Bactrim and cipro

I have been having recurring UTIs and I had taken Cipro which did not clear up the first infection. My doctor prescribed Bactrim and wanted me on it for two weeks.

During the first week, I would feel dizzy for 2-3 hours after taking a dose. I had body aches as well, but thought I was getting the flu.

At the beginning of the second week, I broke out in hives. I have very sensitive skin and figured I had touched something that irritated my skin. I took benadryl and the symptoms went away.

The next day I broke out again, this time worse, and I noticed I had hives all over my body including on my feet and on my head- (which alarmed me, because I now realized it was coming from something inside). I thought it was something I ate. I took benadryl when I got home from work and they went away.

The day after that, I broke out again, and a co-worker mentioned that she had an allergic reaction from Bactrim and I should check online. Her reaction was dizziness and feeling sick to her stomach, but I looked anyway. When I saw that hives a side effect I called my doctor. They told me to stop taking the Bactrim and that I was allergic to it.

It will be a week tomorrow that I stopped taking Bactrim, and I still have hives everywhere. Last night, my entire back was covered with a red sunburn-looking rash with long snake-like hives. My boyfriend says the hives look like worms under my skin.

I would suggest to anyone that has any kind of reaction (dizziness, headache, body ache, rash, hives, etc.) to call their doctor ASAP. I should have know to call when they were making me dizzy in the first week, but sometimes you don't realize what is going on until you have severe symptoms. Doctors should tell people about the possible side effects when they prescribe this stuff.

Oh my God, a few days ago i went to ER at 3:30 in the morning cause i felt like i was gonna die and my leg hurt. of course they didn't care to check my leg, but they said i have UTI so i am on Bactrim right now. the first two days were fine, but now i feel as if i'm gonna die seriously. I feel like i have high fever (i don't have a thermometer) my eyes feel as if they're gonna burst out of my skull and my throwt is dry and just dry. my body is ackeing and i feel dizzy. Does anyone know if you can die from bactrim>? should i finish taking the doses given to me to take the UTI away? what do i do? my husband is already frustrated with my ackying but i seriously feel pain. any advice?

I am prone to getting uti's. I usally take cipro with no side effects and goes away with in 2 days. I went to a different dr. this time and she prescribed my bactrim. I cant believe this drug is still on the market. The first day i was fine, the second day i woke up with a major headache. I ignored cause at the time i didn't know it was from this medication. As the days went on the headache was still there and nothing seem to help it. I stared becoming dizzy all the time. On the third or forth day i became violently ill. Fever, chills, throwing up, dizzy, my entire body was sore and could not get rid of this headache. It last for about a week. When i went back to see the doctor. She told me it wasn't from the drug. I KNOW IT WAS!!! It wasn't until my husband did some research on this drug and found out i was having a allergic reaction to the bactrim. I will never take this medication again and believe it should be taken off the market.

Oh my God, where to start. The past few months I have gone through some crazy things from prostitis to having 2 cystoscopy's performed. This past weekend the scab came off the biopsy location in my bladder and blad pretty badly. It caused a large clot to block off my bladder and I could not urinate. In the ER they found a lot of bacteria in my urine and prescribed Bactrim.

Let me just say the past few months have been NOTHING last the past few days on Bactrim. First it was the crazy dreaming. Dreams that were so outlandish, yet so real it was quite frightening.

On day 2 of taking Bactrim I started to itch. It has been quite cold here in Jersey so I chalked it up to the usual dry winter skin. On day 3 I woke up (after minimal sleep) with a sore throat and chest congestion. I then found that the itching grew immensely in intensity and now was adorned with red bumps.

This rash was mainly on my upper arms and lower legs. I scratched at it so badly I drew blood, I have never felt itchy like this. This is ITCHY....EVIL ITCHY!

I woke up on day 4 the same, took another dose of Bactrim (dose #8). As I swallowed the pill something told me "Hey, I bet this pill is causing all your problems." After some research, viola! I found information online that pretty much assured me I was correct.

