Emily has not cultured e. coli in her regular sputum cultures, however, it has been found in her sinuses. It was first found when she had her first sinus "clean out" last summer. The tons of gunk that they pulled out of her sinus cavity were apparantly "ripe" with e-coli. She was treated with a typical oral antibiotic (Probably omnicept or bacctrim, I can't remember) and we went on about life, hopeful that the clean out and abx would give us some relief from her constant sinus issues.
There was a brief period when all was well.
Then we started in on this never ending cycle of: post nasal drip/sinus pressure/inflamtion lead to nasty cough, leads to oral antibiotics, leads to Em feeling better for a while,
15 days after stopping abx, cycle starts again.
She has never again shown e-coli or anything other than her normal flora in cultures, both sputuum and nasal.
I have a theory that the e. coli has formed a biofilm in her sinus tissue, and is resistent to LONG TERM affects from the abx. If a biofilm is present, I believe I am also correct in thinking that the e. coli will no longer show up on a typical swab culture. I could be wrong about this - it's just my understanding from what I've read.
If someone knows something about e.coli and biofilms please let me know.
Neither our ENT or Pulmo feel it's possible for biofilm to be present in such a young child...I'm not convinced.
HOWEVER, the pulmo's last attempt to give us some relief from the cycle was to put Em on prevacid. Her theory was that there was some reflux present. I will say that it seems to be making a difference. Em DID show symptoms within the same timeframe after the last round of abx, BUT, the cough was much less severe, and she responded to the new abx much more quickly. Of course, there could be other reasons for that.
The prevacid isn't doing her any harm by any means. She loves her "melty tab." I'm willing to give it a go for a while and watch and see.
By the way, I know I should NEVER post something like this, but she is currently 16 days off the most recent round of abx. (Uuuugh, I can hear the resulting cough now!)