Went to the walk in clinic this morning about the underarm wound. The doc there said slight infection and prescribed me Fluctoxacillin. Just been reading warnings and precautions - there are interactions with ibuprofen and paracetamol, so now I am in a dilemma whether I should wait another day to speak 1st with breast specialist nurses before starting the fluctoxacillin and continue with paracetamol, or stop paracetamol and start ABs
It being a bank holiday no one to contact at GP or hospital.
Given the infection, starting antibiotics asap would be a good idea. While I’m not an expert, you’ve had lymph nodes removed (I presume SNB) and the lymph glands and nodes help fight infection, so I would have thought best to zap it by starting the antibiotics.
What does the info say about any interaction? How much pain do you currently have, since the other option could be to reduce the painkillers and take the antibiotics to fight the infection…which if it was me, would be my priority.
You should be able to find contact details of a chemist near you which is open via the NHS website link below:
Alternatively, if you want to ring a chemist where you can be 99.9% sure to get to speak to a pharmacist today, I’m in a city, and have previously been to this Med Chem chemist before and found them to be very good and helpful.
You can ask to speak to a pharmacist on the phone (they are usually well staffed so should pick up the phone) and talk through the possible interaction issue and any other painkillers. They are usually open till late, on the website it says till midnight even today.
If you explain your predicament and say that they were recommended by someone who had bc and has previously found them to be helpful…given its a bank holiday and your infection I’m sure they would put you onto the pharmacist for advice. Weblink:
I would not hold off starting antibiotics if there is a slight chance of infection. Ibuprofen should be fine. And a few days of paracetamol should be ok as long as you don’t have liver problems just now anyway. Ideally you could change to codeine instead. If pain is manageable in ibuprofen alone just go with that until you can get pain relief reviewed but I’d say antibiotics are essential in my opinion