Vancomycin Compared to Alternatives

For Bacterial Infection: I have been battling a C diff infection for a couple months now. I tried a 10 day (500mg x3) course of Flagyl which didn't seem to help much. The Flagyl seemed to increase my nausea while only slightly reducing the waves of stomach pain and didn't seem to improve the diarrhea much at all. A couple days after ending the Flagyl, I was experiencing the worst symptoms of C diff. I immediately went on Vancomycin. I just finished a 14 day course (500mgx4) of Vancomycin yesterday, which seems to have cleared up the symptoms. Vancomycin is extremely expensive (my portion was nearly $2k after insurance picked up the bulk of the cost), but after Flagyl failed, I was glad the Vancomycin seems to have worked with no noticeable side effects.

For Bacterial Infection: As a last resort I was placed on Vancomycin every 12 hrs for 7 wks to treat a post surgical MRSA staph infection. Thankfully with the help of a home health agency, I was able to administer it at home. Initially I didn't notice many side effects except feeling wore out. After 1 or 2 wks tho my chest felt very tight & taking breaths was painful. My Nurse recommended Zantac for heartburn. Honestly tho, a muscle relaxer worked better & took away those symptoms. Then a few wks into treatment I started getting bad dizzy spells. For that my nurse recommended regular V8 juice to increase my sodium. That worked great! Overall the side effects of the actual medicine wasn't too bad compared to the benefits. By wk 6/7 the staph wounds mostly cleared up.

For Bacterial Infection: Taking amoxicillin for tooth infection the first day of taking it was horrible tooth hurt more than it did before I started but I think that was the drug doing it's job trying to fight off the infection second day same situation still more pain the third day was great finally no more pain from toothache! Pain free only thing is I woke up with swollen gums. Side effects from this drug is hard to bare especially for me since I work 9-9. I was very tired on daily basis my body was weak , stomach pain, woke up in the middle of night not being able to sleep. I mean side effects were horrible but I only had to take This drug for 7 days until I was able to get the tooth pulled . Thank God

For Bacterial Infection: I was prescribed 875 mg 2x per day for a boil. Very good med, cleared my boil in 4 days.

For Urinary Tract Infection: I was placed on this antibiotic because Bactrim gives me nasty side effects and I told my doctor that so she gave me this. Never been on this for a UTI before and I’ve had a UTI every 4 months almost ON THE DOT for the past 2 years. Literally have been to urgent care 4/3, was just back there on 9/3. so about every 4-5 months I’m back there. Anyway, she put me on this one and so far the only major side effect is that I’ve had trouble sleeping and my feet get really dry. ALSO THE WORST ONE is that urgency to pee is just hanging around, like I still have a UTI or something, and I’m on day 4 out of 5 of treatment. Just hoping this awfulness ends soon. I bought AZO urgency pain relief pills and those always help.

For Urinary Tract Infection: No huge side effects yet. Just took third dose. I already have anxiety so that side effect I can deal with. Hoping my UTI will start clearing up soon. This is my first time taking this drug. I will comment back with results and updates in a few days. 30 year old male.