Vero Beach, FLMaureen K. says she was given the Levaquin antibiotic repeatedly for urinary tract infections even though she had a bad reaction to the medication. She says that Levaquin side effects were hard on her, requiring hospitalization and physical therapy. Maureen now says that Levaquin medicine should not be given to patients.
"I kept having urinary tract infections and my doctor kept putting me on Levaquin," Maureen says. "I would go back to him with another urinary tract infection and he would just keep giving me Levaquin. I started throwing up on it. I ended up in the hospital, where I was given Levaquin intravenously.
"Then, I needed back surgery. I had an argument with the hospital because they wanted me to take Levaquin because of the urinary tract infection and the upcoming surgery. They said that if I didn't take the Levaquin, I would get septic. I told them that I could not take Levaquin on an empty stomach. The thing is that I had a system for taking Levaquin that at least kept the pill down. I would eat half a meal, have half a pill, then eat some more and have the rest of the pill. Before I did that, I couldn't keep the pill down. Doing that, the pill didn't sit well, but I didn't throw it up.
"I ended up with rotator cuff problems. I had to go into physical therapy for that. It was just one thing after another. It's been a long haul. I've had considerable gastric trouble and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and all that sort of thing. It drove me up a tree. The doctors kept saying I had IBS and I thought, 'How did I go all these years without it and suddenly I turn around and now I have IBS?'
"Because of the back surgery, I had to have Levaquin through the IV again. That was the last time I had Levaquin. I was over the shoulder problems by then, but I didn't want to have the Levaquin at that point. I couldn't take it by mouth—only through IV.
"You go by what a doctor tells you and you mess your whole body up. I just didn't know what to do. I was put in hospital for this stuff [urinary tract infections and reactions to Levaquin]. It was ridiculous. I've never been through anything like this before—I had kidney surgery years ago and it was nothing compared to this. Maybe some people can take Levaquin, but I can't.
"It was around January 2008, that I was having trouble with my arm. I couldn't lift it properly and couldn't swing it. The doctor did the usual examinations and x-rays and found problems with my rotator cuff. I did 6 weeks of physical therapy and the problem gradually went away, but it took a good while.
"These problems could be serious in a lot of other people. I'm on probiotics now and that has helped with a lot of the problems. I don't go to the doctor often, anymore. It's at a stage now where we have to take care of ourselves and not always listen to the doctors because we can't always go by what the doctor says. We have to take our lives in our own hands.
"I've been through a lot. I was in the hospital 6 times, a lot of those to do with Levaquin. I just couldn't keep the pill down. They [doctors] would give Levaquin to me through an IV. I'd go into the hospital for 5 days, where they would give me the Levaquin IV, then I'd leave and I'd just keep coming back with more urinary tract infections. It didn't cure the infections."