The way that you know you're having an allergic reaction to an antibiotic is based on the symptoms. It's important to distinguish side effects, as opposed to an allergic reaction. Side effects would be an upset stomach, diarrhea, nausea, maybe a little bit of a skin rash if you've been out in the sun, which is called photosensitivity. Those would be side effects. An allergic reaction is a little more serious.
In an allergic reaction you can have things such as hives, itching, a skin rash. That can develop into something even more severe known as an anaphylactic reaction. This is a very serious reaction involving symptoms such as nasal congestion, shortness of breath, a rapid heartbeat, a drop in blood pressure. These are very serious things and would require immediate attention.
It's very important not to ignore an allergy to antibiotics because they can get more severe as time goes on. Your body builds antibodies against that particular antibiotic, and so the response of your immune system is stronger every time and can shorten the length of time it takes. It can result in death even in just minutes if you ignore it.
It's important to note that symptoms can present in a variety of ways. It can happen in as short as moments, or one to two hours. It can even happen up to eight days to two weeks later after an antibiotic is finished. So again, if those symptoms do present, you would want to let your provider know right away.
Antibiotics are much needed medications when it comes to our healthcare, but it is important to note that they can be dangerous, and if you have had an allergic response to an antibiotic in the past and you ignore that, it can cause severe problems, even up to death.
If you are allergic to one antibiotic, we certainly can choose from a different class of antibiotics. There are a multiple range of antibiotics to choose from. So just be sure and let your provider know if you've had an allergy in the past.
It's really important not to overuse antibiotics because while antibiotics do kill the bad bacteria, they also kill the good bacteria that we naturally have to fight with our immune system. So if we overuse them, we're destroying our body's natural defenses in making it possibly harder to fight future infections. It also can cause us to have less of an immune response to normal allergies.
That's why we're seeing a lot more allergies because antibiotics were so over-abused 20 years ago and some docs have still stayed on that, "if you walk in, I'll just give you an antibiotic," work. We've killed our normal flora, so we can't fight allergies as much.
