Tag: cipro

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Cipro: The Sequel

So, my doctor prescribed Cipro for a relatively mild but persistent gastrointestinal something or other I reported. Before I took one, I noted the rather alarming-sounding list of possible side effects. Maybe at that point I should have said, gee, I don’t really feel that bad, and I’ll wait before I take this stuff. But I took the first of the 10 pills in the five-day course prescribed, and the second. And then I googled “quinolone” — the class of antibiotics of which Cipro is part.

Even factoring in the fear-and-panic-amplification effect of the Web, what I found was kind of unnerving. The first hit you get is to the Quinolone Antibiotics Adverse Reaction Forum; on the top level, that’s just a bunch of links, including many that no longer work. One that does work is to the alarmist-sounding DrugVictims.org. More links. One that caught my eye was an October 2001 article from the Wall Street Journal: “Surge in Cipro Use Spurs Concern About Side Effects.” It starts:

“After anthrax fears spurred everyone from New York’s governor to hundreds of postal workers to take the antibiotic Cipro, drug-safety experts are now predicting a rash of health problems caused by the drug itself.

“Most troubling is the fact that three similar drugs, all chemical cousins of Cipro, already have been pulled off the market after being linked with severe side effects and even death.

“Cipro, or ciprofloxacin, is one of several fluoroquinolones, a controversial class of antibiotics that can cause a range of bizarre side effects: from psychological problems and seizures to ruptured Achilles tendons.”

I was already feeling uncomfortable taking this drug. Now I felt like I didn’t want to take another dose of Cipro. So, even imagining the warnings about starting an antibiotic and not finishing it, I stopped taking the stuff (how much harm could one day’s worth do? I guess I’ll be finding out). Of course, to be a perfectly responsible health consumer, I probably should have conferred with my Kaiser physician first. What I did instead was send him an email just now telling him about my uneasiness with taking this medicine and what I decided to do. It’ll be interesting to hear what he has to say about it.

I’m also thinking about where you draw the line on this kind of concern. Very few medical treatments are without risks, from aspirin to flu shots to childhood immunization. Sometimes the risks are serious. I guess I’m thinking about the benefits of taking Cipro versus the potential cost. The benefit is that this antibiotic will make good and sure any potentially harmful bacteria in my digestive tract (as well as all the other flora down there) are good and dead. The potential cost I’m most worried about is suffering some sort of traumatic muscle or tendon injury somewhere down the line brought on by the drug.

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Drug Post

We belong to Kaiser Permanente, the big California-based HMO that’s an outgrowth, I believe, of the private health-care system set up to take care of Kaiser shipyard workers during World War II. It’s got a wildly mixed reputation, though our experience has been better than OK. I called the advice line last night because of what I’ll term persistent gastrointestinal distress. Once they could tell I wasn’t hemorrhaging or making the call while balled up in the fetal position on the floor, they said they’d have my personal doctor call back today.

At 6:58 a.m., the doctor called. He’s a young guy and so confident and so seemingly happy to be doing what he’s doing that you can’t help but like him. Even at 6:58 a.m. He went over my symptoms and said just in case I had picked up an E. coli infection, he wanted me to take an antibiotic called Cipro for the next five days. I’ve heard of Cipro (ciprofloxacin); t’s strong stuff, and among other things is used to combat anthrax.

I went to the Kaiser pharmacy, picked up the stuff, and brought it home. Then I started to read the cautions. It can cause sun sensitivity, and you need to avoid prolonged exposure to direct sunlight. It can make you drowsy, especially if you have a beer while you’re on it. It can jack you up if you’re drinking caffeine or on theophylline (an ingredient in some asthma drugs and a component of some strains of green tea). Pretty average stuff, though more potential effects than I would have expected for an antiobiotic.

Then I read the Kaiser “Patient Information Leaflet” on Ciprofloxacin (sip-row-FLOX-ah-sin, the leaflet instructs). Under side effects, it lists the usual portmanteau of symptoms (including many of the things you might be taking Cipro for in the first place). It runs through “serious” but “unlikely” effects — just one, the sun sensitivity. Then it continues:

“Tell your doctor immediately if any of these highly unlikely but very serious side effects occur: seizures, mental/mood changes (including rare thoughts of suicide), numbness/tingling of the hands/feet, hearing loss, easy bruising or bleeding, persistent sore throat or fever, irregular heartbeat, chest pain, stomach pain, yellowing eyes and skin, dark urine, unusual change in the amount of urine, unusual fatigue.”

Also, Cipro can cause tendon damage. All of that was enough, honestly, to make me ask myself how bad I really felt. Did I want to have to deal with the effects of a very heavy-duty drug when I wasn’t incapacitated? I sort of dithered until Kate came home. I talked to her about it, and her take was, “Listen to what the doctor said.” So — I took the first of the 10 tablets prescribed.

No seizures or suicidal thoughts. Yet. I’ll keep you posted.