Comments on: Avoid the risk of a Levaquin tendon rupture

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:08:30 +0000

Bob from Lincoln UK

I took 7 days of a 28 day course of Ofloxacin in November 2007
Had to stop the meds due to intense pain in my knees and shoulders.
4 weeks in: -
hardly walk with severe swellings in knees , ankles and hips.
6 weeks in: -
Toxic psychosis, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts
9 months in: -
Pain in joints and muscles, tendons popping in every single joint but worse in spine.
Chronic back pain
Worsening of pre existing Tinnitus
Burning sensations on hands and feet.
Flushing sensations
Bee like stings all over
Feeling of being cold even in hot weather.
Urinary problems
New symptoms manifest themselves every week
Symptoms are progressive and not transient as stated in the prescribing literature.
I am 43 but feel like 63.
If you have Prostatitis or any infection that HAS NOT been cultured refuse Fluoroquinolones until they can confirm its life or death, honest it is just not worth the risk.
BE WARNED YOU QUALITY OF LIFE MAY DEPEND UPON IT!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Caye

Caye — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:07:27 +0000

I took 2 5-day dose packs of Levaquin 750 from May 29 to June 7 2008. The Achilles tendon on my left side ruptured June 11, and surgery to repair the tendon was completed June 22. I have gone from an active lifestyle involving exercise, horseback riding, walking, etc. to moving around with crutches until the tendon heals. If I had known the possible side effects of this drug, I certainly would have dealt with a simple sinus infection differently. The fact that numerous problems with Levaquin have been reported for years makes the continued use of such a drug highly questionable at best.

By: Dayna

Dayna — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:26:43 +0000

I am shocked to see that the stories continue. I was given a 10 day cycle of Levaquin in April 2005 for sinusitis and an upper respiratory infection. I have been on short term disability for various reasons three times since then, and will likely be declared perm. disabled in the near future. Like most everyone here, I used to be a healthy person. I’m only 35 yrs. old, and have since been diagnosed with thyroid disease, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety disorder, positive ANA index (possibly Lupus), pre-diabetes, GERD, chronic sinusitis, horrible insomnia, migraine disease, and “the worst case of osteoarthritis” my doctor has ever seen in a 35 yr old woman.

I have a masters degree and I used to be intelligent. :) Now I fumble for words, slur my speech, forget names of people and objects, forget just about everything for that matter. People probably assume that I’m on drugs (well, I am on prescribed drugs). I won’t say that the drug has ‘ruined my life’. It has certainly changed it and I’ll have to redirect my path I suppose. I pray that these drugs are taken off the market. I don’t know that those of us already effected will ever be fairly compensated, but I do know that God has a plan and a purpose for everything. God bless you all!

By: Levarel

Levarel — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:46:00 +0000

I was 23 years old. My life was ahead of me and I was looking forward to it. I came down with simple, acute cases of bronchitis and sinusitis and was given 20 days of Levaquin as treatment. My life has never been the same.

I’m almost 27 now and have spent the last 3 1/2 years completely disabled and housebound. The list of adverse reactions I’ve experienced is too long to really post here, but includes severe non-abating tendon problems in every part of my body; muscle contractures; severe fatigue, depersonalization and short-term memory loss; peripheral neuropathy; circulation problems; gastrointestinal problems; anxiety with random, uncontrollable panic attacks; and some neurological symptoms that no one has been able to even diagnose. I was mostly unable to stand up for over a year due to severe problems with my ankles, knees and hips and can still only walk very short distances; I also require speech-recognition software to type and any sort of even mildly strenuous activity results in further injury.

Every doctor I’ve seen has concurred that Levaquin caused this, but none have been able to help me at all, despite the warning label on the drug saying to contact your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms. No one in the medical community can give me any idea of what my prospects for recovery are, nor can they can tell me what effect this ordeal will have on my health as I age.

