Sound Mind & Body: Allergies

Tue, April 12, 2011

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KMUW / Fletcher Powell

Fletcher Powell reports on allergies and adverse reactions to antibiotics.

It’s pretty routine, and it’s something that’s happened to nearly everyone at some point, probably more than a few times:  You go to the doctor with a sore throat, or a rash on your face or an earache.

Your doctor prescribes some antibiotics.  You go home, take the medicine, and in a few days, or a week, or two weeks, you’re back to normal.  Simple.

But what if that’s not what happens?  What if the thing that’s supposed to make you better… ends up making you worse?

Extremely violent shaking, extremely violent cold chills…

That’s Jeremy Coleman—he went to his doctor for one of those skin rashes, and was given a pretty common antibiotic called Bactrim.  For most people, this wouldn’t have been anything unusual.  But he says that, within probably an hour of taking the medicine, he started getting strong flu-like symptoms:

Not really your traditional ‘sick to your stomach’ kind of stuff, but, you know, headache, fever, obviously… those kind of … symptoms that you would associate with H1N1, for instance.  And it was almost immediate, but very, very violent.

The thing is, he’d just gotten over the flu a few weeks before, so he thought maybe it was just that again.

Then in the morning, my wife called the doctor, and it wasn’t my immediate doctor, but the doctor on call with the office, and they said it was most likely your skin thing getting out of control.

So, naturally, they increased his dosage of antibiotics.

I went from taking two of them a day to three of them a day. And that got worse.  During the entire time, I slept, I was having cold chills—that was the extent of my life for four days.  I mean, I didn’t eat, I didn’t do… anything.  My energy it took to walk 20 feet to the restroom was all I had.  I mean, that was it.  And that included Christmas Day, which I didn’t get out of bed for more than… an hour?  Two hours?  The whole Christmas Day.  It was terrible (laughs)…

Coincidentally, Coleman’s “flu” cleared up shortly after he finished the Bactrim, though his rash didn’t.

A week or two later, he went back to the doctor and was given another round of antibiotics for his skin.

I go home and take ONE, and within an hour, I’m back in bed, shaking…

Of course, at that point, he stopped the medicine altogether.

Now, here’s the thing:  Even though Jeremy had considered that it might be the Bactrim causing him problems, his doctors told him that this wasn’t at all like a normal “allergic” reaction to antibiotics.

And this is true.

The most common stuff you see is a rash and hives.

Dr. Michael Palomino is a physician with Wesley Clinic in west Wichita.  He says that, while these breakouts are the most typical reactions to antibiotics, it can get a lot worse:

One of the biggest ones that people hear about that people get put in the hospital for is a Type 1 reaction, where—that’s the one you hear about where people react within minutes to hours, and you hear about people having trouble breathing, swelling in their mouth.

He says that, in severe cases, the swelling in the mouth or throat can be so quick and furious that the airway can be completely closed off.  Without prompt treatment, possibly with an injection of epinephrine, a person could die.

Complicating things more, Palomino says, is that sometimes the allergic reactions don’t come right away.  Sometimes they can take days, or even weeks, to show.

Not only that, but there isn’t a simple test that can be done to discover whether a person might be likely to have antibiotics allergies—sometimes medical histories will show a predisposition, but there’s really no telling for sure until you take the medicine and do—or don’t—have a reaction.

So, Dr. Palomino says, you just have to pay attention:

Anybody can react to any medication at any time—If you are having difficulty breathing, start seeing a rash, uh, come up, stop the medication and give us a call. Honestly, that’s the best we can do with counseling, because, like I said, you never know who’s going to react to what.

So, while Dr. Palomino agrees that he’d rather call Jeremy Coleman’s experience with Bactrim an adverse reaction to antibiotics instead of an allergic reaction, the lesson is the same either way—be vigilant.

Pay attention.

If something doesn’t seem right, ask questions.

And remember that antibiotics are supposed to make you better—not worse.