Nausea, loose runny stools, or dizzines???

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Which symptom would be of most concern for a pt on antibiotics?

nausea

loose runny stools

drowsiness

or dizziness

One of my friends thinks that it's nausea because it a common side effect but I disagree because it is common and nausea won't really hurt you its just uncomfortable.

My other friend thinks its loose runny stools because it can lead to dehydration which can be deadly and I agree and part of me thinks this could be the right answer

but I'm leaning towards dizziness because its a symptom of ototoxicity and a toxcity is reportable.

What do you guys think would be of most concern?

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I would say drowsiness. To me, a change in mentation is more concerning than the other options. I feel like nausea and diarrhea are unpleasant, but often expected, SEs of abx. Dizziness is concerning as well, but if I had to choose, I'd say drowsiness as number one.

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

I do not like the question.. I do think it's written very well. With that said...many abx can cause pseudomembranous colitis..so the loose stools jumps out as troublesome. The dizziness and drowsiness can be caused by so many things and I do not immediately think of those as a side effect of antibiotics.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Use thise critical thinking skills.....which of these symptoms could cause tha patient the most harm.........diarrhea.

Diarrhea in the presence of antibiotic's is called........Pseudomembranous colitis is inflammation of the colon that occurs in some people who have received antibiotics and is sometimes called antibiotic-associated colitis or C. difficile colitis.

The inflammation in pseudomembranous colitis is almost always associated with an overgrowth of the bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), although in rare cases, other organisms can be involved and can cause the patient to experience painful, alarming symptoms and can even become life-threatening.

Pseudomembranous colitis - MayoClinic.com

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Thank you guys for the input. I ended up going with the loose stools because it does make sense that it would be the most concerning.

I'm still in the first semester of my program and I'm sure I'll get better at the critical thinking aspect of it :)

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I'm about to be a fourth semester student, and I will graduate in May. As soon as I read the question, I immediately selected loose runny stools because this can be a sign of C. Diff (an adverse effect of antibiotic therapy). You will get better at these type of questions as you progress through the program, but it will take time.

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see, i would have taken the dizziness if we assume that all these symptoms are present in one person (poor guy), because this is so often related to hypovolemia, and he could fall and crack his head. but if it's just one symptom to a customer, the gut sx tells you that something bad is happening in there now.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

loose BMs!!! Your question can go 2 ways - concern by whom? LBMs interfere with quality of life and ADLS for the pt esp if incontinence is not controll-able. (Terribly embarrassing.) This is concern BY the pt.

Cdiff is our concern FOR the pt.

Just my interpretation.

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The answer was loose runny stools. I know I'll get better at this kind of stuff as I get further along in school but picking the "most correct" answer can be tricky. Thanks again for all of your answers.

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

Id have to say the most common ones in your list would be the loose runny stools.Possibly nausea depending on the antibiotic.

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