antibiotics - what next?

A month ago I started with a chest infection, was given steroids and antibiotics ( amoxycillin) they didn't work so given another course of steroids and clarithromycin. The antibiotic didn't agree with me so had to stop them. I've been on a reducing dose of pred for just over 2 weeks now but my pf still hasn't got much above 80% although i wasn't having many symptoms (although for the past week I've been on holiday near the coast-relayed I don't know) now I'm on 10mg my pf is dropping, my symptoms are returning and I'm starting to cough up Green stuff again.

Just wondered if anyone else had experienced this before and what my next options may be? I'm back at the Gp on Monday and hope to have results from my chest xray then too.

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Sounds like you still need antibiotics if they were stopped before they had done the job. I'm allergic to clarithromycin. Used to have co-amoxiclav generally but then it depends what bacteria you are dealing with. Did they send off a sputum sample for culture and sensitivity? I would suggest taking a sputum sample with you if not.

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Thanks for your reply nursefurby.

The first lot of antibiotics definitely helped and I took the the full course of them, the second lot made me feel wierd and really spaced out so the Gp said to stop them and just take the steroids.

No a sample hasn't been sent off, I have plenty to give so will take some with me! Is Just a clean pot Ok?

Also, any idea how long chest xrays take to get to the Gp? Obviously it would pick up a chest infection, can it tell the doc anything else? This is my first one.

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Re the CXR it depends how your health system works. I don't know whether your GP will be able to see the actual CXR (everything is computerised these days but it depends on access/security from hospital to GP) or whether he is waiting forms radiologist report on it which could take longer. A chest X-ray can give a lot of information but I expect that what they are doing is looking for confirmation of infection.

A clean pot is fine, just soak it in some boiling water if it's not a sterile specimen pot, so the inside of it is as contamination free as possible.

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Well apparently cxr was normal, and when I saw the Gp my chest was clear with much better air flow so no antibiotics and off the pred. He thinks chesty cough is just them clearing out after infection and low pf is just going to take time to recover . The minute I left the docs, and for the rest of the day I've been coughing and had tight chest, and using plenty of ventolin, blooming typical! I can't help thinking the sea air last week was helping and now I'm home, symptoms are coming back, but if course to the Gp it looks as though things had improved. I've used more ventolin today than I did all last week! grrr