Doxycycline Hyclate and antibiotics

I find some of these posts interesting because it seems as if some folks either do not completely read the dosing instructions that come with all medications when they are picked up from a pharmacy or given by a doctor, or they just choose to ignore them. I have been on Doxy for six months for the treatment of Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It's been no picnic at times but I feel 100 times better than before I started it. When I started taking Doxy, I too didn't pay much attention to the dosing instructions and I learned the hard way with some uncomfortable side-effects. Here are a few recommendations from someone who has been taking this drug long-term. 1. You must eat! Eat a small snack (banana, crackers, fruit) before you take the drug. Do not take it with something that you know upsets your stomach, also do not take it with dairy or any supplements containing magnesium or iron. 2. After taking the drug, eat another small snack, same as in #1. Avoid any of the supplements or dairy listed above for at least two hours. 3. Imperative!!! Take a good probiotic regularly (30-50 billion cfu). Antibiotics are designed to kill stuff in your body. They do not distinguish between bad and good however. You need the probiotic to replace the good bacteria in your digestive tract, otherwise your body will not digest properly. I was constipated for quite some time before I figured this one out. 4. I saw a few other folks mention this one. Do not lay down immediately following taking the drug. Again, I learned the hard way, I had severe GERD for a time as well. 5. Avoid long-term sun exposure. This was the latest. My skin has always had some natural pigmentation in it for a white guy and I have not burned too easily. On the Doxy though, I found out that I burn extremely fast. I guess I will be under an umbrella at the beach in a few weeks. 6. Don't panic! This drug was made to fight infections/disease. Be prepared for some side-effects, but also don't be afraid to see your doctor if they are just unbearable. All people do not respond to medications in the same manner. What works for you or me might not work for someone else. I hope this information helps someone out there. I know it is incredibly frustrating when you are taking something to cure an illness and more things go wrong.

I'm not a person who usually has bad reactions to antibiotics but I've never been so miserable as I was taking this drug. I felt excruciating pain in my stomach all day, every day, while taking this medicine. I stopped taking it almost a week ago and I still feel like I have a big lump in my throat making it very painful to swallow. And the worst part is that it was prescribed to me "just in case", so I didn't even have to be taking it. Luckily as soon as my bloodwork came back negative for any bacterial infection things, they let me stop taking it, but like I said, I still feel ill and my throat is killing me.

I have been on 200mg per day for 7 months! Seems too long for anyone to be on an antibiotic, since antibiotics can deteriorate your gut and colon. However, I suffer from pemphigus vulgaris, which is an autoimmune blister disease, whereby the body no longer recognizes the skin as part of self and attacks it as an invader. The doxy will make me severely nauseous without food. I have experienced the burning from the inside out, tingling and new blisters from the sun because of the doxy. It has been a long run, I imagine the anxious, depressed emotions could be from the doxy, however I am unsure. Always feeling tired has been quite common. I tried to stop, especially if I were going to be in the sun, but the consequences were severe with new sores appearing from my pemphigus. So in my case apparently the benefit outweighs the risk, for now. I have noticed in my 6 month that my knees and hips are in pain. Is that a side effect of long term use of this medicine? Not that may be worthy of reconsideration, if it is responsible for joint and bone deterioration.

Severe headache, fatigue, diarrhea, and nausea, stomach pain that you wouldn't believe. I have common side-effects to most antibiotics so I wasn't worried at first but now that I have read all these posts I am getting pretty nervous. Last night I was back in the ER for the second time in three days because the lymph nodes and glands in my neck were swollen. The doctor gave me a CT scan and discovered that I had acute bilateral infections in my lymphnodes. An infection that I didn't have before I started taking the medication. This drug is horrible and I don't recommend it to anyone.

Jen
Washington State

I am taking Doxycycline for recurrent prostatitis. I have to take 100 mg twice a day for 14 days. It's definitely the worst antibiotic I've ever been on, though it does seem to be generally effective. I'm on day 10 now and I have been on two previous 14 days courses of doxycycline so I have a fair amount of experience with it.

Here are a few things I've learned:
Do NOT lay down after taking Doxy. Don't take it right before bed. You need to be upright for about an hour prior or you will almost certainly get heartburn. Also, take Doxy immediately after eating. When I don't take it with food, I become nauseous and occasionally throw up. So those are the two big ones. Eat before and stay vertical after.

In conclusion, part of the reason why it has such frequent side effects is that it is a very powerful antibiotic. Often, I think, the side effects are worse than what its supposed to be curing. I can't wait to be off it. Good luck to everyone.

I have been taking doxycycline for about 4 days now. Last night I took it right before bed, with water, and upon waking at about 1 am I felt that the pill was stuck in my esophagus. And then my stomach starting burning and acid started coming up. I still feel like the pill is lodged in there, and it is very uncomfortable. Along with this issue, I have felt rather depressed, dizzy, yeast infection, and am extremely tired. I don't really know what to do at this point. I was prescribed it for pneumonia and a double ear infection. My chest is still killing me from the pneumonia and still have trouble breathing. My doctors have not been helpful what so ever through this process. I had to actually go to the hospital for the proper diagnosis. I don't even know if it is even working for me, but I don't have health insurance and have been out of work for over a week. Can any one give me ANY advice PLEASE???!!!!!

