Antibiotics save lives.  That’s why so many  octogenarians are still around. The year I got blood poisoning was the same year that penicillin became available for physicians.  Otherwise, I would have been a goner. So I’m not knocking antibiotics.  However, physicians really need to be careful when prescribing them, because many have serious side effects.   Warning! Big Pharma may disable you.  

Our travail began last week when my husband went for a routine doctor’s appointment with a cough.  It wasn’t a serious cough, but  he’d had it for quite awhile. Therefore, his doctor prescribed a certain antibiotic which has also been a target of many lawsuits, if you look it up on the internet.  In other words, it’s one of those risky ones.  Not like taking the more widely used like amoxicillin.   Most people don’t have to wonder if they’re allergic to something like penicillin.  They know within minutes after they take it, get help, and never take it again.  However, the side effects of some drugs aren’t so readily apparent.

On day two of taking this prescribed medicine, my husbands lips began to swell.  However, he believed that his doctor knew best.  So, on day three, he took another pill, and that’s when the dam broke.  His lips and  eyes were swollen, sore and bleeding. That was on a Saturday morning and we all know you are wasting time calling a physicians office on a weekend.  We hoped that by Monday, after discontinuing the antibiotic, the swelling would go down.  But it didn’t.  It got worse.

Thus began a  round of steroids which cause a diabetic’s blood sugar to skyrocket.  Which meant he had to have insulin shots, administered by me.   The swelling and soreness is improving, so we have hopes that we’ll be back to normal in a few days.

Since then, I’ve researched the side effects of this particular antibiotic and found them overwhelming.  It has caused permanent disabilities in patients, ranging from torn tendons to heart damage. .  You have to wonder why it’s even on the market.

Warning  !Big  Pharma may disable you.  But they’re willing to take risks with your health because they are reaping huge financial  benefits.