Anyone recently hospitalized notice this?

[dixiegrrrrl]

I was in hospital for 2 days for surgery a week ago.
I had just finished 5 days of Cipro for UTI ( a fairly common problem for women), unrelated to the surgery issue.
and told Dr. so.
The evening after surgery a nurse gave me an anti-biotic injection, and the same thing the next am, muttered something vaguely about "reducding risk of infection"
and then was discharged with a prescription for 10 days of Kaflex, another anti-biotic, again with explanation of reducing risk of infection.

It has been decades since I was in hospital last, so I am curious if such anti-biotic use is now normal?
I asked, got non-specific answers, and actually was more focused on my medical issue at the time to think much of it.

Anyone?

[mopinko]

1. roommate got a new hip a few months ago.

i dont think they sent her home on antibiotics, but they did give her a couple shots while she was in.
she did have a reaction, tho, so maybe they would have, but didnt because of that.

[gwheezie]

2. Depends on the surgery

But they don't usually send you home with an Rx.

[Ilsa]

3. There may have been a recent "rash" of nosocomial, or

hospital-acquired infections among patients. The Infection Control dept may be recommending a course of antibiotics for postop patients for a short period.

Or perhaps it was the nature of the surgery.

[tymorial]

4. It depends on the procedure

It really depends on the procedure. For example, a Rx for reflex is usually included as part of the discharge instructions for joint replacement procedures and some cosmetic surgery that involves implants (breast augmentation, cheek and chin implants etc). The use of antibiotics is a catch-22. Hospitals are concerned with reducing the rates of MRSA and yet antibiotic proliferation creates resistant strains of bacterial infections.

[Peregrine Took]

5. When I take antibiotics I always am sure to eat yogurt for at least 10 days afterwards. n/t

[Warpy]

6. It was routine for major surgery patients

a decade ago. Open either the thoracic or abdominal cavity, give antibiotics in case a stray bug gets in there so it wouldn't thrive. This was also the case for minor surgeries in diabetic patients who tended to grow infections very quickly. Joint surgery patients also got antibiotics pre and post surgery. Antibiotics for my eye surgeries were all drops.

A recent infection would be sufficient to put you into a higher risk category post op, so the Kefzol/Keflex treatment doesn't surprise me. They're very safe drugs, much safer than Cipro and cheaper than dirt.

The only thing I'd suggest is repopulating your gut with good bacteria by eating yogurt with live cultures.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Cheaper is right....4.00.

Happily I love yogurt and esp. the Greek style, with all the nice yeasty beasties in it.
In fact, dinner to night is fresh Southern peaches and yogurt and home grown tomatoes.

[Warpy]

9. I'd ask to come over, but I just finished a fiery chicken tandoori

that actually helped in this rotten triple digit heat. Oh, it did have cucumber-yogurt raita.

Just read those labels and make sure there are active cultures. Some of that stuff is Pasteurized after it ferments to increase shelf life, kind of ruining the whole idea.

Summer is when I eat Dannon vanilla by the quart, with or without fruit.

[SheilaT]

12. I was about to say the same thing, that antibiotics have been routine

for surgery patients for a very long time ago.

I'm thinking I got them after my C-sections, which took place in 1982 and 1987.

Keep in mind that it is antibiotics that made routine surgery possible, because before them infection was an ENORMOUS issue.

[Socal31]

7. Cipro for a UTI? Wasn't that once considered a "last line" antibiotic?

I remember that was what people took for Anthrax after 9/11.

The antibiotic crisis is looming large and will kill more people and much faster than even climate change.

[Warpy]

10. It seems to be the drug of choice now for UTIs

probably because it kills a few more bugs than either penicillins or cephalosporins.

[womanofthehills]

18. It's definitely overkill

Thousands of poor people online talk about how their life has been ruined by Cipro. They call it being floxed. Just put floxed in search engine - it is so sad.

I had a bad reaction to Cipro and so did my boyfriend - both of us put that we were allergic to Cipro in our dr. charts as a preventative to ever getting it again.

Most UTS's can be cured with penicillins. $10.00 for penicillin or $100.00 for Cipro.

[Warpy]

19. I was fine the first time I got it for a stubborn pneumonia

that had failed to yield to more sensible (and cheaper) drugs. I was fine, during and afterward.

Second time I took it, my toes went numb. It hasn't extended anywhere else and I never had any other symptoms with it, but I will probably avoid it in the future unless it's the only drug in the world that will work on what ails me.

[MFM008]

11. post surgical use of antibiotics

are common, I had 2 knee replacements and got antibiotic shots went on for weeks right in the gut.

[Warpy]

13. That was likely a blood thinner

They'd have given you antibiotics in pills.

[auntAgonist]

14. Most likely Heparin to prevent blood clots. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. You know, that might be what they were giving me

Memory is a bit fuzzy.
They also put a pair of compression stockings on me, from foot to half way up thigh, and I do remember they said something about blood clots.
Al II know the damn things were incredibly tight and actually a bit painful when being put on.

[auntAgonist]

17. They are horrible! I have them because I have chronic swelling of my ankles and legs

They are terribly painful going on and coming off

[goldent]

15. I don't know how common it is

by I got some kind of antibiotic after some internal surgery.