This personal story was originally posted to the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum. If you are a victim of a quinolone antibiotic and need support or advice then please visit the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/).
 

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Cipro + Floxin + Levaquin
Posted on 22 November 2002
2.5 years ago prescribed Floxin (1000mg a day) followed by Cipro (1000 mg a day) and finally Levaquin (1000 mg a day) for a fricking kidney stone over a ninety day period with no bacterial infection. All test were negative for either bacterial or viral infections of any kind. THis was the result of a false diagnosis of prostatitis. It took me three months to pass the two stones which were the size of a sand spur and mutiple trips to the ER. They missed them on the xrays. This is the equivalent of being in labor for ninety days straight without a break to those who have never had a kidney stone. The reactions were immediate and nonabating. The doctor just kept prescribing different and stronger fluoroquinolones when I reported the adverse reactions I was experiencing.

2 years of insomnia
Liver and kidney damage (lesions and cysts)
Continuing hematuria (non abating)
High calcium levels (which have returned to normal recently)
Brain fog and mental fatigue (depersonalization) anxiety, depression, psychotic behavior extreme anger and paranoid reactions
Drain Bamaged
Ringing in the ears
Swollen face and neck (non abating)
25 pound weight gain
Lost all fillings in my mouth (they simply fell out)
Swollen lymph nodes (2.5 year duration, non abating)
severe fibro myalgia
severe joint and tendon pain (felt like I was hit by a truck and dragged for miles)
Elevated wbc and other abnormal blood levels(non abating)
Severe hip pain debilitating at times requiring narcotic pain killers
Tendon lesions both hands and possibly wrist (yet to be verified)
Blown knee and ankle
Permanent double vision due to destruction of the nerves that control the eye muscles, severe vision degeneration over and above this
Swollen hands (intermittent)
Currently undergoing rehabilitative therapy to get the use of my hands back Went from reading glasses to tri focals with prisms within months of taking these drugs.

And this list is just the major highlights not to bother you with the minor things.

Seeing just about every specialist there is and spend more time undergoing diagnostics testing and blood work than I do anything else. I went from a healthy 45 year old male who lifted weights and was in perfect health who had no need to see a doctor in over twenty-five years to a 48 year old man to whom opening a jar of peanut butter is an ordeal. I have aged twenty years in the last 2.5 and have seen more doctors and have spent more time in the hospitals than I have in my entire life. All because of a simple kidney stone. I cannot begin to describe the physical and emotional pain that I have endured. Suicide was a serious consideration in the beginning of this nightmare just to escape the continuous pain. Things have improved but I am nowhere near the man I was 2.5 years ago. I look in the mirror and see a decrepited old man with one foot in the grave. I have no idea what would have become of me had I not found this forum and the truth regarding the damage these drugs can and will do. This is my nightmare. Easily avoidable had the doctor bothered to research the drug he was handing out like candy. I trusted him to have intimate knowledge of these drugs. I was wrong. I can blame no one but myself for I had the responsability to have initimate knowledge of the drugs I was taking. I had failed to do the research. My bad. I have to live with the results of my ignorance for the rest of my life. Others on the forum are in far worse shape than I. I am one of the "healthy" ones. The healthiest cripple you will ever meet.

Originally posted on the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/message/10910