NYCLawGirl
New member
There are plenty of abx out there that are effective against some forms of pseudo -- even resistant pseudo normally has one or two abx that can fight it. Yes, cipro and/or levaquin are commonly used, and are convenient b/c of their oral nature, but there are also plenty of drugs that can be used inhaled (the new Cayston, for example, or colistin or TOBI -- the inhaled version carries very little risk of renal failure), or IV (cephalosporins, zosyn, aztreonam, merropennum and of course polymyxin -- IV colistin -- which is often used as a "last resort" drug and is almost universally effective against PA). I've even been on oral biaxin, I believe for PA (although it might have been for Staph, hard to recall at this point).
It's really just a matter of finding out which drugs YOUR pseudo is responsive to. And even if a certain drug doesn't work, they are often able to find combos (synergies) of drugs that work together to combat the drug. My advice is not to stress out over "what will I do if this or that abx doesn't work." Your doctors will find a combo that will help you, and you have to trust that even if you have to move from orals to inhaled or IVs, it will still be worth it. But trust me, you're not the first CFer to develop an allergy and/or reaction to cipro, and it isn't the end of the world or an automatic death sentence!
It's really just a matter of finding out which drugs YOUR pseudo is responsive to. And even if a certain drug doesn't work, they are often able to find combos (synergies) of drugs that work together to combat the drug. My advice is not to stress out over "what will I do if this or that abx doesn't work." Your doctors will find a combo that will help you, and you have to trust that even if you have to move from orals to inhaled or IVs, it will still be worth it. But trust me, you're not the first CFer to develop an allergy and/or reaction to cipro, and it isn't the end of the world or an automatic death sentence!