Changes of symptomes via antibiotics

Question

Hello,
I take for one week ciprofloxacin and cefuroxim due to a worsening of the cough and increased inflammation values.
Now it is like this, that the cough has gotten much better, also I have no problems with breathing, however there are still quite viscous secretions present. Furthermore I have sometimes a feeling of tension in the thorax and partly back pain. Also headache sometimes and a slight feeling of dizziness in the head when turning around.
I have taken both antibiotics already several times and had always the impression, not to tolerate ciprofloxacin well. Can it be that the drug causes a worsening of the situation?
Can I still wait some days or should I better go immediatley in a hospital?

Answer

Dear questioner,
we answer all questions with pleasure, however the questioners should take into account, that the experts can only inform via the Internet and in no case can give individual advice! Therefore you can get no answer from us on the question, how fast you should visit a physician or not. In general we are of the opinion, that in case of doubts when and if one should present to the doctor due to symptoms, it is always better to do it immediately and to discuss details with the physician face to face.
To the question, if an antibiotic can cause a narrowing of the bronchi, can also be said in general, that this cannot be excluded, however cannot be easily proven. In order to define symptoms as side effects, one needs an observed a repeated occurence in the course of time and probably also a repeated occurence of the symptoms after the intake of the said drug (or also some time after). It has to be checked, if such symptoms occur even without taking the drug and therefore probably only a random coincidence of the symtoms and the intake of the drug is underlying. In this case this would not be a side-effect of the drug, and this drug could further be used as a therapy, especially if it had shown a good efficacy.
You should discuss with your CF physician in charge advantages and disadvantages of the group of suspected antibiotics and decide together, if in the future another group of antibiotics sould be considered or other therapeutical alternatives.
Now back to your actual symptoms. You describe that under the current antibiotic therapy an improvement of the cough, inflammatory parameters, and dyspnea occurred, however still viscous secretions are present. Here the mucolytic therapy has to be checked. Probably this can still be optimized and your health status can be improved.
I hope to have helped a bit with my answer and stay with my best regards,
Yours
Dr. med. Christina Smaczny

05.08.2016