I went to the doc today and he advised me to take 1 Zyrtec a day and prescribed me Prednisone. I just hope this itching stops soon because I am making a mess of myself with all this scratching.

How could a pill like this be on the market and be utilized as much as it is. The testaments on this site are amazing and stunningly all similar.

Bactrim is undoubtedly the worst prescription I have ever taken or have read up on. To whoever reads this, if you are prescribed Bactrim use one of the rubber test gloves in your doctors office and slap him/her across the face with it. Dealing with the pending lawsuit would be better on you than dealing with the side effects of this drug.

i've been on bactrim dm for about a week now (2 doses/day for 14 days) for a possible MRSA infection (should know the results tomorrow...hopefully). about 2 or 3 days into it, i felt extremely lethargic and achy (all my joints were sore and almost 'warm'). woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago with my entire tongue feeling numb and the base of my skull hurting like hell and my lymph nodes on the back of my neck swelling and sore to the touch. since then, i've had chronic pain in this area. after reading some of the posts here, i decided to stop my dose until i could speak to my doctor since i wasn't able to speak to him yet today, i decided to resume bactrim until i can get on something else. it's a terrible feeling being trapped between treatment for a potential MRSA infection and stopping treatment because of the possibility of serious side effects. i just took another dose moments ago and am honestly worried i've made a mistake. but what choice do i have when faced with the possibility of an infection that is also very serious? i can't do nothing...

i honestly don't have a lot of options with a MRSA infection...i see people on here mentioning cipro or levaquin, but these also have tons of posts on here about crazy side effects.

this past week has been a living nightmare...

i hope those of you who have experienced such terrible problems with bactrim will find something that helps you...

Hi Gang,
I have a problem of my own with bactrim, but I want to start this post by saying I am an emergency room physician assistant and I prescribe bactrim all the time due to a number of reasons - one, it does, according to state guidelines, cover MRSA (people misunderstand that MRSA is a PENICILLIN resistant staph - but USUALLY responds to bactrim, levaquin, or cipro (ciprofloxacin). And two, traditionally bactrim is the cheapest and I personally try my best to keep my patients costs down (I have 6 kids and even I cannot afford the $800 a month cost just for insurance so we put money in a health savings account and pay cash for everything - though we rarely go for just "colds" like so many do). But I developed a UTI which tend to be real bad in men as we do not get them as much as women do - this is due to the urinary tract and anatomy differences. Almost ALWAYS a UTI is from E. COLI 80-90% of the time - don't let that scare you as it is a normal digestive enzyme - but outside of the digestive tract or if exposed to an outside source like bad meat - it cause infection), why that matters is some antibiotics, like zithromax, do not cover that bacteria.

Well, to the point. I started on it for my UTI, normal dose, 2 times a day. I noticed I was having some weird dizziness and even slurred speech - no rash. I noted in this blog that people worry SO MUCH about the rash, but the rash is usually not any big deal. We see it, but unfortunately what we see scares us more than what may be going on silently inside of us!

So I have these symptoms and now I have a lump under my jaw that I can hardly open my mouth and still slurred speech. The Mrs thinks I am taking something else or who knows what, but I almost felt like a stroke. No headache, some nausea at times, but no rash. The jaw pain and I guess a left side neck pain are pretty intense today. I am stopping the bactrim and I promise I will be a bit more sensitive to others who I prescribe it to! I was looking for side effects and came across this blog.

