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/).
 

Post Marketing Reports from Drugvictims.org

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/).

Levaquin
Posted on 30 September 2002
I just completed a 10 day course of Levaquin. Almost immediately, I noticed that my sleep patterns were greatly disturbed. I was waking up alot and having wild wicked dreams. After two nights of this, I called the doctor to get advice. For whatever reason, I got his PA and she said "Well, it's really up to you." No mention of any of the deplorable side effects that you all are very familiar with. I decided to half my dose to 250 from 500. Did this once or twice, then went back up to the full dose, because it didn't really help my sleep. I really wanted to get over my prostatitis symptoms so I stayed the course for about 10 days (even though it was prescribed for 14). My final dose was last Wenesday. I also had occasional tingling down my left leg. Friday night I had what seemed to me like an anxiety attack. Saturday I had tingling for the first time down both legs. Saturday night -- an even worse panic attack. Sunday I jogged for two miles and performed well, lowering my time. Soon after, however, both of my thighs started twitching. That night, which was last night, WHAM -- anxiety attack from hell. It was freaky! After a few hours I did manage to get to sleep, but then woke up as usual around 3:30 in the morning. Even though I was groggy, I got hit by another panic attack and literally thought I was going to die. I put on clothes and shoes to get ready to go to the ER. Eventually, I calmed down and fell back asleep. This morning I went straight to the doctor's office. Of course, he'd never even heard of any such side effects and treated me like a psycho idiot. I returned home, slept a little more, and finally started to feel a little better around 2:00. On a positive note, the tingling has been almost non-existent today and the twitching is much milder. However, I'm very worried about tonight, because so far, every night has been worse than the last. Strange that the anxiety actually developed after stopping Levaquin. Any chance that I could get lucky and be about done with some sort of "withdrawal?" Do you know of any stories where people get lucky and have symptoms resolve and not go on forever? Please be positive and don't freak me out. I'm freaked enough. Any advice of what to do in the short term?

Originally posted on the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/message/9863