All floxed up
When Catherine Slater started taking the antibiotics that her doctor prescribed for a small infected cyst on her shoulder, she felt the worst heartburn and indigestion she’d ever had in her life.
The retired schoolteacher from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was not about to let a little “discomfort” dissuade her from following her doctor’s orders, however. “I just drank lots of water, gritted my teeth and carried on. After all, it was only for a week.”
Two weeks later, however, the gray and orange pills were gone, but Catherine’s vague gut symptoms continued off and on. She ignored the nausea and stomach pain one morning and set out with her husband to have lunch with friends, but as the day went on, she felt worse. She couldn’t finish her meal, and later she was alarmed to discover that her urine was very dark brown. She dug out the flucloxacillin package insert she had kept because of her earlier symptoms and found a statement about the “rare” side-effect of liver damage that could be fatal in people over 50.
Handed a sample of her urine the next day, her doctor dismissed Catherine’s suggestion that she had liver damage; he was certain she only had a urinary tract infection. She insisted he test her liver, however, and when the results came back, she
