Medicines
Today, I want to share with you one of my favourite drugs: Amphotericin B. Amphotericin B is...not a good drug. I mean, it gets the job done, but...uh...
You'll be lucky to survive. Not in a "disease needs to be bad" way, though that's also true, but the number of ways in which Amphotericin B can kill you is just ridiculous and I love it.
Medicines
Let's start with this: Amphotericin has been nicknamed "shake and bake". Why? Well, not too long after infusion, high fever and chills (with violent shaking) set in for most patients. It also tends to come with hypotension, nausea, vomiting, dyspnea, and weakness, among other things. So, just being given it will already massively fuck you up. But it gets worse!
Medicines
It will very likely cause organ damage! Renal failure is a very common side effect, but liver failure and even fucking heart failure are known to happen. Yeah. Imagine being given a drug to save you from one thing only to die of heart failure. That's this fucking drug for you.
Medicines
Those aren't the only other side effects though. Electrolyte imbalances are quite common. Anemia and related conditions (e.g. leukopenia) can happen. So, you know, you get a drug for a disease only for it to tank your immune system. Doing great. Good drug. Oh, and even if it doesn't cause heart failure, you might still be hit with arrhythmias liable to cause cardiac arrest. So, yeah...
Medicines
There's a reason this is a drug of last resort. It's not a fun drug. In fact, of the "drugs of last resort", this one stands out as a particularly brutal affair. Yeah, it might save your life, but it's just as likely to kill you faster. And that's why it's one of my favourites. It's the only thing we still actually use that is so likely to just kill you instead of whatever it was you had in the first place. It's beautiful, and I love it.
re: Medicines
OH! I should probably mention that it does have interactions that make it worse. For instance, flucytosine, an antifungal often used alongside Amphotericin, gets a fuckton more toxic. Various antivirals make it more likely you'll have blood and kidney problems. If you get an infusion of leukocytes for the leukopenia, it'll cause lung damage. And if you're a trans girl on spiro, I hope you don't like having kidneys, because diuretics make renal damage more likely.
re: Medicines
There are others, of course, but you can read wikipedia for them. For now, I'll leave off. So, yeah. Amphotericin B. A very good drug that you better pray you never need.