antibiotic rotation

quote:

can we stay on antibiotics off and on for long periods of time if we rotate them?

I have been doing it for 17 years. My rotation is cipro/flagyl, xifaxin, and then augmentin. Xifaxin is a good one to follow cipro/flagyl as it is not systemically absorbed and thus allows your skin bacteria to recover. This is important for the prevention of yeast infections.

There are other antibiotics that can be rotated as well but the ones I mentioned above are most effective for me.

Thanks this is very useful info for me. I am calling the docs tomorrow . I thought I had read a previous post (maybe from you) and it did have this same rotation. Thank you!!

Holly,

If you are new at the rotation game I would suggest starting out with a rotation of more than the antibiotics I have mentioned - maybe as many as 5 or 6 - and then condense the rotation based on what works best for you. I would discuss this strategy with your Docs. It's all trial and error and I arrived at my current rotation after years of tinkering and experimenting. Also trial and error is how often to rotate. It can be anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks. I would not stay on any one antibiotic for over a month, especially not cipro.

thanks, I have done a 10 day round of cipro and 2 weeks later a 14 day round and then now two weeks off of them I am feeling like I am back at square one. I will def discuss this with my doc hopefully tomorrow, they are usually really good about calling back the same day .

Holly,

Sounds like we are in much the same boat. I am on my third round of cipro to deal with pouchitis. The first round was for two weeks. The second and third round have been for 1 month each. I'm currently in week 3 of round 3. My surgeon didn't indicate that taking cipro for as long as I have represents a problem - so far.

My strategy will be to begin tapering this week - go from 2/day to 1/day for seven days. Concurrent with this I will be ramping up my probiotic intake, including a probiotic enema or two. My hope is that tapering plus high dose probiotics will keep me in remission. We will see.

holly,
i hope you feel better soon pauln