Scared to Take Antibiotics

I am scared to take antibiotics, don’t laugh?

It’s weird because antibiotics have worked so well for me in the past. There was the time I had a river water infection from a cut on my shin that got infected and antibiotics stopped the pain and the infection. There was the time I had a pedicure(my first and only, birthday present from old girlfriend since I had/have nasty feet) and got an infection in my toe, once again antibiotics stopped the infection.
There was a time I had blood drawn and a few days later the vein turned red from the needle point up my arm, another infection that antibiotics worked well for. And most definitely 5 or six other times where antibiotics worked well for me. Oh, how could I forget my battles with C difficile(C Diff) that only got better with some vancomyacin and Flagyl antibiotics? Yup, they have worked so well for me. Thanks antibiotics, you are great. But, I am still scared of you, you freak me out. No thank you for that.

So what’s up with antibiotics? According to some very smart people/scientists, antibiotics are medicine that kills off bacteria or at least stops bacteria from multiplying at high rates. That sounds really good right? It does to me.

But there’s probably more to the story. And now time for some rambling/speculating on antibiotics.

I have UC. I also have taken 10 plus rounds of antibiotics in my life. Is there any connection? I sure don’t know, but maybe some fellow UC people might be able to answer that, or some other really smart people. I recently had someone who I’ve met through this site say that one possible trigger of UC symptoms is from antibiotic use. Also, the use of antibiotics can sometimes cause people to develop the nasty C Diff. So, how do we find out if antibiotics can cause other side effects other than what they are intended to do? It’s almost a Catch-22. If you are stuggling with a nasty infection and all kinds of pain and you are prescribed some antibiotic (the Z-pack antibiotics for example), how many of us are going to say this: “Hey doctor, I realize that I might lose my leg if I don’t take these things, but what side effects are possible later in life from popping these pills?” I surely wouldn’t have thought to say that. What do you do, keep going a few more days in nasty pain to see if your body can fight off infection without antibiotics, and only go to them as a last resort? Tough tough decision. Nasty tough decision.

About three weeks ago my wife came down with a nasty sore throat. I was lucky not to get it at the same time as her. After about 10 days she went to the doctor who prescribed Zithromax antibiotics for her. Within 3 days she was feeling much better, and after 5 days was done with the medication and better again. BUT, right afterwards, I started getting the sore throat, and I started wondering some things. “Oh crap Adam, are you going to have to pop the antibiotics just to get rid of this too? Are you going to catch the nasty C Diff like you had before which caused you to bleed bright red blood like a firehose? Were antibiotics the reason you developed UC in the first place…????”
So there I was, a not too bad sore throat, and watching the days go by. Had it been a horrible sore throat like I used to get when I was younger, I’m not sure how things would have unfolded. But, this one wasn’t a show stopper, so I just toughed it out(with a side of complaining to my wife quite a bit… sorry about that wife). That’s right, I was scared of the antibiotics, I even told her that when she said for me to stop complaining and just go to the doctor. I also didn’t want to break my streak of no doctor’s visits this year so far.

In the end, yesterday, the sore throat went away, no drugs, just tons of tea and honey.

But, I’m still scared of antibiotics.
I’m not scared if you share this, my friends know I’m a big wuss