27th June 2005
Shelly another thought I had last night so here goes:
The infection could be fungal and not bacterial. They really have no way of telling that by looking at a CT. I have mentioned before a culture that was done on Karly, that was where they tested the mucuous in K's sinus to see what it really was. That is when they ruled out a fungal infection and verified that although the infection was bacterial it was resistant to the most common antibiotics because she had been on so many. The bacteria was penicillian resistant. The next drug they normally would have put her on was Clyndimician but it was resistant to that as well. The only drugs that would kill the bacteria were very strong drugs not recommended for children. Levaquin, Vancomycin and a couple of others. All of the doctors said they would not put K on those because they had not been tested in children. They were very effective for adults but a big no no for kids at this point in time. There was one drug that was in the Levaquin family called Cipro that is commonly used with children who have Cystic Fibrosis, that our Pulmonary doctor was willing to try because she used it regularly with her CF patients and had lots of experience with it. Cipro floxin is the technical name I think.
Cipro really helped Karly. She took it for four weeks and that was about 3 for 4 months ago. Since then she has only been on antibiotics one other time. That's pretty good for Karly.
The bottom line is if you don't see an improvement in Melanie, tell the doctors you want a culture so they can quit guessing at what they are dealing with and find out for certain what the bacteria is and what medicine will kill it. Don't forget to ask about the possibility of the infection being fungal. From what I understand if it is fungal then you have to treat it totally different with an anti-fungal medicine not an antibiotic.
The infection could be fungal and not bacterial. They really have no way of telling that by looking at a CT. I have mentioned before a culture that was done on Karly, that was where they tested the mucuous in K's sinus to see what it really was. That is when they ruled out a fungal infection and verified that although the infection was bacterial it was resistant to the most common antibiotics because she had been on so many. The bacteria was penicillian resistant. The next drug they normally would have put her on was Clyndimician but it was resistant to that as well. The only drugs that would kill the bacteria were very strong drugs not recommended for children. Levaquin, Vancomycin and a couple of others. All of the doctors said they would not put K on those because they had not been tested in children. They were very effective for adults but a big no no for kids at this point in time. There was one drug that was in the Levaquin family called Cipro that is commonly used with children who have Cystic Fibrosis, that our Pulmonary doctor was willing to try because she used it regularly with her CF patients and had lots of experience with it. Cipro floxin is the technical name I think.
Cipro really helped Karly. She took it for four weeks and that was about 3 for 4 months ago. Since then she has only been on antibiotics one other time. That's pretty good for Karly.
The bottom line is if you don't see an improvement in Melanie, tell the doctors you want a culture so they can quit guessing at what they are dealing with and find out for certain what the bacteria is and what medicine will kill it. Don't forget to ask about the possibility of the infection being fungal. From what I understand if it is fungal then you have to treat it totally different with an anti-fungal medicine not an antibiotic.