TreasureGoddess
Member
My son just got home from a 10 day stay in the hospital for iv vancomycin. He had the usual mrsa/staff infections causing pft's to decline, felt like crap, hurt all over, low energy, no appetite, the usual. Every couple of years my son would go in, have 10-14 days of vancomycin and be happy, healthy and bouncing off the walls. Last vanc. was 2 yrs ago. Never any issues.
This time Joe developed "red man syndrome" where he threw up, turned red in splotches and was extremely itchy. I was told it was very common, they treated with benadryl along with slowing the rate of the iv down to a 3 hour drip plus flushes to being hooked up for 4 hours on and 2 hours off meds along with increasing benadryl to the max.
My son got severe stomach pains and headaches after 7 days, had to pull the meds because he was just moaning in pain the entire time he was hooked up. I asked for meds to stop and could we do anything else? DR said red man syndrome was common, but the level of stomach & head pain my kiddo got was rare. I asked what to do next time as this go-round didn't restore his health very well. He said the team would have to "think about it." Told there are other iv antibiotics for treating mrsa & cf lung infections, but they're not used much and they've all got their own side effects to deal with.
We're going in for a 2nd opinon next month and iv meds will be a big question for me. Has anyone else had bad reactions to vancomycin? What did you do instead? Are there other common iv meds that are used for lung infections for those with CF?
I'm afraid we've crossed the bridge from a kid with general good health and has cf issues once in a while to dealing with pain, feeling crappy, coughing and poor health daily. He's 12 yrs old, in his first year of middle school and he's hardly been to school. I was hoping for the vanc iv stay at the hospital to do its usual magic and he'd be uber healthy for a few years more, but it looks like I need to create a new version of our baseline/norm health levels. He's not much better than when he went in to the hospital 2 weeks ago. cf sucks.
This time Joe developed "red man syndrome" where he threw up, turned red in splotches and was extremely itchy. I was told it was very common, they treated with benadryl along with slowing the rate of the iv down to a 3 hour drip plus flushes to being hooked up for 4 hours on and 2 hours off meds along with increasing benadryl to the max.
My son got severe stomach pains and headaches after 7 days, had to pull the meds because he was just moaning in pain the entire time he was hooked up. I asked for meds to stop and could we do anything else? DR said red man syndrome was common, but the level of stomach & head pain my kiddo got was rare. I asked what to do next time as this go-round didn't restore his health very well. He said the team would have to "think about it." Told there are other iv antibiotics for treating mrsa & cf lung infections, but they're not used much and they've all got their own side effects to deal with.
We're going in for a 2nd opinon next month and iv meds will be a big question for me. Has anyone else had bad reactions to vancomycin? What did you do instead? Are there other common iv meds that are used for lung infections for those with CF?
I'm afraid we've crossed the bridge from a kid with general good health and has cf issues once in a while to dealing with pain, feeling crappy, coughing and poor health daily. He's 12 yrs old, in his first year of middle school and he's hardly been to school. I was hoping for the vanc iv stay at the hospital to do its usual magic and he'd be uber healthy for a few years more, but it looks like I need to create a new version of our baseline/norm health levels. He's not much better than when he went in to the hospital 2 weeks ago. cf sucks.