Bacterial meningitis. Fuck. This. Shit.
I've been caring for my brother who has a very rare strain of this for two weeks now giving him some of the strongest IV antibiotic injections known to man multiple times/day for the last 2 weeks. He was already on them for 3.5 weeks before while at the hospital and we still have 25 days or so left on this at home. This was supposedly hospital acquired after his 2nd brain surgery 5 weeks ago.
All he may be able to do in a single day is receive a sponge bath. Sitting on a stool for 10 minutes is just a day's worth of work that exhausts him. He can go out to a quick dinner some days, but that's all he can do besides go from bed to couch to toilet to bed. Showers are exhausting for him.
I've never dealt with anything like this, it's probably at least 2-3 more months of something similar of me taking care of him like this while working full time. There's a not insignificant chance he'll never recover from the meningitis and be like this the rest of his life.
The home health care nurse that I assumed would be doing all of the injections just comes 2-3 times/week to do blood work and replace the PICC line wrapping. I'm doing the injections and starting bathing him now that my parents are leaving on Wednesday...so enjoy the snapshot of my life for answering that two week old AskPhuks post
Oh and my parents have spent 3 months in hotels here since November and my dad is fucking 74. They need time away from the stress.
My bro is not really getting better on a day to day basis. Just maybe talking more and forcing himself to do more things like watch a basketball game. That's a lot of work for him to sit on a couch to do. The hospital didn't order PT because he can walk, the OT showed up once with a ball for hand exercises. His doctor left the county to China for two months in vacation after operating in my brother 4 times in 3 months.
It's nerve destroying.