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Need to take an antibiotic but can't tolerate anything - help?

Messages
19
I posted a similar question in the Detox forum, so I apologize if you're sort of reading this twice...

I've been sick for almost 2 years and haven't been able to tolerate most medication since then. I had some success with improvement through lifestyle and natural remedies so I didn't address it...but now I have a sinus infection and it's not going away, so I need to take an antibiotic. It doesn't seem to be terrible right now, so hopefully I have some time to figure this out.

I've had the exact same reaction to a bunch of medications: Flagyl, cefpodoxime, Valtrex, Augmentin, and azithromycin. After a couple of doses (or sometimes just one), I start to get anxious. If I continue, it builds to pretty much constant panic attacks, insomnia, paresthesias (I have peripheral neuropathy and it makes it really painful), jumpy vision, etc. Basically just all nervous system symptoms. From what I read, it sounds like excitotoxicity (which I actually don't have much of a problem with usually).

I'm thinking the long-term answer may be addressing methylation, but in the short term...I really have no idea what to do. I imagine other people have had similar problems, because I know medication sensitivity is very common. So what did you do? Is it dangerous to push through these side effects? If you tried enough, did you inevitably find one that worked? Is anything I can take to make them tolerable? This may sound a bit catastrophic but I have this horrible fear I won't be able to tolerate anything at all to get rid of my infection.

Thanks in advance for any help!
 

Legendrew

Senior Member
Messages
541
Location
UK
Has the sinus infection been shown to be of bacterial origin? If so then knowing the exact pathogen would allow for the optimum antibiotic to be chosen likely meaning you would not need to take it for prolonged periods of time. If it hasn't been shown to be bacterial that would be the best course of action before taking drugs that may not even be of any use.
 
Messages
19
Fairly sure it's bacterial because I've had it for 3 weeks and it keeps getting better and worse. A nasal culture came back for "standard skin bacteria", whatever that means, meaning my treatment options are pretty wide open.

Thank you!
 

Daffodil

Senior Member
Messages
5,875
sometimes, doctors recommend treating the gut before antibiotics. maybe you can try GcMAF? do the side effects happen even if you take probiotics with the antibiotics?
 
Messages
13,774
Could it be some sort of allergy? Hay fever? Dust?

If you're reacting badly to antibiotics it seems a shame to take them unless there's really good reason to think that you will benefit.
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
Fairly sure it's bacterial because I've had it for 3 weeks and it keeps getting better and worse. A nasal culture came back for "standard skin bacteria", whatever that means, meaning my treatment options are pretty wide open.

Thank you!


Staphloccus arurus (spelling) is one of the common bacteria causing sinusitis. There is an antibiotics nasal spray called BEG, easy to find on google. colloidal silver nasal spray can also help.

Im also thinking that u could be having die off reaction from an underlying infection something like mycoplasma. A few years ago now i had similar reactions to doxy and minocycline. What i did was take the doxy and wait for symptoms to ease off and then take another eventually i was tolerating normal dosing schedule. From memory i was taking doxy every third or fourth day at first and then slowly increasing the dose. Some times i would take it 2 days in a row and then have a few days off. Minocycline and doxycycline are the type of antibiotics that the staph dont generally build a resistance to very quickly if at all.

Bactrim is another abx that can work on staph infections.

Another thing to try could be a different brand of antibiotics, maybe its a filler in the tablets your reacting too. I think talking it over with the pharmacy would be good as they should be able to tell you if the ones u have been using have the same fillers etc and maybe steer u towards a med with different fillers or something hypoallergenic??

Broad spectrum abx are generally used as there are normally more then 1 bacteria that are the issue, and they generally treat the most common infections. Plus a nasal swab will show different bacteria to what could be causing the sinusitis that is higher up in the sinus cavity itself.
 

Martial

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
Location
Ventura, CA
What causes your neuropathy? Did they ever find the reason, there is a good chance that what did it may be what is still making you sick.. I was sick for six months with weird symptoms then got a sinus infection and took antibiotics, suddenly I developed worsening fatigue, all kinds of athritic type pains, and other weird things.. Ths was from amoxy too not the quin class which is known for adverse reactions.. Turns out I had Lyme the whole time and the antibiotics triggered major herxing, I would have never found out I had lyme unless for that weird reaction to the antibiotics.

You can try Xlear, and Saline nasal spray(Neti Pot), those what helped me the most when I had sinusitis issues!
 
Messages
19
Thanks everyone!

