From the "Drugs to Avoid List" put out by the MG Association of B.C.
http://www.myastheniagravis.ca/id14.html

ANTI-INFECTIVES
Aminoglycosides; including Amikacin, Gentamycin, Kanamycin, Neomycin, Netilmicin Sulfate, Paromomycin, Streptomycin, Tobramycin.
Ampicillin, Azithromycin (Zithromax) Bacitracin, Ciprofloxacin, Clindamycin, Colistin Sulfate, Colistimethate (Coly-mycin M) Erythromycin, Imipenem (Primaxin), Lincomycin, Metronidazole (Flagyl) Polymyxin A, Polymyxin B, Pyrantel Pamoate, Sulfonamides, Tetracyclines including Doxycycline (Vibramycin) Vancomycin, Viomycin.

Thanks nicky and Jana..I didn't think I could take it. I even asked the doctor to double check this.

I called my neuro crisis number and am waiting to hear back. Should I go to the er so that I can get fluids?

The thing is that it's not like a person with MG absolutely can't take these meds.. If a person had a really bad/persistant infection (like you), it might be reasonable to prescribe this antibiotic, but you'd probably have to be in a hospital, or somewhere where the doctor could supervise you to make sure that your weakness isn't made worse, which is a really plausible possibility.

When I started prednisone, it was high-dose and it was started while I was in the hospital to make sure I didn't get worse (which I did, and continued to do badly during the whole course of the treatment).

Sorry...I'm babbling...If you've noticed a spike in your weakness, or you're just feeling very weak for whatever reason, and for however long, I'd say that you need to be somewhere where you can be monitored in order to ensure you don't get *too* weak. Besides, if you've noticed any increased weakness, no matter what the level, and since this med. is on the warning list for MGers, you probably should get started on a different antibiotic, or just be in the hospital to be watched (if you have to take this in order to get rid of the infection you have)...

My blood pressure is also now dropping and it's concentrating on breathing. And I'm very weak. Uhhh!

Did you call the doctor/ER? How low is your BP?

What are your guardians saying to do?

Well it's now 138/48. My diastolic is never this low. Usually 80. I'm waiting on my neuro crisis line to call back. I'm feeling so weak. I think it's time to go in

Tyson, I have to admit that I'm disturbed by the fact that you have to come here in order to get advice you should be getting from your doctors. No offense, guys, but what can we do other than give support?

You can drink fluids faster at home than having an IV stuck in your arm and having them tubed in. And it costs a lot less.

Some people can do just fine on Clindamycin. Everyone is different in what drugs they can take on the "relatively contraindicated" drug list. If you get worse, you need to tell your doctor that.

I actually think you are on the road to a drug intoxication/overdose. You are self-medicating with over-the-counter drugs without knowing how they interact with all the other drugs you are taking. You are taking way too many Ibuprofen and that may not even be the best drug for you to be taking. Have you tried acetaminophen? That isn't benign either, in combo with other drugs. Do you drink alcohol? Not a good idea if you do.

On one hand, you act like everything is fine and go do an internship at Duke and other the other, you end up getting much worse and needing urgent help. Could you be in a bit of denial about your disease?

I don't think any of what you are going through is funny. I know you want to "trust" doctors but they are not perfect. You need a doctor who will pull all of this together for you (a good internist) and not stop until they figure out what is going on. I'm seriously afraid of something bad happening to you due to all these drugs. You know how dangerous they can be.

I hope you will work with your doctors to get the help you need.

Annie

Annie- Honestly, i found this message pretty rude. THATS WHAT YOU CAN give me, is support, and ideas. Clindamycin DID make me worse, AND I did go into the er. They sent me home and told me to start another antibiotic.

Im very weak, and tired, so sorry if im coming across as rude, i dont mean to.

Im not self medicating, NO ONE is doing anything about my headaches, so i took something to make it go away, thats doing what needs to be done.


But im not doing it anymore, because i know its harmful.

Goodnight.

I'm sorry you took offense to what I said. If you reread it again, you will know that I am frustrated beyond belief with your DOCTORS. I have always given you support. I'm not exactly in a great spot right now either - so how about you realize that all of us here are having a tough time one way or another and doing the best we can?

Tyson,

Are you willing to keep a journal?

A journal that would honestly record what medicines (ALL of them including the OTC and script) you take each day -by dosage and time of day?

A journal that would record 'I felt so good today I played soccer' followed by 'I felt so bad today I couldn't go to school or couldn't babysit' etc.

You - who are doing an internship at Duke and who have been accepted at your dream premed college - are either incapable (not likely) or unwilling (quite likely) to analytically evaluate your own situation. And you may well be the only one who can since you have no central doc coordinating all the other docs.

Try evaluating your medical situation as you might one of your future patients. The journal should help you to logically look at 'cause and effect'. One side of you can not accept the limitations of your condition. But I suspect the analytic side is more than equipped to evaluate and discover the realities - whatever they may be.

Keep a journal for a month. Anything that you would consult a doctor or this forum for should become a notation, in addition to all chemicals ingested, all activities engaged in, and a comprehensive notation of which and how many hours slept....DAILY. Come up with a grading system to 'grade the day' for easy reference.

Don't cheat. At the end of a month - you may become the best diagnostician you will ever know. If not, you can use it for a case study in med school!!

Sue