Jamie B. PA-C******

Your website helped me know that I was not dying or crazy when I was prescribed to Bactrim. I went to an Urgent care facility to treat a UTI. I have had them in the past and figured it would be a quick fix. The prescribed Bactrim twice per day for 7 days. After the first day I developed a sore throat. After the second day my body began to ache a bit. After the third day, I almost collapsed from faintness. I stopped taking the medication because of how it was making me feel and since I saw NUMEROUS online complaints (like this site) on how awful the medication was. I though I would feel better after stopping the medication but it only got worse. That is when I developed a fever with severe flu like symptoms and also vaginal sores. I was confined to my bed for two days and this was two days after I stopped the medication. After day three of no medication I began to feel better. Today (day 5 of no medication) I went to see my PCP( which is an internal medicine doctor who I should have just went to to begin with). He said I would be fine and I am allergic to Sulpha drugs. He also stated that mosts UTI's clear after three days of treatment. In addition he stated that most women have resistance and reactions to Bactrim and that Cipro would have been a better choice. Although Bactrim is a lot cheaper than Cipro. I would NEVER recommend Bactrim to anyone!!! I thought I was dying! I am getting tested for STD's incase that is why I have sores (highly doubtful) but I'll let you know.

BACTRIM ALMOST KILLED MY MOM.

BACTRIM CAUSED POTASSIUM LEVEL INCREASED SO HIGH THAT MY MOM HAD GONE INTO CARDIAC ATTACK. LUCKILY, DOCTOR AT ER RECOGNIZED HER CAUSE OF PROBLEM WAS FROM SIDE EFFECT OF BACTRIM AND HE TREATED HER ACCORDINGLY BUT SHE WAS IN COMA FOR 11 HOURS BEFORE SHE CAME BACK AROUND.

WHEN MY MOM HEART WENT INTO CARDIAC ARREST, IT HAD HAPPENED WHILE SHE WAS RIGHT IN EMERGENCY ROOM. I BROUGHT HER IN ER BECAUSE HER VOICE WAS BROKEN UP WHEN SHE TRIED TO TALK THEN 45 MINUTES AFTER WE ARRIVED AT ER, HER HEART GAVE OUT ON HER. SHE WOULD NOT BE ALIVE IF SHE WAS NOT IN HOSPITAL WHEN THAT HAPPENED.

BACTRIM ALSO DESTROYED HER BLOOD CELL, HER BLOOD NORMAL LEVEL WAS 10 BUT IT WENT DOWN TO 6.2 IN 11 HOURS ORDEAL. SHE HAD TO RECEIVE TWO PINTS OF BLOOD TO BRING HER BLOOD LEVEL BACK TO OUT OF DANGER LEVEL. I AM USING A LAY TERM BUT I KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO MY MOM.

MY MOM IS STILL NOT OUT OF HER DANGER YET BECAUSE HER BLOOD PRESSURE IS NOW SOARING FROM HER NORMAL LEVEL AROUND 110/65 TO A CURRENT OF AROUND FROM BETWEEN 140/80 TO 180/100. SHE JUST BEING DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL ONLY 2 DAYS AGO.

BACTRIM WAS PRESCRIBED TO MY MOM BY A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANCE IN EMERGENCY ROOM WHEN MY MOM CAME IN FOR CELLULITES ON HER FOOT AND SHE WAS ALMOST DIED FROM ITS SIDE EFFECTS OF BACTRIM AFTER SHE TOOK IT FOR 7 DAYS.

I SYMPATHIZE WITH THE LADY WHO LOST HER HUSBAND BY SIDE EFFECTS OF BACTRIM.

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE BACTRIM UNTIL YOU READ ALL ABOUT SIDE EFFECTS AND ASK YOUR DOCTOR FOR OTHER ALTERNATIVE DRUG.

Took it for 30 days for prostate infection. Fixed it, but then like an idiot I took Nyquil for a cold/flu which caused enlargement of prostate and subsequently backwash of urine which infected prostate again. Then took Cipro for two weeks, then Flomax to shrink prostate for 1 month. Infection came back. Starting on Bactrim for another 30 days.
When taking Bactrim for first two weeks only had dry-mouth. When I refilled at different Walgreens (this one in Marietta, GA) I immediately got bad headaches. These only lasted a day or two, then back to dry mouth.
Please note: was taking sulfameth/trimethoprim, the GENERIC form of Bactrim.