always do with health issues - just battle through but after noticing the cloudiness of my urine, I went to my doctor for the first time in ten years. He prescribed a routine antibiotic that traditionally combats most infections of the urinary tract. Over ten days, I completed the course but without noticeable benefit to my health so yesterday I went into hospital to receive, intravenously, my first dose of a third generation antibiotic designed to combat new and resistant strains of "ecoli" such as "ESBL". In half an hour, I will be going for my second dose but as the nurse promised, I am already feeling miles better less than twenty four hours after the first dose.

So what is this damned Ecoli (ESBL) and how did I get it? I found this in "Times Online" from a year ago...

"A new superbug that scientists believe is brought into Britain through the food chain is infecting about 30,000 people a year, according to government experts.

Research has found that between 10% and 14% of those who are infected with the drug-resistant form of E-coli die within 30 days of catching the bug, which would suggest 3,000-4,200 deaths. This would be double the number of deaths from MRSA.

Unlike traditional forms of E-coli, the drug-resistant strain Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lacta-mase (ESBL) affects healthy young adults as well as the elderly. Doctors say the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the government body responsible for protecting the public from infections, has failed to recognise the scale of the problem and needs to do more to control the spread of the bacteria."

Fingers crossed, I am now emerging from ESBL's dark pit of despond and this blog has not met a premature and unplanned end even though, to my horror, it seems that ESBL has been directly responsible for many deaths over the last two or three years. Before this, the particular ecoli strain that attacked me had never been seen. I'm so much looking forward to going out for walks, doing some real physical work, escaping from the TV, living with zest again.