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My husband, 2 sisters, and a niece were all diagnosed with viral bronchitis and pneumonia - the contagious kind. They were all told by their doctors to stay away from people, especially from me, for the first few days. I think it may be too late, because we just had a family reunion over the weekend. I was around ALL of them quite a bit. Lots of hugging, too...

My husband's pharmacist told me that this bug only incubates for a couple of days, so it will reveal its presence in me soon if I have it.

My question is: Are antibiotics safe for me to take? My GI doctor said there shouldn't be a problem, but I wonder....

I am currently in remission, solid BMs with no blood, feeling kinda normal, and taking Asacol HD 800mgx6 daily. Also I have 2 days left on my 10mg of prednisone (then finished with that particular nightmare).

 Reply posted for alanschachter.

Thanks everybody! I'm sure glad that Tylenol isn't my only option. I hate medicines, including Tylenol. I refuse to treat my pain with any meds most of the time. I believe my headache was a "lack-of-sleep headache." I always treat those with a babysitter for my kids, a dark room, and silence.... nothing more. I guess the withdrawal of prednisone may have been the cause of this "can't sleep" issue, but I have finally slept well and shaken the pain.

 Reply posted for Jessi Messy.

Be careful that when you tell your doctors you have pain that they don't just keep prescribing the heavy duty stuff without addressing your issue. I went to a GI doctor, and I'm not sure if they were just sick of me coming in and complaining that I still had pain, or they weren't well educated about IBD (in which case I don't get how they are even in practice), or I just don't know why else, but they just kept prescribing pain meds, meanwhile my inflammation got worse and worse until I finally saw someone else who would do something about it.

I had a CT tech tell me before that all Crohn's patients are addicted to pain medication. Well, duh, of course it looks that way when the doctors from that group were all just trying to cover up they symptoms, get us high, and get us out of their hair or whatever their plan was. I ended up needing surgery, but I have not taken, or needed to take anything for pain since my 3rd day post op... and even then it was Tylenol, not Tramadol, or morphine, or dilaudid. If you need strong stuff to get you through a short time period, then that's what those meds are there for, but not even Tylenol should be used on a routine basis. Pain is one of our bodies' ways of telling us something's wrong, so to me my docs were slackers for trying to just cover it up instead of fixing the real problem.

(sorry that whole post kind of turned out to be off topic... I just saw the Tylenol post and decided I'd share.)

 Reply posted for NeverEnding.

Thanks so much for your feedback. And thanks to Alan, too. I guess Tylenol is my only option for pain, eh?

 Reply posted for Jessi Messy.

I'm pretty sure that levaquin is commonly prescribed for pneumonia. I've taken levaquin during a Crohn's flare, but not for that type of infection, and I was perfectly fine with it. I actually haven't had trouble with any antibiotics,  the only downside was that while on some IV antibiotics during a flare I had a problem with diarrhea, and odd as it sounds I never have experienced diarrhea with my CD other than when I have been on IV ABT. Still, I'd rather have a few days of diarrhea than let an infection run rampant.

 Reply posted for katya.

Sorry... I should've been more clear: viral bronchitis, bacterial pneumonia was the diagnosis.

Thank you for your help, Katya.

So far, it has not presented itself in me. Crossing my fingers...

But I have a headache that I have not been able to shake for almost a week. Can I take a painkiller? I usually don't take meds for pain. And this IBD thing is still new to me. Acetaminophen? Ibuprofin? Naproxin?

 Reply posted for Jessi Messy.

If it is a virus: antibiotics won't help.  If it is bacterial infection:

question the doctor and the pharmacist if they are prescribing antibiotics that are gentle on the gut.  
Make sure to take lots of  quality probiotics now and during and after antibiotics.   The probiotics can help repopulate the gut with good flora; and are a good idea in general. I take extra vigilantly if I have been ill, suffered from liquid guts, and any time that I have procedure that requires any type of prep like a barium ct or any type of endoscopy/colonoscopy.