antibiotics your thoughts please

okie

Veteran Member

Joined : Dec 2006

Posts : 2818

Posted 1/23/2008 1:44 PM (GMT 0)

Since my last 2 hospital stays the doctor increased my predisone to 20mg. from 5mg. (not happy about that), I'm still on 800 mil. of plaquenil daily. Now she gave me a prescription for a z-pak antibiotic with a 12 month refill. She wants me to stay on antibitoics every month forever! What is that gonna do to me with all the other drugs I take. It just feels wrong pred,plaq,anti-b everyday. Does that sound right to you? I know that anti-b's can cause problems if you take it all the time. Like becoming immuned to them. I'm just a little concerned. Is this somthing I should be concerned about?

thank you in advance

carol

hippimom2

Veteran Member

Joined : Jul 2005

Posts : 5403

Posted 1/23/2008 2:45 PM (GMT 0)

Carol, I can understand your concern. With you being prone to getting pneumonia you sure don't want to build up a tolerance to anti-b's. My son has been on long term antibiotics since last summer. He had really high levels of strep in his body which was making his arthritis symptoms worse and he was getting repeated strep infections that we weren't even aware of. He's on a fairly harmless dose of penecillin and we were assured by several docs that this shouldn't hurt him in any way. There are times he's gotten some infections and then he switches to a stronger anti-b and it works fine - then he goes back to the penicillin. He'll stay on it through the school year and then go off of it. Your situation is different though because you are on so many other meds too - the only other med my son is on is Celebrex. I have also read that long term anti-b's can cause some stomach problem - it has something to do with it destroying the good bacteria in your stomach or digestive tract. I've read that eating yogurt with active cultures helps restore the good bacteria. I'm guessing your doc doesn't want to risk you getting pneumonia again and wants to keep you out of the hospital. Keep asking your doc about this, especially since you have so many concerns and hopefully your doc can reassure you. Love and hugs

Ginny

Veteran Member

Joined : Feb 2003

Posts : 5514

Posted 1/24/2008 2:59 AM (GMT 0)

Oy, Carol. I would be hesitant about that too. Nothing worse than overtaking an antibiotic. I'd maybe even get a second or third opinion on that? What do you think?

Ginny

okie

Veteran Member

Joined : Dec 2006

Posts : 2818

Posted 1/24/2008 3:33 AM (GMT 0)

Thanks for the info guys. Things got worse tonight though. I got a call from the nurse at 5:40, I went to the other doctor in the office on monday but today my regular doctor had the nurse call and changed them again. Her exact words were we want you to take z-pak 3 weeks in a row and on the forth week take them monday wenesday and friday. I looked at the bottle and it said it has two refills. So it looks like unstead of one perscription once a month it's every day a month except for one week I only take them three days. The nurse said that if I don't take them I will be spending my life in and out of the hospital. I have a rheumy appt the 31th and will see what he says and an appt with my reg. pcp on the 5th so I will get some answers. I actually heard of somone who had actually beaten cancer but caught a staff infection. because he was on so many anti-b's for the cancer they didn't work for the staff and it killed him. that was the saddest thing I ever heard. I will get to the bottom of this by the end of the month!
thanks again for the info
love
carol

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