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Lifetime Antibiotics

M

MikeyBikey

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
As many will know I have been in hospital for over three months. When I arrived in A&E I was sicker than the proverbial Prairie dog and in pain that was off the scale.

During that time I have been on antibiotics continuously mainly IV antibiotics and occasionally oral. The problem was that each time I switched to oral ones my infection markers grew exponentially! They now think they have found one. What has thrown me is a departing doctor said this morning "You will be on them for life" and was gone!

This has now put my mind in overdrive. Are there any diabetes related conditions that require lifelong antibiotics? The only person I know on lifelong antibiotics had his immune system destroyed by illness and treatment that has never been disclosed!
 
It’s not diabetic related but I’m on antibiotics for life as I had my spleen removed when I had my distal pancreatectomy. In a way I suppose it is diabetic related.
 
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I’m on lifelong antibiotics - erythromycin - for the gastroparesis. If they stop these - which has been threatened before - I would have to be tube fed. Unfortunately my current diabetes consultant strongly implies that he doesn’t think I should have a problem with being tube fed…….
 
Hope the new ABs work well for you @MikeyBikey

Sorry to hear about the rather dismissive way you were told this may be a long-term part of your care going forwards :(

I would think it’s possibly more that they want to keep any potential re-emergence of infection under control? Would have been better if you’d been able to ask a few questions though!
 
Mikey, my wife has a low dose of antibiotics ongoing every day to prevent urine infections she gets due to an operation maybe 30 years ago. The overall benefits right now outweigh the problems - if she doesn't have them she gets unwell rapidly with typical infection symptoms like fever, feeling hot and cold etc. and potential to infect kidneys if not treated promptly. The down side is that she's allergic to several of the common ones (medically classed as mild but still not pleasant) and at some stage the one she takes will lose it's effectiveness.

It's probably not too much of a big problem for you if you're not allergic, on age and if there are likely to be more than one usable to treat you so hopefully they remain effective for the duration of your lifetime, more of an issue the younger you are and how quickly your infection builds up immunity.
 
Thank you for the various replies. Don't take too much notice of the emojis - we have so few and are unable top post two or more.

Yesterday was a Friday and the number of consultants/doctors drops markedly. Anyway one of Thursday's gaggle came to see me one on one. Right I thought "We need some answers!"

The explanation was quite easy and I wished they had explained weeks ago. I have got a nasty infection in my foot that until a few days ago responded to IV antibiotics as every time they tired an oral I got sicker (gastric issues, upper respiratory infection, etc). Of course not knowing the whys and wherefores if this my mind went into overtime as to when I was improving did I suddenly get D&V, a chesty cough,etc. It would not have taken long to explain what was going on but what I noticed with this stay is instead of one consultant treating you they nearly change by the day.
 
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