Thread: cipro at 34 weeks ...

First off, it is not my intention to scare you. I really hate responding to this post, but also feel the responsible *need* to, just so that you're informed...

Cipro has a huge side-effect profile, and has done a lot of damage to a lot of people, including myself. Just for starters, it will destroy so much good flora in the gut that it can take years to recover from, creating all sorts of secondary problems, not to mention the joint issues it is notorious for causing with longer term use. One never knows how they're going to respond to this drug, and this uncertainty factor, with such a strong drug, is what concerns me most. This stuff is used to fight anthrax.

It is a poison. It kills bacteria, both good and bad, because it is so effective at killing just about everything it touches.

I'm wondering if they cultured for the bacteria you are infected with to determine whether cipro is in it's kill profile. I'm betting they did not, and if they did not, I'd be demanding to know why. Just throwing a broad-spectrum kill drug at people enrages me because of the complications it can cause in that person's life. It's like a short-cut shotgun approach doctors take instead of finding a safer way to tackle a specific type of bacteria.

So in my opinion only, and I am not a doctor, and I basically have to say that you have to listen to your doctor and not to me, I would research Vitamin C, in ascorbic acid form, as a way of dealing with a UTI while pregnant. Some of the research I've studied has had women on mega-doses (grams) during their entire pregnancy, with increasing doses during each trimester. The C will knock out a UTI will high probability (it has for me with ease, usually within the day) but it needs to be understood and supported by the practitioner, so that the C can be maintained after birth for both you and the baby, so as to avoid rebound scurvy type events (which are rare regardless, but NEED to be understood and tended to, as C is weened off both mom and baby). Search this topic, you'll find research on it.

I personally would prefer to have any lady in my life explore just a bit of extra C to knock out the infection, keeping the amounts as low as possible, and then having her slowly reduce the amounts over a couple weeks once enough was taken to knock out the bacteria (this is even assuming it IS bacterial in nature). It seems to only cause benefits, without any harms when used responsibly. I would insist upon it over cipro without hesitation, simply because of how much damage I've witnessed cipro doing in my life, and the lives of others, while I've never seen C do any damage, with only minor side effects in a minority of people if they abruptly stop large dosages. Cipro is, only in my opinion, a horrible horrible drug. But doctors and those who support western medicine without question get very angry at me for voicing my experiences, which is all I'm doing...telling you what I've witnessed and experienced myself.

In that regard, cipro may be just fine for you and uneventful entirely. I'd also ask my favorite alternative practitioner about using probiotics during pregnancy if I used the cipro for the infection, to help repopulate the internal healthy flora destruction that the cipro will always cause by default...no way to avoid that if you use it.

Let us know what you decide, and the best to you and your little one, you'll be in my thoughts/prayers.