Sunday, April 27, 2014

Amoxicillin: An antibiotic for infections

Amoxil (Amoxicillin) Drug Information: Description, User ...

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Formulations of AMOXIL contain amoxicillin, a semisynthetic antibiotic, an analog of ampicillin, with a broad spectrum of bactericidal activity against many ...
Recently I was in Hawaii on Maui and even in the 1960s and 1970s people used to get staph infections that would eat away flesh and get bigger and bigger if you didn't get a good anti-biotic on it or neosporin or Polysporin. So, people would get cut surfing on the coral and get these really awful staph infections then that would never heal but just get bigger then if they didn't put one of the three types of things on it to make the infection go away. 
About 2 or 3 weeks ago I was in Hawaii again so about 2 weeks ago I noticed a boil like looking object on my back around where men have lanolin glands on their shoulder blades (one on either side). As men get older often these types of glands get clogged and have problems as well. So, I've had boils before and the way we treated them always was to lance the boils which my wife did and to remove any pus out of it. However, it didn't go away and just got bigger and more angry looking. Then we talked to people who used to used hot glass milk bottles that they put on kids boils which as the glass cooled cause suction which sucked the stuff out of the boil without lancing it because lancing might cause an infection and most boils are staph to begin with. 
Then a psychiatrist  who is a friend of our and was one of our maids of honor at our wedding was visiting and since a psychiatrist is also an MD I showed it to her since it wasn't going away even after a week and a half and still looked angry.

She said that boils were usually staph and one should never lance them because this often these days causes further infections and problems. She said it is better to let them go down on their own and let the body deal with them rather than lancing them. A day later she said, "You know. On second thought there is a lot of MRSA going around in the U.S. I think if it isn't gone in a day or two you should see your family doctor, so we did. He said it definitely wasn't MRSA because that gives completely different symptoms but he wanted to put me on amoxicillan.

However, the amoxicillan, really had an effect on me and I realized immediately that I couldn't take three of these a day and would be lucky to take two a day. And even then I had to be careful not to drive a car for a couple of hours after taking one. So, I started to only take the first one between about 4 to 6 pm and only then if I didn't have any appointments between 4 pm and 7pm. 

Then yesterday, when I took my first dose of amoxicillan it got so bad I hardly knew my own name. However, My wife told me that not taking all of the antibiotic is really bad nowadays because of MRSA. Then my best friend for years now got on the phone with his girlfriend and I and told me when he had perforated his ear drum from the inside pressure of pus recently he had been told by a doctor to take amoxicillin for this infection too and eventually his hearing came back in that ear and the perforated ear drum healed up too.

He told me I had to take all the amoxicillan because I could get MRSA if I suddenly stopped taking it because of how anti-biotics compromise your immune system and how much a problem MRSA is now in the U.S.

So, I was kind of upset because I really don't like being so out of it when I take this anti-biotic so much so that I likely wouldn't be safe driving a car except maybe in an absolute emergency. Also, I remember the doctor telling me because of my age that I needed to take a probiotic 2 hours after every amoxicillan dose too so the anti-biotic does it's work but I also don't get my immune system to destroyed from taking the anti-biotic. So, the pro-biotic is to keep my strength up and stamina up.

So, this all was way more information than I wanted to deal with in my life. However, the boil is slowly getting smaller since I started taking the amoxicillan and my body is slowly reprocessing it even though it is now instead of an angry red becoming more purple looking but it is slowly going away. 

All this is really a pain because it so greatly affects your life. But, if you have read or seen MRSA many or most people now don't survive it at all so it is not something to play with or put yourself at risk for. 

So, once you start on amoxicillan unless you change anti-biotics with a prescription from your doctor you are risking your life if you stop taking them for your infection even if you reduce to 2 a day instead of three like I was recommended. If I took 3 a day I would be in bed and would basically be non-functional. So, I'm not doing that.

So, I thought I would share my experience with you regarding all I've learned if you also need to take amoxicillan for an infection of some sort.

So, a staph boil looks usually red and a MRSA boil looks more purple but also angry. Though my boil is turning a little purple it is mostly going away so I think I'm okay because it is not purple and angry looking.

I was going to share what a MRSA boil looks like but it is so very disgusting looking I thought I would just tell you what to do instead.

If you want to see what a MRSA BOIL looks like go to Google Images and type "MRSA Boil" and you will see a lot of really disgusting stuff. So, if you do this be sure to be prepared because the faint of heart might throw up.

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