posted
Has anyone ever asked their LLMD if long term antibiotic use can lead to antibiotic resistance if the patient was to ever get another bacterial infection?
I ask, because a friend and Neurologist keeps bringing it up to me. He has no solutions for me but acts like I'm dooming myself by continuing on with them...
He also told me today that he doesn't think I have Lyme disease despite it being the only thing I've ever shown positive for to explain my laundry list of chronic symptoms...He said today,in light of my chronic struggle,.. "If it were me and I wan't in a wheelchair or in the hospital I would stop going to doctors, He also asked if I had been seen by psych and that I've formed too much of an identity with the disease."
I asked "Why don't you think this was/is Lyme?" He said because I had unusual symptoms, like childhood aching, heart issues, ect, prior to getting sick."
I got sick after high dose steroids and birth of child btw...and I had a CDC positive Western Blot 2 years ago..
Apparently he tests for Lyme and has never had 1 positive result here in North Texas...
Jordana
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45305
posted
I believe this is unlikely.
The reason I think that is because when you take an antibiotic for the first time for anything, say a sinus infection. it can fail for two reasons -one that the course was not long or strong enough; or two that the strain was resistant to begin with.
So when you get a *new* bacterial infection, how could the drug you were taking for something else make that *new* strain resistant?
The only way it could happen would be if resistant, asymptomatic bacteria inside of you already taught the new bug how to resist the drug you were taking.
Theoretically that could happen but it just doesn't happen that often. If it did -- you'd switch antibiotics to something that was not susceptible to resistance the way they do already, all the time.
Resistant bacteria are not usually *made inside you*. They come out of the box that way, already evolved to resist certain antibiotics. When you hear that a bug "became resistant" during the course of treatment what usually has happened is as above --the first course was not long or strong enough.
Posts: 2057 | From Florida | Registered: Feb 2015
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
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posted
- You say this person is a " a friend and Neurologist"
I think it's time to cross this person off your "friend" list and I'd sure never trust him as a doctor.
The things he has said to you, his "psych" stance and his inability to even consider learning more about lyme is infuriating. Not a friend. A friend would start learning more.
A friend would not be so blasted pompous to put you down with such judgment. He has placed his opinion so high over your ability to learn what you need to with this disease.
Sadly, by having lyme we come to see that many people whom we thought were friends just don't have the qualities that define such a relationship. Not a friend at all, I'd say.
Stop trying to convince him - of anything whatsoever. Remove yourself from any ties. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Kebbler..I do use the term "friend" lightly meaning I know him in a social context not from an office visit...and I agree.
Posts: 97 | From Rockwall,TX | Registered: Apr 2014
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
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posted
- I hope you can avoid this person and not even engage in the future. Don't let your energy be open to his criticism. Hold your held up high (well, keep it attached to your shoulders at least as it's hard to do that when so tired, I know).
The thing is about someone who blast the kinds of attitude and judgment is that the next time you see him in your social or community circle, you could be hit again, invisibly but still to quite a real effect. In essence, he verbally assaulted you. It's not about a difference of opinion. That was assault, the way I see it, however nuanced.
It can take a bit of work to set up your shield so that he does not have power over you. Oh, I know you are strong and know right from wrong regarding lyme - but this attitude can't help but shake us when we meet such force even if it's ignorance. I just hate it when that happens. Hold your Chi, so to speak. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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WPinVA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 33581
posted
I would stop talking to this unhelpful person about your medical situation.
What choice do we have? Do we avoid treating the infection we now have because of a potential risk that we may develop resistance to some hypothetical future infection? That would be ridiculous.
We don't have any other option but to treat the infection that we have. So that's what we do.
Posts: 1737 | From Virginia | Registered: Aug 2011
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Jordana
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posted
I forgive this kind of talk from people. The truth of it is so crappy that it's actually a kindness to allow them to believe weird rationales like :The problem is you are identifying too closely with your disease.
They're protecting *themselves* talking to you that way. If they can rationalize your pain away then they don't have to be afraid of it. It can be "in your head" and not theirs, where it can't hurt them.
Posts: 2057 | From Florida | Registered: Feb 2015
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Judie
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posted
That doctor is being emotionally abusive by trying to make you doubt your reality.
Posts: 2839 | From California | Registered: Jul 2012
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Jordana
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45305
posted
Oh, also, here's a really basic short primer on antibiotic resistance from Tufts university.
Your "friend" does not understand bacteria or antibiotic resistance. He may be a neurologist but what he's telling you about this he must have heard on Fox News or something.
Just some extracts: "In essence, bacteria are anticipating the creation of antibiotics that people haven't thought of yet.
They are teaching themselves how to become more virulent, how to make their diseases stronger, by sharing virulence factors among themselves through the same mechanisms they use to share resistance information.
Wherever antibacterial use is high, bacterial congregation and rate of learning are also high.
Heavy antibiotic usage in fact causes immediate bacterial congregation, rapid learning, and subsequent cascade of resistance information through the microbial membrane, where it can be accessed any time.
this gene pool of resistance information is readily accessible to bacteria when they are exposed to the strong selective pressures."
... "One begins to see bacteria, not as individual species, but as a vast array of intearcting constituents of an integrated microbial world. "
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, "Bacteria can remove antibiotics from their cells as fast as they enter them using something called an efflux pump. They create a super pump. There are a variet of efflux pumps in all bacteria, each coded for particular substances.
Examples: the ATPbinding cassette super family (ABC pump), small multidrug resistance family (SMR pump), resistance nodulation cell division superfmaily (RDN pump) etc...
.... Just like us, bacteria want to survive. Just like us, they are very adaptable."
................................. "Bacteria are not competing each other for resources, but rather cooperating in the sharing of survival information."
(all that comes from Buhner's book Herbal Antibiotics above) .......................
My opinion: the cooperation between bacteria is the most amazing part of chronic infectious diseases.
It is not a coincidence that lyme became so endemic WHEN ticks became infected by DIFFERENT bacteria.
I don't think it is a coincidence that candida and lyme go so well together. Not to speak of parasitism in the gut and viruses all over.
And the more coinfections you have, the harder to eliminate lyme, right? Why do you think that happens?
Sharing resistance information is part of the puzzle.
there are solutions for chronic lyme , but long term abx is not always a part of it (maybe it is even one of the causes of the problem of cross species resistance, in my feeling....)
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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