Tuesday, March 5, 2013

No More Augmentin


I've worried about this happening for quite a few years. I knew that the antibiotic that had worked wonders for Ashley's ear infections might one day become ineffective, but I hoped it would be a long time from now. Unfortunately, we seem to have reached that point.

Ashley gets lots and lots of ear infections. She has had tubes over the years, but they don't seem to make much of a difference. And, internally her ear is not formed like most ears. The eustachian tube, which in most people is horizontal when they are very young, eventually slants upward allowing for proper drainage. When the tube is horizontal, draining is very difficult to achieve. Ashley's eustachian tube has remained in the horizontal position.

The doctor and I realized several years ago that some of the more common antibiotics didn't work for Ashley. So the 'pink' medicine was not an option, and anything with 'cef' in its name also didn't work (omnicef, cefzil, etc.). But, we were having good luck with Augmentin.

She started many years ago on a normal 7 day course of Augmentin, and the ear infections would clear up. Then we had to go 10, and finally in recent years, it took 14 days of Augmentin to clear the infection. This past Saturday was day 13 of her latest ear infections, and we were back at the doctor's office because one of her ears was so infected that it ruptured Friday at school.

So the Augmentin regime is over.

The doctor prescribed Bactrim, and we will see if that is effective. He started with the 10 day course, and is hoping that will be adequate. Ashley did appear to be feeling better on Sunday, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what did you do to find something that worked?

ATM: Watching Ronnie over the weekend finally able to hang up his clothes with no help whatsoever...

1 comment:

  1. P has never had augmentin, but she has had quite a few ear infections. Amoxicillin never worked, I think sometimes they would give her omnicef but generally we have to do zithromax, and sometimes a slightly longer course.

    Her bacteria are always a little different than what seems to be typical so we have to try something different.

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