Any Experience with Ciprofloxacin?

History of Bronchiestases and COPD.

I have been sick for 3 of the last 4 months...and almost continually for the last 2 months. Started as cold like for couple of weeks...get better for a couple of days and then come down again. It developed into a severe sinusitis type infection. Early nasal swab and more recent sputum showed nothing sinister although no AFB testing was done.

A course of Azrithromycin was followed by Amoxicillin and then 2 rounds of Augmentin (because of a skin infection I also had – plunging hands into potting mix while I had some broken skin). While initially these antibiotics seemed to help they didn't kill whatever is ailing me.

At one point on a weekend I tried the young 'on call Dr' at my local clinic and he said I needed to switch antibiotics and put me on Cefuroxine, gave me a referral for chest Xray to rule out Pneumonia, and a referral for ent scope of my throat area...because one of the symptoms I have been experiencing is the feeling of my throat closing and stopping my breathing. (Have decided to leave the scoping for the moment).

I woke the next morning with laryngitis type symptoms and shortness of breath on walking.

The Xray and a subsequent blood test for inflammation markers came back negative (however I had also been on a 5 day Prednisolone course).

The pulmonary rehabilitation program I have previously been doing had suggested that nebulising hypertonic may be causing some of my excess mucus problems (up to 3 cups daily) and so I did cut down to 2 or 3 times a week for a while there, but back to once a day now. Doctors have found no reports of chest noises.

Yesterday I managed to get in to see a more senior GP I used to see and he strongly recommended I go straight on to a long course of Ciprofloxacin immediately to DRENCH all potential cavities in lungs/other non blood fed areas etc, and told me to stay on the antibiotic for a week after I am symptom free. He did warn about tendinopathy…but since I have taken the first tablet and done some research, I have discovered that it can be a very dangerous antibiotic…and I have had a bit of feedback from the LM people on Facebook, with stories of people’s problems after being on Ciprofloxacin. Understandbly they are very negative about the fact that no sputum testing for AFB/Pseudomonas was done… however the original nasal swab and subsequent ordinary sputum done between antibiotics did not show anything, unfortunately no AFB testing done.
Despite the fact that I have been on so many antibiotics and am currently on Ciprofloxacin now, AI suggested I could still submit a sputum for analysis, which I have done this morning.

It is difficult to find a GP (PCP) here in Australia, for acute events, who is really knowledgeable about Bronchiectasis, NTM, Pseudomonas etc and it can take months to get in to see a respiratory specialist.

The research article I found here is Australia about side effects of Ciprofloxacin is below.
https://australianprescriber.tg.org.au/articles/fluoroquinolone-antibiotics-and-adverse-events.html
I would love to hear any wisdom or feedback you could give me. Many thanks.
Narelle