Levaquin Made Me Hurt so Bad

Blountville, TN"I went into the hospital this past August with double pneumonia," says Bob. "I was given Levaquin for the infection and during my stay I also got a staph infection—both infections caused me to stay in hospital for 19 days, and 15 of those days were in the intensive care unit. Needless to say, I was given a lot of antibiotics, including a lot of the antibiotic Levaquin.

"I was supposed to go to rehab afterward but there wasn't any room and they didn't want to put me in a nursing home so I came home with a breathing machine and a nurse came by from home care," says Bob. "But instead of getting better, I just felt worse. If you stay in the hospital for more than 3 days you are sick and staying in intensive care for 15 days means you are really sick.

"After about a week I couldn't even turn over in bed because there was so much pain in my shoulders, elbows and wrists. It would take me a long time to get up in the morning and walk from one room to another—I'm not a complainer but I wasn't like this before I went into hospital."

"One day my mum was over here watching TV and I was on the Internet," says Irma, Bob's wife. "I overheard something about Levaquin and immediately found out more about it online." That is when Irma found that Levaquin was likely causing Bob's pains and she also discovered how many people were suffering the same symptoms as Bob from taking Levaquin.

"Then I read some information that was given to Bob when he was released from the hospital," says Irma. "A nurse signed her name to a piece of paper that listed all the side effects of this drug. It sounded like every side effect listed on that piece of paper was happening to Bob.

"Bob used to work on antique cars and he was also developing an RV park before he got pneumonia," says Irma, "but since he came home from the hospital he hasn't been able to do much of anything. Bob is tired all the time and sleeps about 12 hours a day but worse than the fatigue is his pain and weakness: he can't even open a pop bottle because he has lost all strength in his hands. He just doesn't feel good—you can see it in his face. "

Irma was the first to tell Bob about the side effects of Levaquin. He went back to his pulmonologist for a follow-up appointment and described his painful symptoms. The specialist told him that Levaquin was likely causing his problems and to discontinue it—immediately. "I also saw my regular doctor and told him about these pains but he just said they would go away eventually and concurred that I shouldn't take Levaquin anymore," says Bob.

Irma and Bob have no idea how much Levaquin he was given in the hospital but they think he was getting it the whole time—the doctor told Irma that Bob needed a "high-power antibiotic".

"And we paid over $700 for this drug—just imagine paying for something that is going to hurt him so much," says Irma.

Bob went to his regular physician on November 6th, and was prescribed pain killers and an anti-inflammatory drug. However, Bob says his pains haven't gotten any better. Bob's doctor believes he has tendonitis and if the meds don't help, he will need x-rays and from there—he doesn't know yet.

Bob wants to know why he wasn't told of any side effects regarding Levaquin. He can only imagine that the doctors figured this drug would save his life and the side effects weren't so important—the good outweighed the bad.

"I've never heard of anything like this before—how a drug can cause tendonitis and worse," says Bob. "If Levaquin was the only drug available to save my life, of course I would have agreed to it. I don't know much about pharmaceuticals but it seems strange that this was the only option. It makes me wonder why they can't manufacture a drug without these side effects.

I would like to know how many people are getting over their symptoms. Do I need to have surgery? I haven't had this problem for long so I don't know what to expect…"