Finished my 2 weeks of antibiotics Macrobid and Vantin yesterday.
Am still praying that the E. coli bacteria has now been killed in my body's blood stream.
E. coli is a less serious problem in the urinary tract, but if it spreads to the bloodstream it causes bacteremia, which can lead to a dangerous drop in blood pressure called septic shock. Bacteremia is associated with a death rate of about 10 percent. The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), which grows naturally in the human digestive tract, is a leading cause of urinary tract infections. Medical researchers have long known that E. coli is also a cause of blood stream infection.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) are gram-negative bacteria that can survive in an environment with or without air (facultative anaerobes) and, depending on the environment, may or may not produce thin hair-like structures (flagella or pili) that allow the bacteria to move and to attach to human cells. These bacteria commonly live in the intestines of people and animals worldwide. There are many strains (over 700 serotypes) of E. coli.
Most of the E. coli are normal inhabitants of the small intestine and colon and do not cause disease in the intestines (non-pathogenic). Nevertheless, these non-pathogenic E. coli can cause disease if they spread outside of the intestines, for example, into the urinary tract (where they cause bladder or kidney infections, or into the blood stream (sepsis). Other E. coli strains (enterovirulent E. coli strains or EEC) cause "poisoning" or diarrhea even though they usually remain within the intestine by producing toxins or intestinal inflammation.
“We’re all beginning to see more and more sepsis as a result of resistant bacteria after prostate biopsies,” said Peter T. Scardino, chief of surgery at the Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which does about 2,000 of the tests annually. “This is an extremely worrisome problem.”
Doing a tissue biopsy of the prostate to detect cancer typically entails sending an ultrasound-guided needle about a dozen times through the rectum to collect specimens from the walnut-sized gland that sits under the bladder. The test carries an infection risk because the needle can take bacteria from the bowel into the prostate, bladder and bloodstream. The 15-minute procedure, usually performed in a doctor’s office, can be dangerous if the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics given at the time of the biopsy.
The American Cancer Society changed its guidelines in 2010 to reflect a growing body of research suggesting screening tests may do more harm than good in some men. The cancer group said patients should be warned of the risk of misleading tests results and treatment side effects, which might in some cases cause more damage than the slow-growing disease.
Macrobid is used to treat urinary tract infections. It works by interfering with various chemical processes in the bacteria, which results in the death of the bacteria. Macrobid (nitrofurantoin) is an antibiotic that fights bacteria in the body. Nitrofurantoin is an antibiotic which is often used against E. coli.
Vantin [Cefpodoxime] is an oral third generation cephalosporin antibiotic. It is marketed as the prodrug cefpodoxime proxetil by Pharmacia & Upjohn under the trade name Vantin and under the name Orelox by [[Sanofi-Aventis]; PECEF in Dr Reddy's (Farhaad)]. It is active against most Gram positive and Gram negative organisms. It also finds use as oral continuation therapy when intravenous cephalosporins (such as ceftriaxone) are no longer necessary for continued treatment.
While I was in the hospital I was on IV Vancomycin and IV Gentamicin.
Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic used in the prophylaxis and treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. It has traditionally been reserved as a "drug of last resort", used only after treatment with other antibiotics had failed, although the emergence of vancomycin-resistant organisms means that it is increasingly being displaced from this role by linezolid (Zyvox) available PO and IV and daptomycin (Cubicin) IV and quinupristin/dalfopristin (Synercid) IV.
Gentamicin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic, used to treat many types of bacterial infections, particularly those caused by Gram-negative organisms. However, gentamicin is not used for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis or Legionella pneumophila. Gentamicin is also ototoxic and nephrotoxic, with this toxicity remaining a major problem in clinical use.
It is synthesized by Micromonospora, a genus of Gram-positive bacteria widely present in the environment (water and soil). To highlight their specific biological origins, gentamicin and other related antibiotics produced by this genus (verdamicin, mutamicin, sisomicin, netilmicin, retymicin) generally have their spellings ending in ~micin and not in ~mycin. Gentamicin is a bacterial antibiotic that works by binding the 30S subunit of the bacterial ribosome, interrupting protein synthesis.
Like all aminoglycosides, when gentamicin is given orally, it is not systemically active. This is because it is not absorbed to any appreciable extent from the small intestine. It is administered intravenously, intramuscularly or topically to treat infections. It appears to be completely eliminated unchanged in the urine. Urine must be collected for many days to recover all of a given dose because the drug binds avidly to certain tissues.
E.coli has shown some resistance to gentamicin, despite being Gram-negative. Reluctance to use gentamicin for empirical therapy has led to increased use of alternative broad-spectrum antibiotics, which some experts suggest has led to the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections by Golden Staph and other so-called "superbugs".
Thanks to God for his grace and to all my family and friends for their faithful prayers and support during this time of uncertainty.
Bruce Chambers
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