Floxin took care of the pneumonia but it left David with a ruptured Achilles tendon. "I was in a lot of pain and couldn't put any weight on my leg for about six months," David says. "Meanwhile, I had severe heart problems (I was only 30) and the doctor put me on a monitor that records everything that happens to your heart over 48 hours, like a continuous EKG. It showed that I likely had suffered a heart attack."How could that be? I was in excellent health and hadn't set foot in hospital since having my tonsils out when I was a kid. And there was no history of heart disease in my family. I had also suffered a significant loss of strength. I'd been in construction my whole life and now I couldn't even pick up a 5-gallon bucket of water. At that time I was bench-pressing 200 lbs and my kids teased me that I had Popeye arms. I had absolutely no clue that the drug was responsible, none whatsoever.
But the symptoms continued.
In 1993, I was treated for a head cold and given Cipro; that resulted in a frozen shoulder and a frozen knee. I couldn't bend my knee, period. I had to work through this whole mess, I had no choice--I had a mortgage and family to support. Obviously I lost a lot of time from work, but did my best. I went to an orthopedic surgeon, but he couldn't find any reason for it. He sent me to another specialist and diagnosed fluid in the knee. He stuck a needle in my knee but it came out dry, no fluid. He was baffled.
It took a few weeks until I could even walk. To this day, if I turn the wrong way, I go down. And my knee has swollen like a balloon numerous times over the years. Around this time I started to lose my vision. I went from 20/20 (never wore glasses) to prescription glasses almost overnight.
In 1999, I was treated for a mild infection of a small cord in the scrotum that goes from the testicles into the penis. I was given Cipro again. That is when all hell broke loose. I got severe gastro and digestive problems, severe loss of vision, heart problems again, a rash on my chest, severe tendonitis throughout my body, constant ringing in my ears, and my lab work was a total mess: red and white blood cells and liver function was all screwed up. I can't describe how bad I felt.
That lasted for about four or five months. I saw just about every ??"ologist there was. NOT ONE of them associated my chronic illness with Cipro, even though I told them that I was on this med. I wasn't taking any other drug. I don't even take aspirin!
Had I known at the time that every single adverse reaction I reported was a listed, known and published adverse reaction to this drug…
In the fall of 2000, I was pretty much functional and was in the process of renovating a house. I got up on Monday morning and I passed blood. I had a severe, debilitating pain in the kidney area. I went to my family doctor that afternoon and she thought I had a kidney stone. She put me on Floxin (again) and Darvocets for pain, and sent me off to a urologist. He did a CT Scan and x-rays and couldn't find the stone. But he decided I had a bladder infection and put me on Cipro??"I kid you not??"500 mgs per day. But wait, it gets worse…
He did a cysto exam (tube up penis into bladder, looks around and finds nothing wrong) and discharged me. In the meantime, I am in horrendous pain everywhere and seriously considering suicide: it was that bad??"unbearable. I would fill the bathtub with water so hot you could boil a lobster, just to get five minutes of relief. I did that a dozen times a night.
My throat then swelled up to where I couldn't breathe. At ER they said I had laryngitis, but I could speak normally. In other words, they didn't have a clue. I saw the urologist again and brought along a long list my symptoms. Diagnosis: chronic bacterial infection of the prostrate, which I did not have seven months earlier.
It didn't make sense. Plus all my urine tests were negative for bacterial infection. He gave me Motrin (!) for pain and within a few hours I had seizures and it was back in ER. This time an on-call urologist said I had a bladder infection and put me on…wait for it, Levaquin!
It damned near killed me.
My liver and kidney and pancreas went to hell. I now have permanent double vision??"it destroyed the nerves and muscles in my eyes. Soon as I was released from hospital, I got a second opinion. The new urologist said, 'Stop Levaquin immediately because you are having a horrific reaction to it. No doubt you have a kidney stone and I am scheduling you for surgery in a few days to remove it.' (Turns out that Cipro was responsible for the kidney stone.)
I got on the Internet and searched Levaquin, Cipro and Floxin. I found a forum where thousands of patients went through the same agony as me. I was absolutely livid. I contacted a lawyer and started legal proceedings. At that point I was looking at 20 ruined years.
