Lyme Disease Support Group

please copy my edited version above to the TIPS forum as well; we all look in various places.

thanks for sharing your personal experiences and what you learned the hard way. hugs/kisses

bettyg, iowa leader

I have a horrible time with Ceftin, I need to look into the brand now..

You are very welcome! I will copy and paste the edited version into the TIPS forum. The edited version was easier for me to read, too! Thank you for doing that

Tennessee -

Did you find out which brand you're taking? Mine said it right on the bottle. If you're going to go down the route of trying to get a different brand, you may have to switch pharmacies, if that's possible for you.

What I found out later when I asked for a different brand is that Walgreens claimed to only carry the (bad) brand, and so they "couldn't" swap my SEALED (like with the little aluminum foil peel under the cap!) bottles of Ceftin with the brand I asked for.

Considering that pharmacies often use one another when they run out of a drug and can't wait for a shipment from their warehouse, I don't understand why they couldn't "get" the brand I wanted (i.e., they could have called CVS and requested X amount of Ceftin from them, which would have been the brand I'd asked for).

My doctor rewrote the prescription for me, and CVS talked to my insurance and explained that I couldn't tolerate the brand from Walgreens I received and my insurance allowed them to refill the entire prescription.

Here is how I take Ceftin (the smooth pill, NOT the chalky one)

I take a drink of water and hold it in my mouth (it can't be a huge gulp for this to work), then sort of pop the Ceftin in my mouth sideways so that the side of my tongue and cheek sort of catches it. Then I immediately flick it back towards my throat with my tongue and swallow. It's very quick and reminds me of ping pong with the way the pill bounces around.

If I let the smooth pill sit in my mouth too long, it does start disintegrating fairly quickly. Whatever is on the outside of this smooth pill gives you more leeway than with the chalky version, but it's still a time crunch to swallow it before it dissolves. I choked on one the other day because I got too lazy about it. I tried doing the same technique with the chalky pill and it immediately got stuck on the side of my tongue and cheek. It's like as soon as you put that pill in your mouth, it starts disappearing!!!