Levaquin Patient May Require Surgery

Lepanto, AKPatients who have taken the Levaquin antibiotic once or twice may know the pain of Levaquin side effects. Levaquin has been linked to an increased risk of tendonitis and tendon ruptures. However, for some people the link between the Levaquin medicine and tendonitis was not made in time. Dana W. is one of those people. She says she took Levaquin multiple times, and has pain in 3 different joints, making her miserable.

"I took Levaquin approximately 3 times," Dana says. "I'm not sure if I took it a fourth time, but I remember taking it 3 times. I don't remember the exact dates—I'm waiting on my records for that information. After I took it the first time, my left shoulder began what I thought was freezing. I called it frozen shoulder. It began to have a lot of pain. For 2 years—I'm in my second year now—I have been barely able to move it. The shoulder will not rotate, I can't move it to the back, and I can't move my arm up into the air. I can't lift my left arm.

"Just recently, I'd say the past 6 months, my right shoulder is beginning to do the same. This was just after my third round of Levaquin. Also, my right hip joint is also beginning to do the same. It's severe pain and it hasn't been diagnosed yet. I'm seeing a rheumatologist and they think it is tendonitis or something like that."

Dana says that her left shoulder problems initially began approximately a month after she completed her first round of Levaquin. Her right shoulder began to hurt about a month after the third round of the drug.

"My hip joint [pain] has been going on about a year," Dana says. "It completely locks up, I can't even walk when that happens. It was x-rayed and I'm scheduled to go back to the doctor. The doctor gave me some non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) to see if they would help but they haven't really helped me. She has spoken about having to do surgery on my joints.

"I can't sleep—that's the main issue. I'm getting very little sleep. They've given me several different sleep aids and the sleep aids don't help. My shoulders hurt too much. This has very much affected my day-to-day life. I can barely fix my hair now. At least before my right shoulder had problems, I was able to do things with my right arm. Now, I'm very limited.

"The worst pain is trying to put my arm behind my back. If my back itches, forget it, I can't scratch my back. It's painful to rotate the arm in any way. Fortunately, I work from home, mostly on my computer, but my sleep disorder probably affects my work.

"I'm really glad that they have determined that this [Levaquin] may be the problem, because people need to know about this. My sister is starting to have pain in her shoulder now. It's not fun. It's very painful. I want the word to get out."