While the full prescribing information lists nearly all of my symptoms as possibilities, it does not warn that they can last for years or even be permanent, that adverse reactions tend to appear in groups (many people report dozens of symptoms), and that such severe side-effects can appear weeks or months after the drug has been discontinued. The brunt of my reaction started approximately two weeks after I completed my course of Levaquin, worsened in many respects for well over a year and continues to this day. The vast majority of people who are prescribed these drugs assume that any side-effects experienced will resolve when the drug is discontinued and warnings that this is not the case are required immediately in order to provide some semblance of informed consent. The current situation is resulting in large numbers of people who are injured by this class of drugs, but have yet to uncover the cause of their ailments due to the delayed nature of these reactions.

Over the years, I’ve corresponded with hundreds of victims of these drugs, all with stories eerily similar to my own, and read thousands of such testimonials on the various websites devoted to these reactions. While these may be anecdotal reports, the correlations between them, the sheer number available and the severity of what is being reported more than warrant a thorough investigation into this matter. Informed consent is never too much to ask for and the least that should be given.

This black box warning, while a step in the right direction, does little to prevent others from ending up like me and nothing at all to help those who are already here. The FDA has dropped the ball on this one (to put it nicely) and I can only hope that someone in either the medical or journalistic communities decides to pick it up again. No one deserves to have to go through what I have and especially not for infections that most likely would have cleared up on their own with some time, rest and increased fluid intake.

By: Christine B.

Christine B. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:21:04 +0000

Here I sit over 25 months later from taking 4 750mg pills of Levaquin for a simple sinus infection. Here I sit in much pain with blurry vision. I’ve been in pain every day since day 3 of Levaquin. I wasn’t given any warnings, just samples in my doctor’s office, who, had been lied to by the drug reps about these fluoroquinolone drugs. I asked, “anything I need to know, any side effects”? “No” I was told, “these are great big-gun antibiotics”. No, I have not had a tendon rupture but still have tendonitis in many parts of my body, my shoulder being so bad that my therapist is scared to work on it. My neck froze up 2 weeks ago leaving me screaming in pain and unable to drive. I suffered from severe insomnia, depression and thoughts of suicide, all drug related. I still suffer from many other ADRs including muscle twitching, nerve pain, osteoarthritis (never had this before Levaquin), floaters, gastro problems, liver problems, fuzzy vision, etc., etc., etc. My doctor has written “Levaquin toxicity” as my diagnosis. My neurologist agrees. This Black Box Warning is not strong enough! Tendon ruptures in people over 60 is just the tip of the iceburg! I was only 47 and very healthy when I took this drug. I did not take it with steriods. This drug has ruined my life! It has taken 2 years from me and God knows how many more it will take. These drugs should only be used as a last resort! Please stop hurting people!

By: Rose

Rose — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:19:25 +0000

I was previously a healthy 40 year old with no history of kidney, heart or lung problems . A 10-day prescription of Levaquin 500 mg for pneumonia completely changed my life. I have lived with crippling pain and neuropathy for more than seven months because of this poison. The thing I want to point out is that I had a DELAYED musculoskeletal and neurological reaction. I suspected my symptoms were caused by the drug; but when I began researching side effects of fluoroquinolones, my suspicions were confirmed when I found thousands of others online who were suffering from the same problems I was suffering from. Imagine how many others are suffering who have not connected their pain with the drug because they had a delayed reaction. Doctors: Wake up! These are not rare reactions. I personally know more than 10 people who have had a negative reaction to a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. When patients go to the doctor with these symptoms, doctors don’t even think it might be from a drug. Instead, they order thousands of dollars worth of tests that all come back negative. Why doesn’t the FDA require doctors to follow their patients for a year after they’ve been prescribed a FQ? I’m sure the world would be shocked! On the other hand, those of us who have been floxed would not be so surprised to see the vast numbers of people affected.

