Can anyone help me understand antibiotic resistance?
Asked by
tan253 (
2958
)
August 21st, 2018
Hi Guys,
As you know I’ve been complaining about antibiotics. Well yesterday was my last day, after getting blood tests done the Dr called me back in, asked about my symptoms, told me my blood tests were perfect and that I could stop. She said the idea now is that a short course is better than longer and to allow the body to mop up the excess bacteria. It was my uneducated understanding that excess bacteria if left over is what gathers the resistance? However according to my Dr longer courses are not considered more dangerous than shorter. So then my next question, I bit my tongue two days ago, so I assume that the antibiotics I’m taking will have an effect on that as well in that no bacteria will get a chance to multiple, however, now I’m off antibiotics today so that does mean I’m inadvertently causing a mutation in the possible bacteria in my tongue now? I know tongues heal fairly fast and it’s a really just a curious question. My health anxiety needs help I know this, but I just feel perhaps if I understand this a bit better it might help me take future courses of antibiotics without this ridiculous stress!
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17 Answers
Sorry there are a few grammar issues in the above but I can’t edit it anymore.
There are many different types of antibiotics, depending on the type and severity of the infection(s). For example, when I had my MRSA infection, the doctors took a blood sample and treated the infection within to determine which antibiotics would kill the infection. Then they treated me with those antibiotics. (Remember that all infections are not MRSA-esque.
The doctor may have generalized your treatment somewhat. I believe the medical community will only tell the public just so much so as not to scare them unnecessarily. But do trust your doctor’s treatment!
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Keep your eyes open like I do for news/magazine articles about “superbugs.” The stories, information, types, and evolution change almost daily.
Another thing that adds to the danger of these superbugs becoming resistant to antibiotics is when people feel they don’t need the antibiotic anymore and flush them down the toilet (and into the environment!) to get rid of them. These superbugs are everywhere and flushing antibiotics down the toilet just gives these bad boys more of a chance to come into contact and thereby help them get stronger and deadlier!
Be sure to dispose of unused antibiotics properly! If you need to, contact a hospital or hazardous waste facility!
People flush them down the toilet?? Omg I would have thought people would have more common sense, I take mine back to the pharmacist!
I preferred the cartoony explanation – thank you!
Well, @Caravanfan answered your question! I know the thinking on taking the full regime of antibiotics has changed, but I’d just do what my doctor tells me to do.
And, I never buy anti-bacterial anything.
Most antibacterial stuff is alcohol based so it’s fine.
Ah. I didn’t think of that! Of course.
We have inadvertently acquired a bunch of medications various of kinds including antibiotics. I have tried to find some place that will accept them, but nobody will. They want you to mail them off to someplace, and sometimes there’s a fee involved if I recall correctly, as well as the cost of mailing them.
Nobody’s going to do that!
Does anybody have a better idea?
I tried dropping mine off at the Walmart pharmacy, but they wouldn’t take them because they had my name on them (too much “personal information,”)....so I threw them in their trash. When they pulled the trash sack out, someone saw them, saw which pharmacy they were issued from in town, and took them to that pharmacy. As far as I know, my pharmacy accepted them and took the responsibility of disposing of them properly.
Out of curiosity how do you know that’s what they did with your old medication? Did you see them find your pills? How did you find out? @Dutchess_III
The folks at my local pharmacy told me when I got my next prescription. I thought that “Too much personal information” was total bullshit, but I guess that’s HIPPA for you. So…take them back to the issuing pharmacy, if you can.
I would have just said, “Okay, you don’t want it? I’ll just dump it in the sewer”. They love that.
Do you think anyone outside of the actual pharmacist would care?
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