What if I missed the antibiotics dose? Have you ever thought about this question? Maybe some of you get an antibiotic prescription for several days, but the others maybe have more than that, even for a long time. But if you missed your dose, do you know what to do?
No matter how hard we try to stick to our medication as scheduled, it’s human nature that sometimes makes us forget to take our medication on time, moreover, if you take it for a long-term treatment. In this article, I just want to focus to explain antibiotic medication.
Complete the course of antibiotics as prescribed. Take it as instructed by your doctor or pharmacist. Don’t stop your antibiotic midway, even if you’re feeling better. On the other hand, you can stop midway if you show allergic to the prescription you got or your pharmacist or doctor told you to stop. If you don’t have any reasons such as I mentioned earlier to stop your antibiotic prescription, it can cause namely antibiotic resistance.
Missing antibiotic doses, one dose or several doses can cause problems. How you take your antibiotic depends on the type of infections and antibiotics. It can time-dependent or concentration-dependent. If we talk about half-life, medicine with half-life can take some time to re-establish a steady level of therapeutic concentration. In contrast, if the medicine has a short half-life, the medicine loses the therapeutic concentration rapidly.
It’s important to take your antibiotic regularly. You should take antibiotics around the same time. For instance, azithromycin once a day and you take it at 1 pm, so, for the next dose take it around 1 pm as well.
There are some reasons you should not miss your antibiotic dose. First, it can make it harder for the antibiotic to treat your infection in the future because bacteria can make it immune to defeat antibiotics. Second, it can cost much money because we need more treatments including antibiotics from distinct classes that more expensive than we have before or even combination treatment. Third, it causes antibiotic resistance. The reasons I mentioned not only happen when you miss the doses of the antibiotic but also when you stop your antibiotic medication midway. Once again, don’t stop your medication midway if you don’t have urgent reasons.
Antibiotics are taken once a day, 2 or 3 or 4 times a day. For example, if you take 3 times a day, thus 3 times a day over 24 hours, you take it every 6 hours. Take it as scheduled to maintain a steady level of your antibiotics in the bloodstream. Nevertheless, if you miss your dose by mistake, these some things you should do:
Take your antibiotic regularly, do the tips above to keep you take your antibiotic on time. Complete the course of antibiotics, don’t stop it half-way even if you’re feeling better, don’t miss an antibiotic dose for any reasons to avoid re-infection or antibiotic-resistant. Keep out of your mind to take your antibiotic in the past for your present or future sickness without a prescription from your physician.
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