By: Leslea

Leslea — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:49:39 +0000

My name is Leslea and I am a Clinical Laboratory Manager, have been a Medical Technologist for almost 30 years. I am very well respected by the medical staff at my facility because if I bring up a subject, perhaps a laboratory protocol that I want to put into place or changed, I have done my homework on the subject.
With that in mind, I want to urge physicians to take heed to the fact that fluoroquinolones are not safe for a very large segment of the population. There are literally thousands and thousands of people whose lives are forever changed because of the quinolones.
I know that most, if not all, facilities with microbiology departments put out an antibiogram, at least annually, for the medical staff to reference. Please use your antibiograms to pick the least toxic and most effective antibiotic for your patient.
Use the quinolone class only as a last resort, after other antibiotics have failed or the patient will expire if they aren’t used. Using the quinolones routinely just doesn’t make sense when other antibiotics will work. Keep in mind if this class of antibiotics continues to be used so nonchalantly they will become ineffective due to bacteria developing resistance to them.
I have personally experienced multiple system adr’s to the quinolones, and know a multitude of people like me. That is why I am writing this, I want to prevent the number of people that are damaged by quinolones from growing exponentially.
The adr’s to the quinolones are grossly under reported due to the fact that a lot of reactions aren’t recognized, but are diagnosed as an unrelated problem. If the number of adr’s to quinolones were accurately reported to the medical community, no physician would ever routinely prescribe quinolones again, unless he was some sort of sadist.
My motivation for writing this is honorable, our term would be risk management in the medical community, for the layperson it would be a passionate desire to prevent others from suffering like I am.
Just in case you are wondering, my first reaction to a quinolone caused damage to my tendons particularly my left knee. The tendons were so weak that my knee dislocated 6 times over a 7 month period, I probably should have been in a wheel chair, but I needed to work. I have a permanent baker’s cyst in that knee. The tendonitis was so painful that walking was more like hobbling.
My second reaction made my first reaction seem like a walk in the park. When I mentioned multiple systems earlier, I meant CNS, muscular, skeletal, soft tissues and connective tissue damage. Four and a half years post two doses of Avelox, I still have a multitude of symptoms, some that are not going to resolve. Although I am in severe unrelenting pain, I consider the worst part of my reaction to be the CNS or brain damage.
I have debilitating depression, which I never had prior to this. But the thing that takes the cake is the following: I am sure you can imagine that I am or actually was above average in intelligence, Avelox has destroyed my short term memory and has made me struggle to find simple everyday words when carrying on a conversation. My nickname used to be “The Steel Trap” because I never forgot anything and could recall verbatim conversations no matter how long or short the amount of time that had elapsed. My memory was what is called photographic in nature. You might be tempted to say, well you are getting older, well I don’t believe that CNS changes due to aging happen overnight unless there is a stroke involved. That, and the fact that I am not alone with this reaction, speaks very loudly to the truth of the matter.
I will quickly list the other damage I am dealing with; peripheral neuropathy, myofascial damage in my right hip that has lead to permanent gluteus median adhesions after tearing. I have chronic muscle spasms and knots in my right hip and shoulder, this is the cause of the severe unrelenting pain, the shoulder knots and spasms lead to horrible tension headaches. I also have to take Valtrex to keep shingles at bay, another wonderful symptom of the nerve damage. My tendons and ligaments in my right knee are tender to the touch and painful, my vision is altered due to floaters and blurring, luckily laboratories are notoriously noisy so I don’t notice the tinnitus too much. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. By the way, I was a healthy active person prior to this reaction, I was 47 at the time and most people would guess my age at 35 because of my personality, strength and agility, they were always shocked to find out how old I was.
Please help me in preventing any other healthy individuals from experiencing this nightmare.
I also challenge you to do your own research into the real picture of this class of antibiotics, quit taking the word of the FDA or pharmaceutical companies, they have an agenda, but it is less than honorable. You can start by going to http://www.fluoroquinolones.org .
Thank you for your time.

By: Beebo

Beebo — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:20:03 +0000

Suffered from cardiac, neurological, muscles, tendons, joints, liver, kidneys, neuropathic pains, cognitive difficulties, life threatening hypoglycaemic attacks, visual, auditory damage, debilitating weakness to the point of being unable to hold a glass of water, and more.

