As a senior, I have taken many antibiotics (when necessary) over the years and never had that problem.

The concept that if you take antibiotics now they won't work in the future is one that my doctor said happens very infrequently.

Bill, thanks for posting this.

Whilst it's now clear that these side effects have been known for several years I had not specifically registered in my head that, should I feel pain or swelling in a tendon, that I should stop taking the Cipro. That's a good mental note to have and one I'll probably scribble onto my medical travel sheet.

Carrie, I don't know but anyone else but I certainly wouldn't go straight onto Cipro at the first sign of diarrhoae. I don't bother with pepto or probiotics but I would certainly try immodium as a first step. That often does the trick. As I have a rather sensitive digestive system (including IBS that often causes diarrhoae rather than the more common constipation) I certainly would not want to be popping Cipro at the first sign of diarrhoae or I'd certainly not be heeding the advice not to over-use the drug!

However, if the diarrhoae shows no signs of abating after 2 or 3 doses and if it is a very bad case, then I'll turn to the Cipro.

I've probably had to do so maybe 3 times over the past several years and it's worked extremely quickly in all but one of those cases (and for that one I was hospitalised overnight so they could pump in some drug or other via a drip which eventually sorted me out).

Thanks for the warning. I hope I do not need Cipro, but if I do and I feel pain in my feet or joints, I'll stop.

Cipro is a last resort. Pepto and Imodium handle my rare stomach problems.

I think it really boils down to getting specific advice from your travel doctor, about what to do in various scenarios.

Immodium and Cipro are not interchangeable. Cipro is not just a stronger version of Immodium. Immodium is terrific for quieting the symptoms (i.e. stopping you up so you do have to 'go' as often) but it doesn't kill the bugs. So depending on what your illness is there are different pros and cons that your travel doc should explain to you.

Usually I just give my body a day or two to fight whatever is bugging it, and as long as it starts improving I just tough it out and don't medicate. However, I've resorted to Cipro twice myself, when I found myself getting worse instead of better with normal OTC care.

Would agree with Ann.

Immodium, for me, works when the stomach upset is just a case of my digestive system reacting to something it doesn't like and trying to flush it out. In an ideal world I'll let it do so but sometimes I need to be able to travel and immodium can help in that situation. I also sometimes find that a single dose or maybe two doses a few hours apart are enough to completely stop the problem. Perhaps the body has flushed out what was bothering it but hadn't quite got around to stopping the flow yet?!

Where there's a bacterial problem the immodium isn't going to work.