I started to collect documentation??"clinical studies, newspaper articles, whatever I could find. And I put up a website to make this information available to others. (The website today has well over 12,000 clinical studies, published papers, newspaper articles etc.)
Today, I still have constant ringing in my ears. I wear tri-focals with prisms to see??"I am legally blind without these glasses. I still have the rash on my chest and the tendons in my hands have shrunk so much that they look like claws, I can only bend them half-way, like a severely arthritic person.
My white cell count has returned to normal after eight years, but I have an atrophied heart valve, cystic formation on my kidneys and an enlarged liver with cystic masses, chronic hip pain and still have a swollen lymph node in my groin, and problems with the knee and ankle. My digestive system is basically shot and there's hardly anything I can eat without getting sick. Phew.
The makers of these drugs, those lying f***ing bastards, knew about these adverse events since 1982. I have done my research. There wasn't one year since '82 when something regarding these adverse wasn't published in the leading medical journals concerning these drugs.
Six weeks before the black box warning was added to them, I got a response from a letter I sent to Johnson & Johnson. They believed the current warnings were adequate and had no intention of changing them--I have the letter published on my website.
READ MORE CIPRO LEGAL NEWS
But this is the heartbreaker: why wasn't I told? Sure as hell, the last three times I would have refused to take the drug. It boils down to not if it will kill me, but when."
READER COMMENTS
Living dead
on
Never touch Cipro or any other Quiolones. They are poison and will cause you to suffer or kill yourself.
I am going to try Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. If it doesnt work then i will end myself because im living in what i can only deacribe as hell.
Stephanie B
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Andrew Mclaughlan
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I am 36 year old male from the UK and this all started December 1st 2014. That was 6 months ago, I am generally able to function as normal. I go to the gym and lift heavy so no tendon issues but I am still suffering from anxiety, heart palpitations, ringing in my ears (now as I type this) and my vision has deteriorated. So very common symptoms/side effects here and I have no doubt that the cipro caused them. My doctor done blood work which turn up nothing and he claims its all just the anxiety that’s causing it. I think it is central nervous system damage which of course is permanent. Just hope it does not get worse.
Erik
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Charles Tooraen
on
My story is unfortunately similar to many that have taken Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, and many other Fluoroquinolone antibiotics. All started in June of this year with a kidney stone. Previous to this, I have been an active, healthy individual with virtually no health issues other than a couple bad stomach bugs, over the years. I have not had a flu shot in 20 years. Have not had any major illness ever.
From June to September of 2013 I had 4 kidney stone attacks. The 4th one ended with me getting lithotripsy to remove the stone. Levaquin IV was given preoperative and week followup of cipro 500 mg 2x day. All was fine then had the Stent removed during outpatient procedure. Single 500 mg cipro dose given then. After this all was good for about a week. Then started having groin pain for about 3 weeks. Dr did another outpatient cytoscopy and said all was fine. Another single 500 mg dose of cipro. Still had pain. So doc did prostate exam and found elevated white blood cells. No culture was done. Script was 500 mg 2x day of cipro for 6 weeks. No help with pain. Dr added sulindac NSAID to help. 12/7 had another surgery performed to make sure no small stones or strictures were present. None found. More preoperative Levaquin given via IV. About a week later started feeling better. I knew of risk factors with cipro and was paying attention to them. On 12/28. Noticed tight muscles in my calves and by next morning the burning in my legs began. Stopped taking cipro that day. Dr said that cipro could cause the muscle issues but did not know of issues with neuropathy. So now 2 months out I have insomnia, peripheral neuropathy, tinnitus, cognitive dysfunction, suicidal thoughts, depression, some anxiety, and mild depersonalization, chronic fatigue, dye eyes and ears, dry mouth, intolerance to heat and cold. Cold hands and feet, improper sweating. Gi motility dysfunction, etc.
Cannot work, cannot sleep, cannot walk correctly somedays, cannot care for myself. My spouse now does 90 percent of the work for both of us. I spend most of days in bed. This issue has created a lot of stress and depression not only for me, but for my entire family, which now has to help me with many aspects of my life. The uncertainty of recovery also plays a large role in my overall stress/anxiety level.