Exellent source of info for symptoms and what to avoid visit http://www.fluoroquinolones.org and a peaceful, relaxing, diverse forum to exchange info and tips and more, with a chatroom where we all meet on Thursday nights, visit: http://www.favc.info

By: Rocky

Rocky — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 20:51:28 +0000

In January 2008, I was 37 years old, married with 3 kids under six and in reasonable good shape considering I had had a partial elbow replacement in September 2006 from a fall. That took a real downward turn once I went to my doctor for what I thought was a sinus infection. At the visit the doctor without doing any test wrote me a prescription for ciprofloxin, which I had never heard of and definitely never used before. Of course I filled said prescription only to be somewhat surprised when I read in the warning that this was a drug used for anthrax infections. Like a good patient, I started the medication even though its strength concerned me only to have burning pain in my surgically repaired elbow and my achilles tendons at which time I called my doctor per the instructions on the medication warnings. The doctor totally ignored my complaints, saying they had nothing to do with the meds and told me to keep taking the cipro. Once again, I did what my doc suggested only to have increased tendon/muscle pain over the next two days and finally found myself having an anxiety attack after 8 cipro tablets. I stopped the medicine and made an appointment with my doctor. For the two days I had to wait to see my doctor, I was in bed with terrible anxiety, severe muscle/tendon pain/weakness and all sorts of neurological issues like brain fog, neuropathy,and spatial proximity distortion that I had no knowledge of before taking this drug. When I did go to the doctor he acknowledged that cipro could have rare side effects but didnt think my issues were caused by the medication and told me to give it a month to see if everything went away and if not come back and we would start running tests to discover my real problem. I left feeling both betrayed and scared , because my doctor of the last fifteen years had basically disregarded all my issues. So I have struggled for six months by myself trying to fix these side effects. At present I still cannot say I am 100% back to normal again. Each day has been a day to discover what side effect I will have today. One day I will have severe tendon pain/tightness then that will resolve and brain fog will creep up then that resolves only to have burning neuropathy plague me for a few hours or days. The side effects from these drugs are exactly that nothing short of a modern day plague. No one acknowledges they exist and no doctor that I have seen has any idea what to do for them except to ignore them or to blame them on another disease, yet every day I have to deal with them as best I can.

By: rick

rick — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:26:01 +0000

My reaction to avelox started almost three months after I took the drug for a sinus infection, in March, 2005. I did not have the muscloskeletal problems that many have, but I had the vision problems, extreme fatigue, dehydration, brain fog and short term memory loss, neuropathy, and tinnitis. Some of these ADRs stay with me today.

The medical community simply does not acknowledge the danger of fluoroquinolones. In 6 months of going from specialist to specialist, no one could tell me what was wrong with me because nobody is looking for ADRs to drugs in their diagnostic paradigm. And because they’re not, people are being mis-diagnosed.

I feel this is nothing short of a health crisis in this country. These drugs are causing major damage to people and incur great cost to our health care system. In my case, I had probably 30K worth of useless tests. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromylgia are possible results of fluoroquinolone ADRs. I know that FQ ADRs mimic arthritis in older people. FQs have been known to cause diabetes. And the list goes on.

Black box warnings should include the FULL SPECTRUM of the ADRs assocoated with these drugs. The FDA is only cutting their losses with this warning in response to a lawsuit by Public Citizen. The FDA should insist on Dear Doctor letters in the USA like there are in Europe. But the FDA is not protecting the citizens of this country; that much is evident.

