So far, I have had allergic reactions to minocycline and amoxicillin. They both caused me to break out in hives. Does this mean I will be allergic to other families of antibiotics? Is there no hope for me if I get another sinus infection?
Not necessarily. If you had true allergic reactions to minocycline and amoxicillin, you should avoid tetracycline, and the other cillins. But I must warn that many rashes which develop when amoxicillin is used are not true allergic reactions. So depending on what reaction you truly had to amoxil (hives are a true allergic reaction), it is conceivable you might be able to use the cillins. But do so only on the advice of a doc. And if you got short of breath and wheezy on amoxicillin, do not try another penicillin family member unless you have an ER doc and a fully equipped ER nearby.
If you have a true penicillin allergy, there is about a 10% chance of having an allergic reaction to the cephalosporins, like Keflex and others.
But you are not fated to be allergic to other groups of antibiotics like the floxins, the sulfonamides, the erythromycin family, and others. if you truly need them, good antibiotics will still be there for you.
Frankly, sinus infections are over-diagnosed and over-treated anyway. Many sinus infections are viral.
The above answer was just off the top of my head, so other dopers feel free to add cites to clarify or rebut.
Thank you for the quick response and the thorough reply.
The hives from the Minocin reaction took months to disappear. I took Atarax for some time because of them.
Wow…I didn’t know sinus infections could be viral. I thoiught they were just a bitch to get rid of. Could that explain the Sinus Infection from Hell that only disappeared after abut 2 months and 4-5 different antibiotics? If it was viral, then they were all useless, and it basically went away on its own?
So how would one know whether it is viral or bacterial in a specific case? Not like a nasal culture sounds like fun, but it might beat 2 months of Hell the next time around, not to mention many rounds of unnecessary drugs (or very, very expensive drugs, if one doesn’t have prescription coverage).