Is this too many antibiotics?

[ewwhatiswrong]

I have psoriasis which regularly gets infected. I follow the treatment plan from my dermatologist, I use my prescribed medications, keep my skin clean and my clothes regularly washes yet I still get the infections and I don’t know why.

I keep getting prescribed antibiotics for it as it gets bad enough to really need it. I don’t rush to the doctors or push for antibiotics but the infections get really bad once they start and always end up at the stage of needing antibiotics. where possible we try to use topical antibiotics but it rarely works and usually needs oral antibiotics.

I’ve had 8 courses of antibiotics so far over the last 6 months, working out roughly 2 weeks between each dose and 1 week to take the antibiotics so 3 weeks between each prescription

I had the infections swabbed and it came back with apparently an extremely heavy growth of staph aureus but that the antibiotics I was on were correct. I had a blood test to check my immune system and it was fine thankfully

the antibiotics do seem to fix it but then it just gets infected again. I don’t know why as I keep the areas clean, my clothes are washed everytime and my bedding is fresh and I use new towels everyday but it still ends up disgustingly infected

It’s infected again and it’s spreading and getting worse so going to need yet more antibiotics no doubt, but I’m worried about taking so many. My GP isn’t concerned about me taking them so often as each time the infections starts it’s been bad enough and I’ve needed them, but isn’t it risky taking antibiotics so frequently? Or am I worrying needlessly about nothing?

TIA

I’ve just seen your post and I’m in a similar situation. I have a skin condition on my hands that is constantly infected I have literally had at least one course on antibiotics every month since June 2021. It’s now got MRSA in it. The hospital gave me some nose ointment and a wash to try and eradicate it and I had to have it re swabbed and another course if it didn’t come back clear. Well I’m now on my 4th course of it and 8 weeks of oral antibiotics. It just seems never ending and I’m sure that many antibiotics can’t be good for us.

I can't advise but just wanted to say that if you watch Dr Pimple Popper she treats psoriasis with injectable biologics which really help those patients - I would push for better treatment.

Ps this is on the nhs website so they are available here - reckon you would need to push for them though. But the psoriasis literally clears up for those patients.

Other biological treatments

There is an increasing number of biological treatments that are given as injections. These include guselkumab, brodalumab, secukinumab, ixekizumab, bimekizumab and risankizumab.

They're recommended for people who have severe psoriasis that has not improved with other treatments or when other treatments are not suitable.