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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have never realised why people don't finish their antibiotics?

219 replies

WhoWants2Know · 07/04/2022 20:22

Every time I hear antibiotics discussed, it's always with the warning that "You must keep taking them until they're finished, even if you start to feel better." Otherwise super germs, etc.

I always thought it was strange that they have to keep emphasising that point, and wondered why someone wouldn't just follow the doctor's instructions.

But then I never really needed antibiotics much... Until now. And they're actually bloody awful, aren't they?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about not being dead or in pain. But the cure involves feeling like I swallowed drain cleaner for a fortnight.

OP posts:
EleanorDeCleaner · 07/04/2022 21:41

@Briefly Yes, actually it was about then - I'd been taking it for a couple of weeks at most!

I suddenly felt utterly drained and like I had flu, went to bed and flaked out. My chest felt so strange and tight, and when I started coughing up odd foamy stuff I saw my GP (years ago when you could do that). He took one listen, told me gravely that my shortness of breath was typical of pneumonia but I had no rattling, in which case it could only be a blood clot. Bit of a hurried drive to hospital where 3 consultants looked rather concerned at my crazy d-dimer until a CT scan showed no clots at all. Discharged back to GP.

Didn't actually put 2x2 together until much later when I had to start another course, and the breathing issue and white foam reappeared!

Palloom · 07/04/2022 21:45

Interesting topic OP.

Like others I have had to take macrobid for UTI, no side effects at all, and UTI fixed.

Had H Pylori and had a cocktail of drugs for two weeks, now that was a journey where the cure was worse than the disease. Penicillen, Clarythromycin and PPI acid suppressants. I bought incontinence pads and had a bucket beside the bed. But you know what? the H pylori was fixed. Nasty thing that, led to perforations in stomach, massive internal bleed, HDU the works. The treatment worked.

Antibiotics are amazing but only when taken to target a specific bacteria as I am sure you all know.

No UTI and no H pylori. Result!

Wallawallakoala · 07/04/2022 21:46

Metronidazole really really did me over. Physically and emotionally it was absolutely awful. Hope you are ok op

godmum56 · 07/04/2022 21:46

@Briefly

I did read that finishing the course didn't turn out as important in research trials as previously thought
I think that's more about prescribing shorter courses than people unilaterally deciding when to stop. I get sinusitis and have done for years. I have noticed that when I do need antibiotics (and I try hard not to) the course is now much shorter.
Briefly · 07/04/2022 21:46

That sounds awful. I didn't have the white foam. It's an acute pulmonary response that resolves on its own, sometimes with the help of steroids. GPs should be aware and warn people to look out for it after that period of exposure.

RantyAunty · 07/04/2022 21:49

Like others have said, they feel better and forget about it.
There's not a lot of understanding about medications and how they work so some think of them like taking Paracetamol.

I tolerate most ok but the one I was given for pneumonia was awful. It gave me horrible joint pain.

EleanorDeCleaner · 07/04/2022 21:51

@Briefly

That sounds awful. I didn't have the white foam. It's an acute pulmonary response that resolves on its own, sometimes with the help of steroids. GPs should be aware and warn people to look out for it after that period of exposure.
Agree, in hindsight I was amazed that neither the GP or hospital linked my - luckily temporary - condition with the drug.

When I was discharged back to the GP he decided to treat it as pleurisy and gave me...drum roll...bloody erythromycin.

ManAlive24 · 07/04/2022 21:53

Optibac Probiotics.

Gizacluethen · 07/04/2022 21:54

I've never had that feeling. I've always thought it was because people were lazy and careless. Like people who lie about their symptoms to GET antibiotics then complain they didn't do anything 🙄 looking at you MIL!

TheSnowyOwl · 07/04/2022 21:54

I hate taking antibiotics and they frequently make me vomit as well as giving me stomach cramps and diarrhoea. However, they really are wonder drugs so I do my best to stick with them but I can see why so many people don’t.

mjf981 · 07/04/2022 21:55

Doxycycline affected me mentally. I don’t tend to get depressed, but felt very very low (even had suicidal thoughts). Would never take it again unless it was life or death. Awful experience.

Branleuse · 07/04/2022 21:56

im ok on some antibiotics, but once they gave me some for a nasty UTI that actually made me so bloody sick I couldnt cope.

CrunchyCarrot · 07/04/2022 21:57

I've had antibiotics a few times but never with any bad effect till the last lot - I really felt dreadful and they gave me the runs. Had to take them for a whole week. Took quite some time to get my digestion back to normal again. Had no choice, had cellulitis so not taking them wasn't an option.

Darbs76 · 07/04/2022 21:58

Metronidazole are not very pleasant, even worse when it’s via IV. I always complete the course, even though they can risk peeing off my pancreas

Lipsandlashes · 07/04/2022 21:59

Antibiotics make me feel so poorly and I do have to remind myself of the reason to finish the course.

Ohmnomnom · 07/04/2022 22:01

I had metronidazole via iv for 5 days after my appendix burst and it made my brain feel heavy 😩

For those that get thrush with antibiotics, try eating live yoghurt everyday. I was skeptical but it worked!

Teaseall · 07/04/2022 22:04

I honestly don't think I have ever taken antibiotics, well not to my knowledge anyway. I'm sure I must of done as a child as I had an eye operation and an accident ending up in stitches but that was a loooooong time ago.

Your experiences are making me hope I never have toConfused

EliyanahM · 07/04/2022 22:05

I've never noticed anything negative from them. But I'm also guilty of feeling better and not completing the course, usually out of sheer forgetfulness.

liveforsummer · 07/04/2022 22:07

@monkeysox

Metronidazole. Work of the devil
This! Amoxicillin- fine. Some others not so much .
CooooCoooo · 07/04/2022 22:07

I thought it was a more common scenario that people would start feeling better and then just forget to finish them ?

Wallawallakoala · 07/04/2022 22:08

As others are saying my mood got low, brain fog.. I really have to weigh up options if I ever need it

Thomasina79 · 07/04/2022 22:08

I had a horrendous boil in my armpit (about which the doc who saw it was worried enough to get another GP to have a look). It was terribly painful and almost made me faint with the pain. I know it sounds trivial!

However the antibiotics prescribed were so horrible (sickness, indigestion, horrendous diarrhoea), I considered stopping them, but caught between the devil and the deep blue sea I continued and the infection eventually healed.

Antibiotics can be horrible, but we would be lost without them. They saved my sons life.

womaninatightspot · 07/04/2022 22:13

I'm normally fine with antibiotics amoxycillin type stuff. I had to take a 3 week course of doxycycline and it was a real challenge so absolutely they can be awful.

Manicsfan · 07/04/2022 22:15

Within 36 hours of starting antibiotics, the sides of my feet get itchy. The next day tiny spots, hundreds of them come up on palms of my hands and feet. The spots burst, skin breaks on my knuckles, takes a few months to heal, really sore and unsightly. So I really avoid them even when I get infections, which are frequent due to a health condition- and when I really need them, only take for 2 days. This happens with fluclox, doxycycline and one other I can't remember. Docs don't seem to know why or seem that interested. I'd love to get to bottom of it.

Gladioli23 · 07/04/2022 22:24

Good all the people saying they were okay drinking on metronidazole - my friend had the opposite experience. I had slow cooked the inside cottage pie for a good 10 hours including a bit of time on the stove at the end. It had a small amount of red wine put in at the beginning and was then baked. We thought it must have been going to be okay - but my poor friend was up all night bring ill :(