Allergic to Three Different Antibiotics????

Updated on January 20, 2011
S.S. asks from Los Angeles, CA
8 answers

I've been allergic to penicillin since I was a kid. I took Bactrim in college and was fine but then took it again a few years later and had a major allergic reaction. Now I just took Doxicyclene (sp?) for the first time today and a few hives have cropped up so it looks like I'm allergic to this one too???? That's THREE antibiotics I'm allergic to!! I'm so worried about what'll happen if I get a serious infection one day and I"m allergic to all antibiotics! Is anyone else out there like me?? I'm so worried :(

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S.T.

answers from Kansas City on

I'm allergic to 4 main antibiotics so it is very hard for the doctors to give me stuff plus my body just doesn't do well with any meds. They will find something for you to take!

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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

For a REALLY serious infection... they'll dose you anyway and stand by with a major antihistamine shot to keep you from dying. Antihistamines block your body's response to what it views as poisonous... it doesn't block the "poison" (allergies are just the body misclassifying something as poisonous, and our attempts to neutralize the poison. Or vice versa, poisons are just super fast acting allergies. It's the same response physiologically. But even with deadly allergies... they're about 1000x slower than a slow poison, and about 1,000,000 slower than a fast acting poison - like cyanide). But really, there are so many other alternatives, that that nearly never happens... and is a pretty radical form of treatment. But if it was necessary to save your life... never fear. You'd get your lifesaving meds, and then a shot to neutralize your body's reaction to the lifesaving med.

BTW... one reason they have you STOP taking antibiotics if you get a MILD allergic reaction (like hives), is to keep that particular one as a "saftey net" in case of something serious. Allergies almost never stay the "same" they increase or decrease with every exposure. So the best way to play it safe is to ban any mild reaction, so that when the fit hits the shan, they can give you a med that you're only mildly allergic to.

So no worries, love. In case of something really nasty, you've got at least one mild reaction in your back pocket.

1 mom found this helpful

K.M.

answers from Chicago on

My sister is allergic to Kplex Kflex something like that, so far no one else in the fam is but I do advise drs of this just so they know, typically they avoid it since someone in the fam is but so far so good. I am sure you could talk to your doc about other options ... one thing I am looking into and you may want to as well is the card that goes in your wallet that hospitals/drs can put in the computer to pull up your medical history so in the event something does happen they already know your known allergies ... just a thought.

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S.W.

answers from Minneapolis on

Yes, I am either allergic, or sensitive to, several antibiotics and other common medications. The worst reaction I had was just recently to a form of Prilosec given for acid reflux. It landed me in Urgent Care for a shot of steroids (because I also react to Benedryl, which would have been a gentler solution to the other reaction). It is a bit scary to think that I could have that kind of reaction (throat swelling) or worse to something commonly prescribed. I now own an Epipen (just in case). I do my best to stay healthy, but jeez...

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T.A.

answers from Sacramento on

Yes, I'm also allergic to Penicillin & Doxycycline (however it's spelled). There is a third one that I'm not allergic to but I have a "drug sensitivity" to it, I vomit when I take it (can't remember the name of it, I think it started w/a Z and it was a 10 day pill). I've only taken that one once and never again. I asked the same question to my dr. and they said there are lots of different antibotics. Don't worry too much about it. Just make sure you keep a list of the ones you are allergic too because both of those (penicillin/Doxycilin) are in their own families of drugs. Oh, and also sometimes you can be taking something and you're fine and then you develop an allergy to it. Sounds like that's what happened w/that one - Bactrim.

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J.C.

answers from Philadelphia on

I am allergic to Bactrim and any sulfa based drug. I also can't drink red wine because of the sulfites.

I think there are still many other classes of antibiotics so you should be OK. Talk to your doc, I bet they can reassure you.

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J.G.

answers from Salt Lake City on

I am allergic to PCN too, sensetive to most antibiotics- they give me phenegrin (sp?) when I have to have them. They tend to give me sulfa based drugs instead, a bit harsher, but they work for me

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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

My sister is allergic to Pcn, bactrim and augmentin...

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