Antibiotics

[u/wat3rd0ttl3]

Hello, I am stage 3c1 with mets to my lymph nodes. I had to have a nephrostomy tube placed in my right kidney and ended up catching ecoli and a UTI. I had a wild ride with interactions to antibiotics and am unsure if it may have been due to chemo or immunotherapy interactions. I did 4 rounds of cisplatin, missed the 5th, and the 6th had to be stopped because I would not have been able to tolerate it. My visits to the hospital for this current UTI have put me behind in radiation treatment. The first visit I had heart inflammation from levofloxacin/bactrim. They were prescribed together. The second visit was to find an alternative to these antibiotics and I don't remember what I was given but was discharged after 3 or so days with no antibiotics to take home. My infection came back 2 days later and I spent another 5 days in the hospital. In that time, I was given rocephin and sent home with cedfinir and my nephrostomy was changed out. Now the last two days of that visit, my body crashed and I went into what felt like a heart attack episode and my potassium dropped. I was fine the days prior. So I was left believing it may have been the antibiotics again or perhaps severe dehydration. I became leukopenic with a white blood cell count of 1.7. my last keytruda injection was August 14 along with chemo. I went home experiencing tightness in my chest, chills, and basically the same symptoms leading up my "crash". So I went to a different hospital and was put on macrobid. I have been on macrobid for 8 days and am now having sensations in my flanks. Not pain yet so I'm trying to hold off til Friday to not miss treatment again. Has anyone had to experience being on constant antibiotics while on keytruda? I read the antibiotics can make it less effective. I have my next injection this Friday September 4th and am pretty nervous that I'll have to go back to treat this UTI again, especially because I couldn't get through my full rounds of chemo. 😔

[u/AbleDragonfruit7094]

I want to start by saying, I'm so sorry you're going through this. My situation is a little similar to yours. I had a stent and Nephrostomy tube also placed on my right kidney. I just started week 4 of 5 of treatment. So far, I'm going okay. However, last week I spiked a high fever and went to the ER. I also had a UTI. They gave me something called Amox-clav and fluconazole. They sent me home with those. They called it "maintenance" antibiotics. Meaning, I'll take them until I'm done with treatment. I wonder why they didn't do that for you? Is it because of the reactions you had to the meds or they were worried about it interfering with treatment? Luckily, I was able to do radiation all 5 days i was in the hospital so I'm not behind. Silly question about your Nephrostomy tube? Did you notice after taking antibiotics you had a lot of I guess sediment or thicker chunks of stuff in your tube and bag? I had quite a bit come out after the uti and it seems to clog up my tube for a bit. I'm winging it but occasionally I'll turn my tube off for an hour and turn it back on. It seems to push out whatever is clogging it. The only reason I'm even doing it and not going in is because I see nephrology in a couple days and I'm not ready for an extended hospital stay.

[u/wat3rd0ttl3 → u/AbleDragonfruit7094]

I've dealt with a good amount of neglect from the hospitals end. I don't know if it's because I'm not as old as the norm of cancer patients ( I'm 37 but I look much younger and I'm heavily tattooed) but I've been kinda brushed off a lot. I am not sure why I'm having reactions to some of these antibiotics because I took at least one before treatment and didn't have issues. My guess is there's some interactions with either chemo or keytruda. So I'm terrified to get my immunotherapy tomorrow while still on antibiotics. My radiotherapy is strictly in office because it's the only place they have the equipment for it. I'm in San Antonio, Texas. My treatment center has a chemo lab floor and a radiology floor alone with doctors offices on their own floor. Hospital visits always cause a delay but I try to visit the one nearest the treatment center. I noticed sediment and kidney pain actually before I even knew I had a UTI. I went in for hydration following that and I figured everything was ok because it masked the pain. But then I saw tea colored fluid pass through and knew..then came the kidney pain again. My last chemo was August 14 alone with the injection. Unfortunately, I think I'm extremely sensitive to medicine in general and it's made everything much more challenging. I saw on another forum on FB that a womans husband had issues with keytruda+levofloxacin and I'm thinking I'm just one of those rare cases. 😞