This happens despite taking large amounts of probiotics, although I do suspect I have some gut issues.

I definitely may have to try olive leaf - I have some in my cabinet. Haven't tried it before out fear of reaction - but can't be worse than this!

I don't know the cause of my neuropathy. It's definitely immune related and it was sudden onset - I didn't know what it was at the time but when this all first started I just woke up one morning burning all over. It was horrible for the first few months but has eased off. My doctors say probably either herpes viral damage (had mono fairly recently before onset + HSV1 IgM antibodies are always elevated) or an autoimmune response.

@heapsreal and @Martial - how do you know the difference between herxing and a bad reaction? I guess since I've had the same response to such a wide variety of antibiotic classes, plus an antiviral, I assumed it wasn't herxing. But I know that's always a possibility and from what I understand that can cause neurological symptoms.

I'm actually on a topical (sinus rinse) antibiotic that seems to help a bit but my maxillary sinuses are swollen shut so I need something system to address it. Ahhh!!
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
Thanks everyone!

This happens despite taking large amounts of probiotics, although I do suspect I have some gut issues.

I definitely may have to try olive leaf - I have some in my cabinet. Haven't tried it before out fear of reaction - but can't be worse than this!

I don't know the cause of my neuropathy. It's definitely immune related and it was sudden onset - I didn't know what it was at the time but when this all first started I just woke up one morning burning all over. It was horrible for the first few months but has eased off. My doctors say probably either herpes viral damage (had mono fairly recently before onset + HSV1 IgM antibodies are always elevated) or an autoimmune response.

@heapsreal and @Martial - how do you know the difference between herxing and a bad reaction? I guess since I've had the same response to such a wide variety of antibiotic classes, plus an antiviral, I assumed it wasn't herxing. But I know that's always a possibility and from what I understand that can cause neurological symptoms.

I'm actually on a topical (sinus rinse) antibiotic that seems to help a bit but my maxillary sinuses are swollen shut so I need something system to address it. Ahhh!!

Its hard to know if its a bad reaction or a herx. For me i found once the badness settled i would feel slightly better and this encouraged me to keep trying i guess. I think if u have pulsed the abx a few times and dont notice any benefits then i would drop the treatment. One should eventually start to feel better if it is a herx. I guess it also depends on how long u can tolerate the bad effects before u see a benefit, but i wouldnt advise being in misery from it for too long.

U might already do this but i used the sinus spray oxymetazoline which seems to open the sinuses within 5-10mins?? now i would wait a full 30min and then use the saline spray to help wash them out and or use the abx nasal spray so it can penetrate further. They say not to use the oxymetazoline more then a few days in a row as u can get a rebound effect.

The other thing, have u had a ct scan of the sinuses to check for polyps or some other obstruction that could be causing this. The other things to check for are neutropenia and also immunoglobulin defiencies as these can let these opportunistic infections go crazy??

I guess i was lucky in a way that i could tolerate abx. My issue was neutropenia probably from using antivirals for cmv, so i have had to adjust that treatment to allow my neutrophils to increase, which seems to have eased my sinusitis, not cured of sinusitis yet though, so still a work in progress.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
I had very bad reactions to AB's for sinus infections and that included gut issues, a feeling of being poisoned and then a terrible depression settling on me that only happened after a few days of AB's and not at any other time. What I did was try other remedies (olive leaf made my gut much worse and did nothing for the sinus infections).

What did eventually help me was irrigation with warm water, sea salt and tea tree. Started with a neti pot and a steam then I bought a machine irrigator.

http://www.hydromedonline.com/hp.html

(I've got no ties to this company and there are others on the market).

I'm sitting on the fence when it comes to the Herx/bad reaction question. We don't have any evidence that all patients are herxing. Read back on the topic, history etc. I've had a long time to think about this. For some of us it could be IRIS or just something that we can't tolerate and can never tolerate. I've never improved my health and sometimes taken a year to recover to my previous level after persevering with a drug or remedy that made me much worse to start off with.

Tried Nystatin in the neti pot and in a bottle to squirt up my nose but this doesn't help me.

I was really lucky in that I discovered I could tolerate one brand of Doxycycline in small bursts as that helps when I get sinus infections so bad that the Irrigator is too painful to use. Also this helps sometimes to keep the infections at bay

http://www.xlear.com/xlear-xylitol-products/nasal-spray/

Really sorry to hear how much you are suffering. It adds insult to injury when the drugs or supplements. we take to try and treat a symptom make us worse off.