Cipro side effects
Feb 23, 2017 13:58:07 GMT -8
Post by softballdad on Feb 23, 2017 13:58:07 GMT -8
Hello Softballdad
I’m really concerned that you have been taking ciprofloxacin for so long and so often. Do you ever ask your doctor what bug you are cultivating in your urine and what it is sensitive to? When the pathology lab test your urine for microbes, they also test how sensitive the microbes are to various antibiotics. These antibiotics are usually listed on their report, which goes back to your doctor. If you are infected with E. coli, for example (which is one of the most common urine infection bugs), it could be sensitive to a number of oral antibiotics, such as Augmentin, nitrofurantoin, trimethoprim and Cipro. Cipro is generally used for pseudomonas, a less common but very horrible urine bug, and anthrax. Do you remember the letters containing white powder that were sent many years ago in America, the white powder being anthrax? People were put on 750 mg of ciprofloxacin twice a day. Many reported terrible side effects. I’ve had Cipro quite a few times in the past but I stopped using it because of the side-effects. I also stopped using it as a first line of defence because I’m now very worried about antimicrobial resistance. I always asked my doctor what bug I have and what it is sensitive to. I generally have at least three antibiotic that I and my doctor can choose. I discuss it with him. Usually I switch between antibiotics, use trimethoprim and the next time nitrofurantoin and so on, so that the bugs have less chance of becoming resistant to one particular antibiotic. Ciprofloxacin used to keep me awake at night, make my heart race and cause my blood pressure to drop like a stone. It is a horrible drug and one that I now use as a last resort. Thank God the bugs I cultivate in my urine are still sensitive to oral antibiotics. A month or so ago I was chatting to my urologist and he said he was really concerned about the amount of patients he was seeing who are resistance to all oral antibiotics. They have to be put on intravenous antibiotics. Some of them are even showing resistance to gentamicin. “I get worried, Michael, when patients are showing resistance to gentamicin,” he told me. We all have a duty to take antibiotics as a last resort. Pharmaceutical companies do not invest as much money into antibiotics as they should. They say there isn’t enough profit in it. Microbial resistance is fast becoming the most serious health issue in developed countries. Everybody should be aware of this emerging problem. It is particularly irksome for people who have catheters or others whose bladders do not fully empty because of their spinal injury. Speak to your doctor. Ask him what bugs you have and what it is sensitive to and then switch from antibiotic to antibiotic. Never take one antibiotic continuously. Try to avoid going on maintenance doses of antibiotics. You will certainly build a resistance to it and that antibiotic will become useless to you. You will also develop resistant bugs which you may pass on to other patients when you go to hospital, thus propagating resistant bacteria. I cannot stress how serious an issue of this is. All the best to you and take care.