This drug seriously needs to be pulled! its not worth ending a relationship over, i almost well was single because of it...gave me severe mood swings, depressed, made be feel not only sick but i couldnt eat anything, felt like someone was stomping on my chest, its all bull, and no one should even take this...pretty sad that every website i have been to about this drug, just says SYMPTOMS: Nausea, Headache, Dizziness, and Vomiting.

ADA needs to pull it because it does NOT do that job its supposed to. tha mood swings started off very mellow, then after 3-4 days of taking it, its coming to my attention it IS NOT me.....I was getting severely depressed when got into a fight wit my girlfriend. and i almost jumped out fo tha car at 70MPH because of this. Regardless of wut anyone says i am not right in tha head and wut not, i am so...just these so called Antibiotics messed wit my head. i erge everyone to boycott this use of this so called drug DOXYCYCLINE HYCLATE 100MG Caplets. If you wanna continue to be screwed wit, i then suggest you to stay on them for some tha symptoms are better for over half they are bad. My opinion....they are like a Anti-Depressant. If you take them and you are NOT depressed, moody, or have some kind of prob and when you start taking them you do have those probs, but if you do have those probs then you wont have tha bad probs is psychology and kinda hard to explain on wut i mean gonna have to figure it all out for your selfs. Because right now still coming clean from theese, i stopped taking them 2 days ago and still in my system a bit. so yeah i hope didn't bug anyone

I was prescribed Doxycycline 100mg tablets twice a day, for 3 to 4 months, for a skin condition (perioral dermatitis) which causes small sores to form around my mouth. After my experience with this antibiotic, I'd rather have the sores!

I took the Doxycycline twice a day for the first week with no side effects. Antibiotics always cause yeast infection, so I took Diflucan before I started treatment and didn't have that problem. On the tenth day of the Doxycycline, (two days ago) I took a tablet with a little water and went right to bed. As I have read in previous posts on here, BIG MISTAKE! It felt like a giant gas bubble just below my breastbone, in my stomach area. Not too painful, but annoying. Every time I woke up during the night, that feeling was still there. The next day, the pressure was still in that area of my stomach, and it began to feel like heartburn. This feeling persisted all day, no matter what I ate or drank, which is very unusual for me as I don't usually have stomach problems. That's when I searched the web for side effects of Doxycycline, and found this website.

After reading many posts on this site, I decided it was indeed the Doxycycline, so didn't take them yesterday. However, the bloated, burning feeling was still present last night, a full 24 hours after the last capsule had been taken.

I had read someone's post about drinking apple juice, and thought it couldn't hurt...and I'll be darned if within 15 minutes that bloated, burning feeling went away, and hasn't returned. I don't understand WHY that works - unless maybe there is residual medicine sitting in the stomach which can't be digested, and the acid in the apple juice neutralizes it, but it WORKS!

I will NOT take any more Doxycycline, and will just keep the perioral dermatitis! I didn't have the depression or fatigue I see others have had, but since I was only on the meds 10 days, maybe those symptoms didn't have time to develop.

I started taking Doxycycline on Jan 22, 2007 for Lyme Disease. I usually get nausea and/or vomiting with most antibiotics so I try and take precautions. The first day I took it I had nausea, headache, dizziness and a feeling of being "out of it". by the 3rd day the dizziness and the feeling of being "out of it" was gone but after I took it in the morning within 1/2 hour I started feeling severe esophagus pain. It's not like heartburn because it's right below my rib cage. That night I started noticing feeling like there was a lump in my throat. By the next morning the lump felt like a huge knot. Now, It hurts every time I swallow, the esophagus pain never ends. Last night I spent the night crying feeling like everything was hopeless. I thought it was just because I've been dealing with the pain from Lyme and now the pain from the medicine now that I read this message board, I wonder if the hopeless, despondent feeling is from this medication. I have 2 more weeks on this I don't think I can take it that long. I haven't eaten anything because it hurts to swallow and it burns. I cry all the time. I did not read that depression was a side effect but it seems a lot of people are experiencing the exact same symptoms. I don't know how some people have been on it so long. Just the thought of taking another is depressing me beyond belief.

Thanks so much for your advise on how to deal with the side effects of DOXY. I still have about 9 days to go for this drug and I really feel like want to stop it right now. The pill results my stomach bloating (which is why I was on this antibiotics at the first place) and fullness of my stomach, I was on and Somac at the same time, just finished Metrogyl treatment yesterday and still have about a month for Somac. I normally takes Doxy at least 3-5 hours before i sleep to prevent the upset stomach however it still affects my sleep, always wakes up very early in the morning, couldn't sleep well and feels like need to breath harder. I would like to take it in the morning but I can't because my first dose was at around evening and I can't miss that evening dose and take it the next morning instead. 9 days to go and now I am worrying about the continuous of side effects or causes other problem(upper back pain & reflux which I am experiencing now) after the treatment finished. Hopefully I m just worrying too much. God bless.

