Question: Health Topic - but related to engraving...

[Brian Marshall]

Has anyone else on this forum had a bad reaction to treatment with Levaquin (Levofloxacin) or the related antibiotics - Cipro, Avelox, Floxin, etc. ?


Go to floxiehope.com - to get a better idea if you have doubts about what you may have experienced and not known was caused by one of these drugs.


This stuff is one of those gifts that keeps on giving up to a year later - the damage may be permanent - and you may have no idea that what you experienced was connected with the drug.

I am 4 months into this experience and every morning I wake up to new and worse pain.

So far I have acquired the tinnitis, gone deaf in one ear, and the tendonitis has crippled most of the rest of me. (I was crippled already, engraving with my arm hanging from a sling mounted to the ceiling for the last 11 years)

I am/was fairly active before treatment and I am scared sh*tless that one of the tendon sheaths will actually rupture next...

I would like to hear from you, either here on the forum or by PM/email privately...

My goal in this, is to try and prevent it happening to anyone else - even one person.


Brian

 

[ETHELBERT]

Thanks for the heads up! hopefully you get better soon! God Bless

 

[Ron Spokovich]

Having a need for antibiotics not too long ago, I was subscribed CIPRO which can have killer side effects, including, but not limited to, snapping of the Achillies tendon even a few months after the drug has been depleted. I did not take the drug. Literature is enclosed with each prescription. Google in all drugs that you've been prescribed, and read the testimonials/side effects. Your afflictions don't come as a surprise, and everyone is different. My problem went away before I took any capsules, so I lucked out on that one. Some drugs can be real killers. Doctors don't know what'll happen to you upon consuming the particular drug, and it may become Russian Roulette. I'd choose the drug with the lesser side effects, if absolutely necessary. Good luck in addressing your affliction.

 

[Southern Custom]

Thank you for the heads up Brian. I have taken Cipro more than a few times. I wondered where my tinnitus might have come from. While I am a musician, I thought I hadn't spent enough time on stage with loud monitors to warrant the ringing that I have. This could be the source. Scary stuff.
Hope your symptoms ease.
Layne Z.

 

[maplesm]

I am sorry that you are having these side effects
but these are very rare. In general patients should not be afraid to take any of these drugs as prescribed. Been an RN for 35 plus years in the ER. This is an unusually severe reaction. Hope things improve soon.

 

[Brian Marshall]

With all due respect (and I have a LOT for anyone who works ER) - this is not something normally seen in the ER.

Why would it be?

What you are saying is one of the very reasons why the medical profession continues to see these effects as "rare"...

In fact there are articles on WHY it is not seen in the ER...

Here is one - http://www.hormonesmatter.com/fluoroquinolone-reactions-beyond-er/


B.


By the way - have you actually READ the new "black box" warnings that came out in Oct. 2013?

 

[bildio]

I had adverse side effects while I was taking it. I don't remember if I took it for 10 or 14 days. Never again. I told my doctor, & he looked at me with disbelief. Fortunately, I went back to normal within a month after stopping it.

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

What you are saying is one of the very reasons why the medical profession continues to see these effects as "rare"...

That's why they call it the "practice" of medicine. In many ways, we aren't far removed from waving colored feathers in a smokey tent.

 

[Marrinan]

Brian, Sorry for your situation. I have been given 11 new scripts in the last month. I've developed double vision, fall asleep and can't drive anymore. I fall asleep constantly. Engraving is down to an occasional activity. Still love the art but until I get off some of these and hope I can get back to it. I hope that yours will improve. Those handouts from the pharmacy are important to read. I also talk over every new script with my pharmacist and possible interaction. Everything they have me on makes me sleepy and stupid. You have always been a helpful friend to me and answered my questions helpfully. We have all noted the scaling back over the last few years. Wish you all you need. not religious but will keep you in my thoughts and hopes. Fred

 

[monk]

had prostatitis several years ago. took a protracted dosing of the stuff. alls i can say is it brought me "out of the depths of hell". took about 20 days to get away from that horrible infection. that i know of, i had no side effects other than it cured me. some folks can end up dead taking a common dose of asa.

 

[Scottyd]

Brian,
I had a reaction to levofloxacin. Lots of aches and pains in joints and tendons. Most went away in a month or so. I developed a painful knot on my right Achilles' tendon and could hardly walk for a couple of months. It's taken about a year and a half for it to quit hurting. I have to stretch every day or it starts hurting again. My son took levofloxacin and after 3 days could not get out of bed. Took about a month for all the aches to go away. Luckily he has no lasting effects. My primary care doctor has seen several recent reactions to levofloxacin and is now more cautious about prescribing it. Be careful taking levofloxacin if you are over 50 and read the black box warnings. Take care Brian.
Scott

 

[KCSteve]

I finally got off of Flecanide - a heart rhythm pill that can cause blurred vision. In my case it did and while it wasn't dangerous or debilitating it was very annoying. You know how your eyes can get kind of blurry first thing in the morning? I'd have that all day to some extent, often getting periods where I couldn't really focus on things like small text.

The arrhythmia sucked away my energy to the point where I really didn't get to do any engraving for almost three years but after having had an ablation last year I'm much better. Getting close to fully recovered from the whole situation and getting my skills back. Annoying that I kind of had to start over but at least it's going so much faster this time.

 

[atexascowboy2011]

Brian
Take 300 mg/day of "Cal Apatite"
It heals the tendons and ligs at the rate of something like 1mm/month.
It's a SLOW process but well worth the time involved.

BUT!!! Over 300mg/day is TOXIC!

