okay, interesting. here's my personal take on all this (just my opinion/experience, obviously):
i personally believe that abx are really overused in this country. it probably sounds a bit rich coming from me (i'm on every abx under the sun in a pretty consistent rotation b/c i get exacerbations from hell), but i honestly think people should be a little more careful about taking abx all the time. besides the resistance argument, it's also tough to ignore the fact that abx can do some rotten stuff to the rest of your body. and sure, it's probably worth some stress on your kidneys or whatever to avoid permanent lung damage, but everything in moderation, right? i would say the same thing about steroids (again, says the woman who's been on oral prednisone non-stop for the past six months at least) - they can do a lot of damage to the rest of your body and you should always be cautious about (over)using them.
as for regular maintenance drugs like HTS and DNAse? well, everyone's different. i personally don't see why you would pull those from your routine if you tolerate them well (sidenote: i do know a lot of cfers who don't do so well with hts - it used to give my HUGE coughing fits. so if that applies to you then obviously i totally get why you would want to stop that particular drug). and things like DNAse probably won't feel like they're making a huge impact if your lung function is relatively high and your lung disease pretty well controlled. but that doesn't mean they're not helping, and again, given all the studies out there about the benefits of those two drugs (and even albuterol/xopenex) on cfers, i really don't see the benefit in stopping.
zithro as a regular drug to control inflammation is more of a subjective call. again, there is a lot of info out there showing this drug is helpful overall in maintaining good health in cfers. i wouldn't ignore that, but i can see the abx argument as well.
bottom line in my opinion: TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR! tell him/her that you're interested in paring down your cf routine in realistic and sustainable ways, then ask for advice and help in doing so. sure, s/he may not be entirely receptive to the overall concept, but i really don't think you should be making these decisions alone. period.
also, i would keep in mind that you don't want to stop everything at once. if you're serious about this, wean yourself off one drug at a time so that if you DO start to feel a difference at any point you'll be able to more easily pinpoint the cause. likewise add holistic treatments/supplements one at a time as well, for the same reason. and definitely be ready to LISTEN to your body throughout the process.
good luck with whatever route you choose to go with this. my cf routine is pretty classic, even intense at this point, but would love to hear about any successes you have along the way regardless!
