Persistant Cough Triggered by Vaccination and Unaffected by Antibiotic Treatment

Almost 3 weeks ago I received a vaccination at around 16:30 for bacterial meningitis in compliance with college housing regulations so I could move in to the dormitories. Beginning at around 20:00 that night, I started having a severe bout with what I thought was my seasonal allergies. However, it did not clear up, and got worse; it kept me from sleeping, and sometime around 03:00 I stumbled out of bed disoriented and collapsed on the floor in a severe coughing fit, choking on and coughing up phlegm and bile. I took two benadryl and a shot of brandy and went back to bed, finally knocked out around 04:00.

I had to get up at 06:00, so I only got about 2 hours of sleep, but apart from my exhaustion I seemed to do ok that day.... However, the day after that, I came down with a very persistent and largely unproductive hacking cough, combined with stuffed up sinuses and a very raw sore throat. I self-medicated the symptoms with ibuprofen, pseudofed, cough drops and in the evenings, benadyl, for about 2 days before going to see a doctor.

He said I didn't have any signs of strep throat or flu, and since I didn't have a fever to just see if it cleared up on its own and come back in a few days.

2 more days down the road, I came back, as only the sore throat had cleared up, and my coughing was getting in the way of my work and studies. He said he expected it to be a pathogenic form of mycoplasma, and gave me a prescription for a five-day antibiotic, azithromycin, and instructed me to keep self-medicating the symptoms.

For the first few days on the azithromycin, I took it simultaneously with a regular one-a-day men's multivitamin, as I hadn't thoroughly researched the drug interactions early on and didn't find out until after taking it on the third day that the multivitamin contained magnesium oxide as one of the primary inactive ingredients and therefore could bond with the azythromycin and prevent it from being absorbed into my system. I contacted a pharmacist upon this discovery, but was told that while it may slightly decrease the peak levels of the antibiotic in my system, it was unlikely that it would make any difference and I shouldn't worry about it.

On the last day of the antibiotics, I was starting to feel a bit better, but from then on I only went downhill again. The coughing is getting back to the point where I just can't operate normally, and it is essential that I be able to perform certain tasks in these last and next few weeks which this sickness is seriously getting in the way of.

Is there any indication of what it might be that I've come down with, and what should I do about it?

Thanks in advance.

[chigirl29]

I really don't think the immunization had much to do with it.  You could have been exposed to the bacteria earlier on and when your immune system was down a bit--you contracted the illness.

You could go back to the doctor and either have more azythromycin treatments since you might not have had the full effect of the medication, or you could ask your doctor for an alternate substitute that might work better for you.

That is what I would do if I were not better yet....