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Virus Infections in CF
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Neonatal Screening for CF
Antibiotics: Resistance
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PFT's Explained For You
Pregnancy and CF
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Who's Who At Club Med
Appendices TOC
10. Oral Medications

 

-- Names (chemical, commercial, hospital slang), notable side effects, dosages

Antibiotics Floxin (oflaxacin) - may be related to Cipro, it is oral (can be IV), and it works on Pseudomonas A; dicloxacillin (500 mg TID for Pseudomonas A); 250 mg of dicloxacillin and Bactrim DS BID for Pseudomonas A; Keflex. o bronchodialaters o steroids o antacids.

Often when a CF patient has a lung infection, oral antibiotics may be prescribed. There are many different types of antibiotics that people with CF take. Cipro and Bactrim seem to be prescribed often. Your CF doctor will most likely take a sputum culture to see what kinds of antibiotics will work on the specific bacteria in the patient's lungs.

It's very important to take the complete cycle of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor. So if there is a two week supply, but the person feels better after a few days, the person should continue to take the medicine until it's gone. This insures that all of the bacteria in the lungs will be killed. If you only take part of the antibiotics, then you kill the weaker bacteria but leave the stronger ones around to continue making you sick.

Prednisone - Long Tern Usage

The following study was carried out over 4 years, and contains citations to other studies and reports:

A multicenter study of alternative day prednisone therapy in patients with Cystic Fibrosis. Authors: Egen, H; Rosenstein, BJ et al., Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Prednisone Trial Group; Journal of Pediatrics, Vol 26, No 4 pg 515-23; April 1995.

One thing to try with Prednisone in order to decrease the side effects is to go on an every other day schedule. That is, try to get from 10 mg per day to 10 or 15 mg every other day. This can take time; some of the asthmatics I see have decreased as slowly as 1 (one) mg per month because their symptoms worsened if they dropped more, but they managed eventually. This every other day ("qod" in yet another abbreviation) significantly decreases the fluid retention, bone demineralization, skin bruising, and "sometimes the diabetes. Unfortunately, some people end up feeling good on pred days and not-so-hot on the alternate days; it's a balancing act between side effects and lung/good effects.

Also, even PWCF with diabetes can be treated with bursts of Prednisone for periods of poor lung function or Aspergillus inflammation; they just know that their sugars will be all screwed up for the week or two of the pred, and usually supplement their insulin during that period to keep their blood sugars under 200.

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