UPDATE: Now it's June 2 of 2014. Been to Mayo, University of Washington, The Peripheral Nerve Clinic, and Anderson Specialty Medical Clinic so far. Tried IV Therapy, supplements, vitamins, Physical Therapy, Analgesic Nerve Therapy, etc. Had almost every test imaginable. MRI, CT Scans, Blood tests, autonomic tests. Have more tests coming. So far, not much of any improvement. Some better with sleep, but still have to take Melatonin to get sleep. Anxiety is not bad, tendonopathy is better, and some slow improvements in GI function, but have bad relapses every couple weeks.
There are reports that many of the symptoms are tied to mitochondrial dysfunction and autonomic system dysfunction
Please know that I am not trying to scare anyone, I just want people to know what the doctors do not tell you when they give you drugs. There is no INFORMED CONSENT, no consultation, no nothing, they usually just give you a pill and send you home. They leave it up to you to find out what the pill may do to you. For me, I have never had issues with any drugs, especially an antibiotic, so I trusted the Dr to know what he was doing. Now I am screwed up permanently. Please just do your homework and make sound decisions before you trust your health to someone else.
Here are some links that further describe what has happened to me, and thousands of others.
https://www.facebook.com/FluoroquinoloneToxicity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_effects_of_fluoroquinolones
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/popular-antibiotics-may-carry-serious-side-effects/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm365050.htm
http://www.survivingcipro.com/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2094848/
http://floxiehope.com/
Best Regards,
Charles Tooraen
Coop
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Matthew Tulley
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Brad
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Shortly before Thanksgiving 2013, my symptoms for prostatitis came back (I'm still dealing with my Cipro symptoms as well at this point), so I had to go back to the doctor. This time he had me take Cipro for TWO MONTHS! I had taken his word on my side effects not being related to Cipro and my wife was 8 months pregnant, so I just wanted to get rid of the infection as soon as I could to go on with life. That didn't happen. It was around Thanksgiving that I noticed a mild pain around the center of my chest. This continued and became worse. My doctor diagnosed it as Costochondritis. He had my chest x-rayed, which showed nothing.
My brain fog, anxiety, face sensations, and chest pain continued until around Christmas 2013 (i'm still taking Cipro twice daily remember), and then my lymph nodes in my throat began to swell and become sore. As time passed, the lymph node pain spread to my groin and armpits. My chest pain became worse, accompanied by abdominal pains as well. I went to the GI, and they put me on Nexium, which did nothing. They finally did a colonoscopy and upper scope, where they found my esophagus to be irritated and I had a colon polyp. They took biopsies, but were benign. Nothing helped, but they couldn't explain why my esophagus wouldn't heal. For some reason my GI put me on a low-dosage of Tofranil, which is an anti-depressant, to try to stop esophageal spasms that may be causing pain. It didn't. Just made my head more cloudy.
In February, my urologist wanted me to take ANOTHER MONTH OF CIPRO for the infection. All this time I was oblivious to all of these articles and message board posts with people having the same issues as me. I completed my 3 months of Cipro in early March 2014. Now, I have pretty much constant blurred and/or double vision. I've had my eyes checked twice. All of my side effects are still present, along with the occasional ringing of the ears. I'm starting to take vitamins daily (B-100, Magnesium, and a One-a-Day) hoping it will help combat some of the side effects. I've stopped taking the Nexium and Tofranil, and started eating a lot of probiotic-rich yogurts to try to get my stomach back in order. I'm going to repost this in other forums as well. This topic needs to be discussed more.
Ronda
on
After waiting for insurance to approve, and fortunate there's no pre-exist, a renal scan yesterday revealed 3 stones in the kidney, the larger one already into the bladder region, the other two yet to pass. While taking Cipro and for weeks thereafter, my husband craved a high volume of milk and was extremely dehydrated with 'cotton mouth' being one of several side-effects of this black box drug. We still are in the dark whether his kidneys will recover but are working with Lloyd and also a D.O. to promote the healing process. Though his kidney doc is one of the best in his field, I found it incredible that he had no knowledge of Cipro causing kidney issues, which is further evidence of docs being kept in the dark by drug companies such as Bayer. It will be interesting to observe whether this specialist is able to discern the correlation between Cipro and kidney stones, as well as the additional causative factors which have manifested during the Cipro course and thereafter.