I had encephalitis or meningitis (not sure) last September. Anyway, I got a PICC line and had doxycycline running through it for nearly two months. Two weeks ago I was in terrible pain and was in the hospital because I developed blood clots in my arm and the causticity of the doxy burned the veins and surrounding tissue in my chest. I have never known a worse agony and misery. My veins were all constricted in defense mode. I read on the internet that doxy should never be given through a PICC line long term. I'm so angry with my doctor for letting this happen to me. I have Lyme disease and have suffered immensely with it for five years, but this took the cake. I HATE antibiotics!

I took 300mg of doxycycline a day for three weeks because I had Lyme Disease. It made my stomach upset but if I found if I ate a few saltine crackers with the pills it took care of the nausea. I also noticed that I became very anxious at times while on the medication. I have been off of the antibiotics now for six days and I still have a painful swollen rash on my hands. I work outside and was exposed to the sun while on Doxy and got the standard sun rash we all know about. What I don't understand is why it is getting worse now, even though I am off the antibiotics. It is so bad that I have been lathering my hands in neospirin and wrapping them with gauze to try and heal them faster, but it doesn't seem to be working.

The first few times taking this drug I had extreme nausea even though I had tolerated most previous antibiotics and pills pretty well up to this point.
I thought it was a little odd, but that it would pass.

The nausea finally did pass, but for the past two weeks I have been taking it I've been doing almost nothing but sleeping, and having extreme spells of tiredness.

Gradually every day has just gotten worse and worse than the next while on these pills. I don't want to get out of bed and lately have looked at the clock to see that I've been in bed for twelve hours at a time.

Now, I'm also in very advanced college courses. I initially attributed my sudden inaccuracy and inability to focus on the fact that I was just nervous about the courses, the material, but each day my concentration got worse, and worse and worse. It feels like I have ADD or something, which I've never had.
I felt like I was going insane when I could not even get through a page of material without wanting to jump up and shake myself around (also because of the numbness I got in my legs and arms). Not like me at all.

I have been dizzy, weak, incredibly tired and cold all the time, and entirely unable to focus all since I've started taken these pills. Unlike many of the other people's symtoms posted here, I've experienced severe chills and cold/ numbness in my whole body rather than heat? Except when I go in the sun, which then feels like I'm burning up.

Today was the last straw when I couldn't even get up out of bed, drive normally I was so dizzy, could not normally read one page of material, and the sun felt like it was burning my eyes out.

And reading some of the even worse symptoms others have had, this drug is not worth all the pain and possible permanent damage just to kill a few of these pimples.

i took my first dox tablet, 50mg. It is to treat adult acne. i am taking it because i am trying to get pregnant and this pill apparantly does not prevent that. I don't want to get a yeast infection from it because it is an antibiotics. The doctor told me that i wouldn't because it is a low dose. I am still scared. Reading all of these negative side effects that people have experienced makes me very concerned. How do we find out how safe something really is?

Geeezz, i dident realize such a WEak drug could do such thing, somone email me back if they agree, i have been taking doxycyline for a while now and they only side offects i have had is mild skin iching , here and there, and thats from the Generic brands, get the DOXYCYLINE brand (Time release capsules), all good, this drug is not a head drug... nausia vomiting as if , i have taken nearly every illegal drug and lots of legal drugs and im telling all you people doxycyline is not a drug that will do all those horible things that your saying, wake up

I was recently put on doxycycline for a possible bacteria infection. What a mistake! Isn't there enough antibiotics out there so this one is never used? Between fatigue, nausea, chest pains and trouble breathing.... I thought I was going to die. I have been off of it for two days, and I am still sick with the side effects. The worst part, is this crazy itching in my vagina and rectum. I can't even sleep! Patients everywhere beware...The doctors do not relay any of this info. This is a horrible medication.

Some of you may well have Lyme disease. Sounds like Herxheimer reactions in many of you. Basically it is a worsening/onset of symptoms, after taking antibiotics.
As Lyme spirochaetes die off, Toxins are released causing myriad symptoms. Then when you quit taking, symptoms remain, as Lyme disease needs many weeks/months of AB treatment to kill. Also take pineapple juice and acidophylus supplements/yogurt, for digestive issues. Totally quit alcohol and sugar.

I'm taking doxycycline for acne on my chest...there isn't any on my face. I'm five days into it now and I feel terrible. I vomited this morning. Now my calves are starting to hurt, I'm dizzy, have severe nausea, slight headache, and I'm weak. I'm done with this drug. I've been on many antibiotics for at one time almost two years straight...I've never had a problem like this! I'd rather have my acne.

I am taking this medication for adult acne as all other antibiotics have not worked. I have been taking it 2 times per day for about a week. I have major burning sensations in my stomach/esophagus. I have woken up twice during the middle of the night and thrown from the spasms. The second time I vomitted, there was actually blood! And they gave me this wretched medication because they said accutane would be too hard on my system?!?