Message to my daughter Wednesday evening:
Thanks for the pictures. I just got home from the hospital and am going to take a nap. I feel great, just lazy. I’m supposed to take A….. for 7 days and am reading about side effects. Hope the doctor knows what he’s doing. The people were very friendly.
Love, Mom
Kaitlin’s reply:
I am so glad you are home!!! I love you! A….. is what almost killed me, but that is just me.
Take care!!!
Kaitlin
The two-day visit to the hospital was an interesting experience, but I’m too lazy to write much about it right now. I went to the emergency room Monday morning because of severe chest pains…it hurt to breathe… and because I felt really sick. In the past that feeling meant I needed medical help. I naively expected to go back home that afternoon. Instead they admitted me and kept me for two days, even though I felt a lot better that afternoon. They eventually decided I had pneumonia and prescribed A….., an antibiotic.
I was completely relaxed about the whole affair, until I had the prescription for 7 more days filled and came home and read about the side effects. (I never take a prescription drug without reading about the side effects first.) What?!! They seemed even more scary than usual, why didn’t they prescribe something less scary? Well, the doctor had asked me if I’m allergic to any drugs and I told him my standard answer… not that I’m aware of. So they had given me three intravenous doses of A….. in the hospital. I didn’t even question it at the time, so it was a bit late to ask for something else instead, and it did explain the extra day in the hospital. It gave them a chance to see how I reacted to it. It never occurred to me that I would have a bad reaction and I didn’t. I’ve been very lucky so far with antibiotics. I hate taking them, they completely mess up the fauna in our bodies, but sometimes we need them. I also eat plenty of yogurt to replenish the good fauna.
As it turned out in Kaitlin’s case she had taken a cousin drug a few years before and had a negative reaction, which the doctor insisted wasn’t from the drug. So after a couple of days of taking A….. she went into anaphylactic shock. It could have been avoided if she had known the cousin drug had caused problems. As it is she’s also had to make trips to the emergency room because of inadvertently eating chicken. For instance, once in a restaurant she had told the server about her allergies and ordered a salad. Guaranteed to give her no contact with chicken. She suddenly felt the telltale reaction, then saw a chicken bone in the midst of the lettuce. Life can get very complicated.
Why chicken? Her best guess is it’s factory farming. Producers used to give chickens the cousin drug that started her severe reaction. She has since experimented at home with guaranteed antibiotic-free chickens and that seems to be all right.
Anyway, Andy has suggested I wait until he comes home today to take my daily dose of A….., just in case. That makes sense. I’m back to being relaxed about the whole thing. The general rule about drugs still applies…don’t take them unless you have to and keep your eyes open for rare but serious side effects.
What about you? Have you had much experience with antibiotics or other prescription medicines?
Develish subject, Jean. I will take antibotics – once in a blue moon, providing doctor makes good case for it. On the whole when I get something/anything subscribed I feed it to the cats and, what do you know, most ills will go away on their own account. Not that I will tell the doctor: Don’t want to injure his professional pride.
Only last week I was prescribed something which you have to take once a week standing upright for at least half an hour otherwise it’ll burn a HOLE into your oesaphagus. Yes, really. And no, I have no intention of taking it. If my bones want to crack that’s up to them. I am not sacrificying my oesaphagus for them.
Anaphylactic shock. If ever there was a horror scenario. Because – unless you know that you are allergic to, say peanuts, you won’t know what will hit you not to mention byestanders. I love it when they ask you whether you are allergic to something. No. I am not. You tell me. It’s such an inane question. And, like you, I do read those little leaflets: Let’s forget that both the pharmaceutical company and the doctor just covering their backsides by coming up with every UNlikely side effect scenario, nevertheless it gives you the jitters. That’s where we have to weigh up between putting trust in a surgeon/doctor, our body’s resilience and taking responsibility for our own decisions.
A one week’s course of Antibiotics won’t mess with your fauna and flora. And my guess is that in your case it’ll be advisable to go ahead.
As to chicken: Unless I can afford to buy what we here call “organic”, ie “happy chicken”, I will forgo it. I don’t feed industrial line produced unhappiness to anyone.
Take care, Jean. And yes, sleep. It’s the body’s best healer, in my opinion. Apart from camomile tea.
Yours,
U
Heaps of experience in childhood. Lots of lung infections and colds. Never any side effects thankfully
Very little, but during my four surgeries I had to. So far no allergies have been noticed but who knows?
I am glad that you are back home and I am sure that you will get over this phase too. All the best.
I haven’t had a physical reaction to a drug, but I’m having a mental reaction to being prescribed unnecessary drugs.
Tomorrow I get my teeth cleaned & am suppose to take two capsules that my doctor prescribed, an hour before that.
It’s to avoid an infection at a joint replacement site. I’m suppose to do this for the twice a year cleaning, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.
The pharmacist said not unless I have heart disease. I asked what the drug was. It’s penicillin. I also don’t want to build up an immunity to that either.
Ursula,
If the antibiotic is strong enough to kill the bad guys, it’s strong enough to kill the good ones. Yogurt is an easy way to put some good guys back in. Otherwise the resistant bad guys can take over.
The list of side effects is more than just covering the company’s behind. When I searched for patient reviews, there were a lot more negative than positive ones. Many people said they would never take it again. The side effect I’m most concerned about with this antibiotic is ruptured tendons. The doctor who prescribed the stuff said he had one patient who ruptured his Achilles tendon, and it is a serious warning for this drug… but not for any other that I know of. Cases have been reported several months after going off the drug. I would rather have been given something that would let me get back into shape.
Andy pointed out the hospital doctor was being very aggressive against the pneumonia because he’s probably seen too many cases of us old folks who have contracted it. I don’t think of myself as either sick or that old, but I can see where he was coming from.
One doctor said if I had been twenty they probably would have let me go home Monday evening.
Evan,
Sorry about all the bouts of sickness when you were younger. Glad no serious side effects. Do you know which antibiotics they gave you?
rummuser,
The reason for my annoyance is because I feel fine, and have since Monday evening. Thanks for the good wishes.
bikehikebabe,
That’s a hard one, but after thinking about it my guess is one double-capsule dose every six months isn’t enough to build up an immunity. But I would hate to have to take them too, especially if you don’t know if they’re really necessary. One would like to have more data. Let us know what you decide.
Jean, I’m sorry to hear you’ve been unwell. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
The DATA on the matter is you don’t need to take penicillin as a prevention unless you have heart disease. I believe the pharmacist. He keeps up with the drug scene.
gaelikaa,
Thank you!
bikehikebabe,
I agree. Thank goodness for your pharmacist!