Ronda
on
Well, let's check the PDR, he offered. Sure enough, it was known to cause kidney failure. Further blood tests revealed creatin levels were continng to increase and his kidneys were in serious threat of failing. Our Doc is sharp, cutting edge, and immediately began IV drips of magnesium, etc and referred my husband to a kidney specialist. My husband delayed for two more weeks due to being in midst of changing health plans. Meanwhile, we conferred with 4 top docs and all agreed he had 'time' to wait another week to see if levels would come into normal range.
In the meantime I put my foot down a week ago and said We are calling LLOYD MEAR....NOW. I had met Lloyd three years ago when our 22 year old son had chronic fatigue and Lloyd helped him recover quickly after 5 years of suffering due to even the best of docs unable to help him. I have incorporated Lloyd into my private psychotherapy practice when dealing with tough cases. Lloyd also assisted me personally after I had a heart attack two years ago while in the middle of a session. I could have called 911 or driven myself to the hospital but my intuition told me to call Lloyd, knowing what an ordeal going the medical route would be. Lloyd immediately detected a virus on my heart and was able to neutralize it quickly and then assisted me for the next two months in removing the fluid around my heart.
In my husband,s case, he detected the blood had been affected as well as his lipocytes. Once corrected, my husband's energy levels began to increase and he was back on his feet two days ago and able to perform strategic tasks for several hours after having missed two months of work. We are going to go through the motions of getting him checked out by a kidney doc next week, but what he's learned in this huge ordeal is to step outside the box and get educated further and take action, even if it seems 'illogical.'
LLOYD MEAR
760-362-4679
He answers his phone 7 days week when in town. He treats all aspects of the body. Incredibly reasonable fees for his services.
Tell him Dr. Ronda referred you.
Best regards to you all
Miriam
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Heather
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Alisha
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Missy Sandlin
on
I had severe "depersonalization" and basically just an odd feeling in my head that I can't describe which started the evening (about 12 hours after I took Cipro 500 mg). I thought maybe I was having a panic attack but it didn't feel like the normal panic attack. I took another dose that night of cipro and the next morning. I started having an extremely sore mouth with sores noted on my mouth making it hard to eat and didn't want to eat. I called my Dr. and was having anxiety by that point - felt horrible. Went to see my MD and was told I was having severe anxiety. Was told to stay on Cipro to finish it out and start Augmentin for an ear infection which I get often. My BP was unusually high for me, and of course they stated that was related to my anxiety. I asked for xanax which I thought might help my anxiety but the Dr. said no and told me to take benadryl for sleep. Which I wasn't sleeping. Luckily I had been taking benadryl was probably was masking any anaphylactic reaction to cipro at this point. I work night shift and was continuing the cipro. the next morning when I got home after working night shift I didn't take a benadryl (forgot) and had taken cipro. Woke up 4 hours later and could barely swallow. Then I definitely was in a panic. Called pharmacist and MD on call because it was a weekend. After I was told to stop the cipro I wondered why I was prescribed a medicine in the first place that can cause anxiety and is ototoxic when I have a history of panic attacks/anxiety and chronic ear infections/hearing loss. The MD that told me to stop cipro stated Augmentin would cover the UTI anyway. I was furious to say the least. Since then it took several days for the depersonalization to go away but I'm left w/blurry vision that is worse in the am and increased hearing loss. My head still doesn't feel quite right and have had to take xanax for the anxiety as needed. My heart rate sporadically increases with minimal activity and I've had crazy Blood pressure changes. It has take a few weeks for my sore mouth/tongue to improve which affected my appetite, etc. This drug is extremely scary. as soon as I realized I had reaction to it I started reading about it on the internet and realized my depersonalization problems, etc were probably related to it. I'm sure I'm going to need glasses when I've always had excellent vision which I've prided myself for because of my poor hearing. I am baffled as to why this drug is still allowed to be prescribed for anything other than a life or death situation. I am a Nurse and pretty in tune to changes in my body. Even though I am glad I didn't take anymore of this drug...what I did take has really affected my life.