Spanish doctors!

[golflady17]

Been to see GP this morning as PMR follow up and with a cough following cold. (the cough is actually better since I made the appointment 5 days ago). She listened to my chest - clear - and she prescribed antibiotics!! She asked how my PMR symptoms were and I explained I couldn't stick to what she told me to do i.e reduce from 10 mg down to 5mg as symptoms reappeared after 2 days. I explained I am tapering very slowly, currently on 8.125 and symptom free (I have to buy 2.5 mg tabs and quarter them as Spain doesn't do 1mg). She didn't argue with me! I also had to get her to examine my foot which I hurt tripping up the stairs last night and which I can hardly walk on. Go to a physiotherapist she says, you've damaged some ligaments. Take Ibuprofen for pain - no I won't. And then, take 5mg prednisone to help with the pain. Good job I'm a retired nurse and can take what she says with a pinch of salt and some knowledge. A case of physician heal thyself!! Needless to say, I'm not taking the antibiotics nor extra prednisone and stick to paracetomol for my foot pain. Hopefully the physio can sort out the foot pain - have to see them privately as not available on the health system here.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Oh dear! Southern Italians have a fixation with abx for everything too! No wonder there are resistance problems!

Mind you - last week I decided I was maybe perhaps starting a flare and it was possibly a UTI so I trogged off to the GP who said on the basis of the dipstick result it was pretty likely. Two packets of "powders" later and I felt ready to climb the local mountain - haven't felt so good for a couple of months! That lasted until yesterday - sore hips, sore biceps, feel as if I have real flu again, conclusion: flare.

So I got out Google - at various times several people have said they felt fine while taking abx but the PMR returned once the abx were finished, and a colleague in Budapest treated his wife with abx for PMR after she became Cushingoid on pred. And I found this:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Intriguing I thought.

[linda49 in reply to PMRpro]

Very interesting to read the link information about antibiotic use. I recently almost had a chance to test this out. I was prescribed Clarithromycin last month to treat a chest infection, but developed a severe rash and had to stop taking it! Had doxycycline instead which is completely different I think.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to linda49]

Did it work at all?

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

Erythromycin is also a macrolide like clarithromycin. There are quite a few bits online about using doxycycline or minocycline in rheumatic disease - how respectable they are is another question of course.

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to PMRpro]

PMRpro, you will probably remember me telling the story over the years about a lawn treatment man who arrived to work on our lawn. He had just returned from a couple of months off sick with exactly the same painful hip/leg/shoulder girdle pain that I was experiencing, said his GP had treated him with a 6-week course of steroids together with antibiotics and he had completely recovered. Reading your link has reminded me - interesting.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Celtic]

I mentioned it to my GP this morning when I went to ask what she'd like me to do for this flare - she said up to 15mg, I suggested starting at 10mg and I promise I'll go up if that doesn't work. She made a note - to have a look online. Trouble is, she'll not get the stuff I found because it was only in English which she denies being able to read. However - I know there is some work on it being used in other rheumatic diseases.

Maybe I can find someone at the meeting in Whistler in May...

[paddyfields in reply to PMRpro]

People with Parkinsons often report improvement inn symptoms whilst on antibiotics - one in particular I believe.

[linda49]

PMRpro,

In the last 7 weeks, I've had 3 course of antibiotics. Amoxicillin for chest infection, followed by Clarythro mycin ( which I only took for 24 hours due to the skin rash which I developed,) for yet another chest infection , so they substituted with Doxycycline, followed by Flucoxocillin for cellulitis in my legs. I have just taken the last pill today. Over those 7 weeks I have felt quite poorly with fatigue, breathlessness, and all the usual symptoms of chest infection plus the 2 cracked ribs which meant I Had to sleep sitting up for over a week. I can't honestly say I noticed any improvement in The PMR symptoms during this time as I think my body was working quite hard with everything else that was being thrown at it. I have shared this on the forum here, but generally not to friends, as I Feel sure they will think I'm making it up! However, things are now on the up , as I have been to my hairdresser today in the village where we used to live ( a round trip of 45 miles in my car) and I am feeling a sense of achievement. I definitely couldn't have done that last week. Perhaps now that all the other infections etc are being dealt with, I can get stabilised again on my Pred for a couple of weeks and then start to make some slow reduction. Fingers crossed!

Linda