By: David

David — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:46:47 +0000

At age 46 I was given 750 mg of Levaquin for 21 days to combat epidytimitis in 2007. I had some
mild side effects during the course of treatment, ie… mild insomnia, mild joint aches, and some skin itching. After finishing my course of treatment I have developed more severe muscle and joint aches and pains
along with muscle weakness. Alot of my joints, especially my knees and wrists became very frail and prone to easy damage.
At a year out I have experienced Severe joint pain (especially of the knees and leg muscles), weakness in the
arms and neck, never-ending neck pain (constant muscle strains and pains), insomnia, anxiety, depression, dryness and vision issues with left eye, and various peripheral neuropathies. I have had periods of
no symptoms followed by strong relapses (cycles).Prior to this adverse drug reaction I was very healthy and bicycle 7-10 miles a day. I have never regained the ability to aerobic exercise and have to constantly guard against joint damage.

By: Teri

Teri — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:01:31 +0000

I think it’s great to see more publicity about fluoroquinolone side effects. Many doctors forget that patients have a right to be informed about side effects, or perhaps doctors are not informed of side effects well enough to have intelligent conversations about them with their patients. I had a conversation with my doctor about possible side effects of Levaquin before I took it, and my doctor never mentioned tendon disorders, and convinced me to take the Levaquin since it’d be no problem for me to switch to a different antibiotic if I did have side effects. Or so we both thought.
Luckily my mom came across a publication by Public Citizen that talked about tendon damage by fluoroquinolones when I was 7 days into my 14+day course of Levaquin. I’d been wondering why my achilles were so sore and my calves so rock hard. Four years later with continued tendon and nerve pain, I’m still regretting that initial assumption that side effects go away when I quit ingesting the pills. But if this is what the result of 7 days of Levaquin is like, thank goodness for that article by Public Citizen that kept me from taking 14 days worth of pills. I am a formerly healthy, active 35 year old (31 when I took Levaquin).

By: Carlo

Carlo — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:46:57 +0000

I took exactly 2500 mg (10 pills of 250 mg) of ciprofloxacin over a period of 5 days in the summer of 2007 .

Because of Cipro I need a wheelchair now.

I’ve always been a healthy person. I took part in squash, tennis, football and jogging.

After taking the third pill the first signs started. I had joint and muscles pain in my calves and arms. Because it was on saturday I did not call my doctor. I did read the paper in the box of Cipro and it did not say to stop immediately. If I did stop I would have less problems. Damned why don’t they warn us better.

On monday I went to my doctor and he said it was from Cipro but he thought it would not harm to go further. He did not know what to do.

MY SYMPTOMS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Joint pains
Calves/Achilles Arms Hamstrings Shoulders
Muscle pains
Increased joint stiffness
Dry ears
Dry eyes
Dry mouth and nose
Insomnia
Numbness feeling right foot
Joint popping all over my body
Dry sinus
Ear pain
Red skin after touching it / pressure on it

It is almost a year after taking Cipro.

I cannot walk because of pain in calves and Achilles.
I need a wheelchair out of my home.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:25:45 +0000

Every morning when I open my eyes, I awaken to this nightmare. There is a “sickness” that feels like my body has been poisoned. My hands and feet are swelled and sore…my entire body is stiff and painful…heart-palpitations, vibrations throughout my body…ringing in my ears…bleeding specks of sores on my skin…and a full, bloated feeling in my gut…I feel like I should be dead. It is only by the grace of God, and the love of my 2 children that I am able to pull myself up out of bed, and make it painfully down the stairs. Crying will do no good, as I know I must be strong to fight this horrendous ordeal that has become my life. Knowing that there are others who are living this nightmare gives me a sense of strength…and compassion. There are no more words to described what we are going through emotionally, let alone physically. How could something so unbelievably criminal have happened to us?? And why is this insanity being allowed to continue?? How many more innocent people will have their lives destroyed…how many more must suffer…how many more must die…before something is done?? Someone tell me, what will it take??

Diagnosed w/ arthralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, tendinitis both elbows, enlarged lymph nodes…
still seeing doctor after doctor, and specialists who can only treat the “symptoms”, not the cause.

The Black-Box warning for tendon damage is hardly sufficient and long-overdue.

The poisons that robbed my children of a mother were AVELOX and LEVAQUIN…20 pills. I traded a sinus infection for this life of pain and misery.

~Shells~