Way, way, way TMI at what point when taking anti-biotics do you stop/seek medical advice?

[KatyMac]

I was on A-B's last week for a chest infection, I finished on Monday

On Tuesday I was put on different A-Bs

The instructions/warnings suggest "If I develop severe or prolonged diarrhoea during or after taking consult your doctor immediately"

So what is severe or prolonged diarrhoea?

Is it having my tea (eaten at 5pm) currently residing undigested down the loo?

Or am I panicking?

Severe I would say if you can't be more than 2mins from a toilet and everything you eat comes straight out. Prolonged I would consider more than 24 hours.

Did you eat something that could have caused it?

No - it's been building up all week tbh - I kinda ignore it as I have IBS. I spent about 40 mins on the loo

I would call NHS Direct if I were you, they put me through to a GP to speak to last time I called about something which was great and sorted out my problem.

They'll probably do the same for you. Hope you're ok, get yourself some acidophillus (sp!) too.

What they're worried about with taking antiobiotics for a couple of weeks is that the antibiotics might kill off your normal (protective) intestinal flora, and allow opportunistic bacteria to cause a bowel infection. Clostridium difficile is the most common pathogen that can do this. Here are a couple of links with good explanations of cause, symptoms, etc.
www.merck.com/mmhe/sec09/ch127/ch127a.html
www.mayoclinic.com/health/antibiotic-associated-diarrh ea/DS00454
They give pretty good explanations of what to look for in terms of severity and duration of symptoms. I hope that helps!

Thanks both of you

I guess I will monitor it & speak to my GP in the am if I'm not better