Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Zithromax - could I start a petition to ban this product?

Ok...this is the unofficial observation of an untrained and biased mom.

g took Zithromax for 5 days because she had a lingering cough ~ 3 weeks. It really wasn't a terrible cough. It usually happened around the morning as she is about to wake, sometimes during the night as she slept and sometimes when she runs around furiously. Again if this cough was on its first few days, I wouldn't even bother the doctor with it. However on week 3, I was beginning to get concerned and mysteriously just as I was about to call the doctor about the cough, she ran a high fever for the day. So G and his mom took her to the pediatrician who prescribed a cough medicine (which she has been on for a million times now - ok I exaggerate maybe only 4 times and zithromax which she has never been on. Zithromax is powerful stuff from what I gather first from the dosage. Most other antibiotics g would have to take every couple of hours. Zithromax only needed one does every 24 hours. We were also cautioned to give her exactly the amount prescribed, no more no less. The length of time taken was also shorter than the usual 10 days. Zithromax needed to taken only for 5 days. The cost was also pretty astronomical considering that we still had to shell out $40 despite having insurance coverage. I wonder what the actual price would have been without insurance.

Well, g took the prescribed dosage and the prescribed time. I noticed all these changes in her (see previous post - am i a nervous nellie?). She developed an even worst attitude. She was just generally unhappy with everything. She would cry at the drop of a hat. We had a baby playdate last Saturday and she refused to play really and just kept to herself. Over dinner she had a complete meltdown, refusing to eat and screaming.

While on the drugs she also developed this horrible hacking cough. She coughed so hard that she almost shook the crib just from the strength of each cough. it was horrible to hear. The cough would wake her up at night.

Her appetite also became non-existent. Yesterday she had a couple of grapes, a few glasses of milk and half a bowl of rice. Usually that's more like her snack. Side note - it could very well be that she is moving into her picky eater stage. I will wait and see on this one.

Yesterday she is finally done with the drug and the change was dramatic on two fronts. She was once again a happy little girl, running around, playing, singing and affectionate. Last night, she slept through the night without a cough.

Now before you say that, "oh..the drug must have cured it" g is actually back to her original occasional cough. So in a way we are back where we started.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My name is Wesley Brown and i would like to show you my personal experience with Zithromax.

I am 45 years old. Have been on Zithromax for 2 days now. I took this drug (generic azithro 500 mg bid) to get rid of an 2+ week old sinus infection that did not clear with decongestants and antihistamines. The drug made a substantial difference within 2 days. I'm a physician and needed to return to work, and the tiredness was just excessive, so I stopped the drug after 48-72 hours. The infection did not return. I would take this drug again if I needed to kill off an infection. I don't expect to feel good all the time. If a drug is making me healthy in a particular way, it's up to me to weigh that benefit against the cost of side effects.

I have experienced some of these side effects -
Fatigue. I just didn't want to move or get out of bed while on the drug; it was a bit hard to figure out that this was an effect of the medication rather than the sinusitis. Otherwise I was fine.

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Wesley Brown