Well, I finally got the last dose of IV antibiotics on Friday(vancomycin) and they took the Picc line out on Saturday. I was on antibiotics for seven weeks. It was 11 or 12 days on antibiotics before they could do the heart valve surgery. They had to get me healthy enough first.

I'm not sure how many different doctors I had when I was in the hospital, but I would guess it was about 10 or 15. There were heart doctors, kidney doctors, and infectious disease doctors, and a few others. I couldn't keep track of them.

At first, kidney doctors told me my kidneys were failing and I was going to have to be on dialysis but apparently that all got better. I was constantly getting medicine or tested or scanned for something. It was exhausting but apparently they got it all figured out.

I also had a follow-up visit with my heart surgeon on Friday. He was all smiles and thought I was doing very well. I told him I was tired a lot and he said I can expect that for about a year. In fact, he said I had such a bad infection he wasn't sure if I was going to make it. A lot of people are saying that now that I'm doing better.

I still have a lot of tingling in my left hand.(Nonsurgical side) That really isn't normal for me. The Picc line(IV) was in that arm so I'm hoping that was causing irritation and it will calm down now that it's out. I started doing a lot of joint mobility with that arm and it feels pretty tight, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully it's not a new, different problem.