Antibiotics use in lukemia

Hi @bettersleep68 When being treated for leukemia, the body can become very immune compromised leaving a person vulnerable to infections. So it can be pretty common to be prescribed a prophylactic antibiotic during treatment until the neutrophil count returns to normal. From my own experience I was on either IV antibiotics or oral antibiotics during my months of AML chemo.
Are you taking Cipro now?

Yes....since Jan. I am concerned because I am 75 and cipro has alot of side effects .when I asked my doc...she said continue it ...I don't know if that is the right decision ....

Absolutely! The alternative could be very bad for you. People take antibiotics for years including Cipro without issues. The only time you want to stop it is when it stops working.

@bettersleep68 If you’ve been taking the medication since January and it’s working for you, now may not be the time to change horses in the middle of the stream. Ciprofloxacin and Levofloxacin are often given to chemo patients who have low neutrophils. There are other antibiotics but some are more geared toward specific bacteria and may not fully protect you during your chemo. Those two are the go-to antibiotics for neutropenia.

I can definitely understand your concern for long term use of some drugs. The black box warning for some of the meds I took should have come with their own warnings…’reading might cause trauma’. 😉
We, along with our doctors, have to weigh reward/risk with the medications. I know the aggressive chemotherapy I was given for my AML could potentially cause issues down the road. But by taking the treatments, I have bought at least 6 years of precious time already that I wouldn’t have had. I’d have been pushing up daisies from the underside for many years by now.
For you with your seriously impacted immune system, it’s vital to reduce the risk for infections. Long term antibiotics can help give you an ‘artificial immune system’ to keep you healthy. Is this helpful?