She developed this by using anti-biotics prescribed by a doctor for a chronic urinary tract infection which began some years ago.
I tried to tell her the risks of doing that a couple of yrs. ago.
Does anyone know of a treatment or remedy for such a problem…
I gather her doctor may resort to dripping a anti-biotic via intra-rvenus method…he is waiting on lab reports.
FWIW, people don’t become resistant to antibiotics, the bacteria infecting them do.
A person does not become resistant, she is infected with a pathogen that is resistant. Antibiotics work in numerous different ways, against different structural parts of bacteria or components of their metabolism. A resistant strain will usually be resistant to only some types of antibiotic - in this case, obviously she has selected for resistance to the specific antibiotic she was taking in excess. The doctor needs to find some other antibiotic that’s effective against this strain of bacteria.
This will be something for an infectious disease specialist to deal with.
Some doctors are having success with older, previously-thought-to-be-obsolete antibiotics, because the newer ones have too much cross-resistance.
People don’t develop a resistance to antibiotics. They might develop an allergy, but that isn’t the same thing.
An allergic reaction may mean that a particular family of antibiotics can’t be used, as she will react to them badly.
On the other hand, your friend has more likely developed an infection with a bacteria that is resistant to a particular anti-biotic. That could come about in lots of ways. Bad luck being one of them.
It sounds more as if her doctor is waiting for lab tests to determine the exact bacteria responsible and then will design a treatment that targets it. Not all antibiotics can be taken orally, and it may be that the likely ones being considered are injection only. Or dose needed is likely to be best administered by injection.
Developing of antibiotic resistance in an individual when taking antibiotics is a real thing. Simple Darwinian selection means that any propensity for resistance in an individual bacterium is selected for. Moreover, if a person already has some other bacteria within them that has some element of resistance, bacteria can exchange capabilities, and an otherwise benign bacteria living within the patient (perhaps one that has survived some earlier anti-biotic treatments for some other condition) may contribute to resistance of the new pathogen.
An interesting paper linked below says this:
The bottom line is that antibiotics are and will remain a critical part of health care. But don’t take them unless it is clear you need them. If you do need them, take them exactly as prescribed, and don’t vary from this. Don’t try to self prescribe or self manage. The results can be unexpectedly nasty, not just for you but for society at large.
Just tossing something out here…IANADoctor:
I have read cases where someone has their natural flora wiped out by drugs. Humans have all sorts of micro-organisms that live within and on us. These are necessary for a healthy person. The good micro-organisms help protect against the bad ones.
So much so that there is a procedure called a fecal transplant (I know the OP is talking about urinary problems). Yes, transplanting poop from one person to another. AIUI this is done when medical treatment has wiped out all of the good micro-organisms in a person’s intestine so they get some fecal matter from a healthy donor to repopulate it.
I am NOT suggesting some new agey, hocus-pocus stuff and certainly her doctors are the ones who know best. I am just wondering if this lengthy anti-biotic treatment has seen her wipe out all the good bacteria and now the bad ones prevail.
Just a thought. Again, IANADoctor. This is a message board. Seek help from real doctors.
My late spouse once had an intractable urinary tract infection that appeared to be completely resistant to all antibiotics.
Some very thorough testing by an infectious disease specialist revealed that it wasn’t a bacterial infection at all… it was a fungal infection which, of course, anti-biotics did nothing for (other than kill off competing bacteria, which probably made the fungus quite happy…)
An anti-fungal cleared it up for good.
Sometimes stuff gets missed. Is that they case for the OP’s friend? I have no idea, but I hope someone has considered the possibility.
It’s only used when less drastic measures have failed. From what I have heard, the donor is usually a friend or family member, and matching blood types don’t matter.
And yet…we all know about it. Because internet.
There is a poop bank.
I came here to make this point. If the condition is chronic and unresponsive, it’s time to ask for a referral to specialty. I didn’t even think about ID, I was thinking more of Urology, but @Broomstick makes a good point.
One of my best friends has been fighting an infection in a tear duct for a couple of months; several different oral antibiotics didn’t work (i.e., the infection was resistant to them), and when her eye doctor put her on cipro, she had an allergic reaction to it. That’s when she was referred to an infectious disease specialist, who tested the infection, and discovered that it’s a form of MRSA. She’s been on intravenous antibiotics for several weeks, which are working, albeit slowly.