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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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/).

Cipro
Posted on 29 March 1999
Hi Mary and all.....I agree wholeheartedly with Mary and her arguement with the medical professionals. Why can't they be upfront about what is obviously a serious problem associated with the use of Quinolones. Since Mary infomed us of this group, I have compiled a total of 150 messages and I am sure that that number is low.

We have been reluctant about posting to the group because our situation is so much different than the other nightmares that have been described here as our problem with the drug Cipro involves a child. But we have decided that perhaps telling our story may invoke feelings of concern or responsibility from the closed mouth medical community. So here it goes:

In 1994-95 our daughter Abby, then 10 years old, was a fifth grader. Up to this time Abby was what you'd call a perfectly normal kid, mentally and physically. Loved outdoor activity, was a good student, and was very sociable. 1994 was a tough year for the 5th grade at Warsaw Middle School. The well beloved teacher, Mrs. H, was diagnosed with cancer in Oct. and was replaced by Mrs. A, the drill sargent type individual. Two of the children in the class died-one from accidental hanging and one from a auto accident. It was a rough time, and when Abby began exhibiting strange behaviors, ie: lying curled up in her closet crying and having what looked like a mental breakdown, having seizure like activity and developing many physical ailments and phobias, we attributed it to emotional stress secondary to the 5th grade troubles. She began seeing the counselor at school.

We never associated the fact that she had been put on Cipro 500 mg. twice a day for 10 days for a stomach ache with no other clinical findings with all the developing problems.

During this time period, Abby was seeing an orthodontist who was having difficulty manipulating her mouth structure. He did X-rays of her growth plates and informed us that she had quit growing at 10 years old. She was 5' 4" tall. and still is today although her father is 6'2", her mother 5'9", and her sister is 5'10" tall.

Abby started the 6th grade but was physically no longer able to stand a day of school-coming home completely exhausted each day, catching many illnesses that would cause her to be sick and out of school much longer than normal and mentally she was a wreck. She began keeping her shades down all the time, she no longer associated with any friends or wanted to go anywhere. Although we went to the school many times thinking that being a new school for Abby, perhaps she had an allergy to something in its environment. By Thanksgiving it was obvious that she could not continue and as the school offered no help, we took her out and began to homeschool her.

She tried school again each year, 7th, 8th, and 9th. And though we couldn't understand what was going on and begged the school for assistance-we always ended up having to homeschool her. In the mean time we were taking her to one specialist after another for symptoms, ie: counseling, a nephrologist for blood in her urine, and the pediatrician for hypoglycemia, seizure activity, rapid heart rate, etc. She had turned into a couch potatoe. I remember saying to Jim about a year after this started, "Didn't she used to be normal? What happened?"

In the spring of 1998 I happened to see a Dateline show about the effects of the fluroquinolones. It was just as if someone had opened a window in a pitch dark room. I couldn't believe it!

We finally got the school to do testing on her this year. The woman who did the academic testing said "When I started this I figured it was a waste of time-all her records up to the 5th grade indicate a perfectly normal kid-good steady student whose biggest problem was that she was a little too sociable-what happened to her in the 5th grade?"

The phychologist has diagnosed her as agoraphobic with panic disorder.

As she is unable to attend school, the school has finaly agreed to homeschool her at their expense.

Abby never goes anywhere due to her anxiety and phobias. She used to be a wonderful writer. Now, at 14 years old she cannot write a one line Christmas card to a friend. She gets every illness that comes around, except a little cold that you would have for 3 or 4 days lasts 2 weeks and developes into other things with her. She doesn't keep up with any friends. Her fingers are showing signs of arthritis and she continues to have problems with her urinary tract. We are getting ready to take her to a group of developmental specialists. Her sister said of her-"She doesn't seem like my sister anymore- for someone almost 15 she acts like a 10 year old."

It does seem that in many ways her growth and development were halted at 10 years old, and obviously many of her dreams for the future have died.

Originally posted on the Quinolone Adverse Reaction Forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones/message/155