Taking Ceftin for sinus infection

[poppy86]

Hi all.

I had cdiff two years ago, as many of you probably remember. I still have PI-IBS, but it improved a lot from the early days, and I regained all the weight I lost.

Unfortunately, my son got a cold three weeks ago, and I caught it. I have been dealing with a sinus infection since then, hoping it would go away on its own, but it didn't. I finally caved and went to the doctor, and he prescribed Ceftin (also known as Cefuroxime, a cephalosporin antibiotic). I'm taking one 250 mg pill twice a day, for ten days. I started taking it yesterday morning.

So far my sinus infection hasn't improved, and my stools are starting to loosen. I'm scared. My sinus infection symptoms include clogged ears, an extremely stuffy nose full of green mucus that I constantly have to blow, a cough, fatigue, headache, and upper jaw pain. I can't breathe through my nose at all, and I can't smell anything. I cough every ten minutes.

I felt like I needed to do something, because I'm a teacher and I start work next week. I can't come in sick. But if I get cdiff, then it will be even worse...I don't know what's going to happen.

[NanciT]

Hi

You may want to contact your GI. There are many posters who have taken antibiotics over the years and been fine, it is very individual and may also depends on the drug. Ceftin is one that is a higher offender. Watch symptoms closely. Are you taking a probiotic?

My experience had not been great. I had CDIFF in 2014-2015 for a year, Dificid taper finally got rid of it. I was fine until a UTI with Sepsis ended up in hospital and on IV antibiotics. They also had me on Vanco but got CDIFF anyway the day I got home. This time my ID quickly put me on Dificid taper and I got through it in 3 months.

Get tested if you develop D, some antibiotics can cause D and its not CDIFF so test anyway.

Hope everything works out

NanciT

[roy]

Might have been wiser to insist the Dr checked you had a bacterial infection before prescribing antibiotics.
You already know that colds are viral.
Simple sputum or nasal swab culture would have been useful and even if positive it may have indicated a lower offender would do the job.

[beth22]

Years ago, after c diff, I was prescribed doxycycline for a sinus infection. It is a lower offender, but I believe I had a nasal swab done as Roy suggested to see which antibiotic would work and would be the safest for me.

[notheidi]

roy wrote:
> Might have been wiser to insist the Dr checked you had a bacterial
> infection before prescribing antibiotics.
> You already know that colds are viral.
> Simple sputum or nasal swab culture would have been useful and even if
> positive it may have indicated a lower offender would do the job.

That's a good idea. I've asked doctors to do that for me in the past and they have declined. Now c diff #3, I will insist.

Poppy, I'm so sorry you are going through that. I know how scary it is. A number of years ago, I was put on augmentin for a cat bite and I had to stop it due to the gut effects.

[poppy86]

Thanks all for your replies. I'll post more later, very tired.

[Ali-Mar]

Hi Poppy,

Hope it worked for you