@bluesplashgirl I am sorry to hear that you are feeling achey and tired. Many on our site have experienced the same thing with the meds. I never did 'the big 3' because I was a sissy back then. I am on maintenance antibiotics for life because I have bronchiectasis and because of that, I will always be vunerable to infections. Fortunately, I have had no side effects. (I have been on them since 2013) At my very first dr visit, I was told that he would start me on cipro and doxycycline on alternating months for 10 days each. He did the switching of the two to prevent resistance. He also said that these meds were lower tier (as in strength) and that if my mac ever became resistant , then I could be bumped up to a stronger drug. He said for me to never let a dr put me on azithromycin, for fear of mac becoming resistant to it. He wanted to save that as the last resort of big guns just in case I caught a resistant strain of mac some day. My regimen has worked so far. I have been mac-free since 2014.