As to side effects, during my seven month hospital stay I was on 30+ meds a day.
Lost every square inch of skin on my body, as well as my finger nails and toenails.
The hallucinations made me think that I had a Mexican hitman in the other bed, etc.
I should have known that I was out of it when my ex visited!

 

[Brian Marshall]

Thanks, I will look that up...

From what I have been able to learn so far (NONE of it from doctors) is that yes, you can maybe heal up.

Some of it will quite probably never come back. The hearing loss for instance.

And the tendon/ligament damage may take around 18 months to 2 years to repair - for someone HALF my age or younger.

More than half the time the damage is permanent.

Anybody got any ideas for the tinnitus in the only ear that still works?


B.

 

[Marcus Hunt]

I finally got off of Flecanide - a heart rhythm pill that can cause blurred vision. In my case it did and while it wasn't dangerous or debilitating it was very annoying. You know how your eyes can get kind of blurry first thing in the morning? I'd have that all day to some extent, often getting periods where I couldn't really focus on things like small text.

The arrhythmia sucked away my energy to the point where I really didn't get to do any engraving for almost three years but after having had an ablation last year I'm much better. Getting close to fully recovered from the whole situation and getting my skills back. Annoying that I kind of had to start over but at least it's going so much faster this time.

Steve, I've been suffering from Atrial Fibrillation (AF) for 2 years now. A cardioversion worked for 14 months but since the beginning of Feb I've tripped into AF 4 times. The first time I went into hospital and they cardioverted me with Flecainide. I felt great the first day but like crap - totally washed out for 5 days after and it affected my short term memory. 3 weeks later I went into AF again and this time my GP prescribed Flecanide and the side effects were the same.

I'd been waiting to see the cardiologist for one of my follow up appointments to the original cardioversion and I pointed out these side effects. His response was that he'd never heard of this before but he looked it up in the drug book and low and behold, a rare side effect is memory problems. My mother has been on Flecainide for years and she's always on about how bad she feels and puts down memory problems to the ageing process; now I'm wondering if it could be the drug.

I went into AF for the 4th time on Monday night and this time the Flecainide doesn't seem to have worked but the cardiologist and now my GP are putting me in the system for an ablation. When I get the operation I hope this works. I know what you mean about the lack of energy - I've put on loads of weight but can't really exercise as it's just too difficult and nobody seems to understand this (including my wife). And yes, the arrhythmia has effected my work output but I've had no choice but to battle through although some days it feels like wading through treacle.

The modern drugs can produce amazing results but sometimes the side effects make me wonder if it's worth it....I've actually been struggling to type this and my brain feels like mush!

 

[John P. Anderson]

Quantity of life versus Quality of life...........

I suggest you read the research behind the drug before you commit to your "new and better life" from prescription meds. Often times the drugs do no better than the placebo in clinical trials. Or they may work but the side effects cause more problem than they cure. There is no free lunch. Pound down one peg another pops up. I'm suspecting when they prescribe blood thinners for cardiovascular conditions it leads to macular degeneration in the eyes. You live longer but your blind. (I just googled and found " A patient with a massive intraocular hemorrhage and AMD is 11.6 times more likely to use anticoagulant medication.")

I have some formal statistics background and often the methods are suspect or doctors ignore the results of the research and prescribe the drugs even though you don't fit the findings. For example neuron inhibitors are prescribed for chronic pain even if the pain originated years before. The research shows they only tend to work only if administered on the immediate onset of the condition or very soon after. They've found it best to literally start an IV on the battelfield. If they wait they don't work yet every person I run into with chronic pain is being prescribed inhibitors. Ask them and they'll say they don't really help much. But the keep taking them. Do your homework.

I'm going for a quality life with lots of veg and walks up and down the hills on nice days.

John

 

[KCSteve]

Marcus

They had me on a blood thinner (Pradax, in my case), a rate reducer (Cartia) and a rhythm pill. Didn't really do squat. I was pretty much in an unnatural rhythm at all times with varying severity. Cardioversion would only work for a short time (had what, four of 'em?). The ablation put me into a near normal rhythm immediately. Had a minor complication - sack around the heart got inflamed. Not dangerous but extremely painful and in checking that they decided I wasn't going to settle into a regular rhythm and zapped me again. Three months later I had developed a 'ring' signal - a very stable instability - where a signal was literally circling around the interior of my heart and causing problems. Zapped me again and gave it six months. Haven't had a problem since that last zap and at the six month point (February) the Cardiologist stopped the Flecanide and said to stop the Cartia after one month and the Pradaxa after three and then come in for another check a few weeks later.

Despite the energy drain from the AFib I was able to do my day job, but that was it. I'm looking forward to six months or so after you get your ablation. You'll get a lot of energy back the next day but depending on how far you've been run down there will be some overall recovery time. Oh, and if you get a catheter ablation let me just let you know that there's about an hour or so when they're removing the catheters that was really just about the only really unpleasant part of the process.

As I told him, I was happy with the primary effects of the medicines (the whole 'not dying' thing) but the side effects were pretty annoying. You do have to keep an eye on possible side effects and decide whether it's worth it or not. With Pradaxa you have to be very careful of any possible internal bleeding. Stuff makes you bleed well for even a paper cut but you can get it to stop with a bandaid and pressure. But if it's internal.... Well, that's why there's a sleazy lawyer soliciting for survivors.

Still prefer the Flecanide's blurred vision to the side effect of the first pill. Propafenone is what they tried at first. I read the side effects, saw 'gas' and figured "yeah right - give an old guy a new pill and you know what he'll blame." Turns out, they weren't kidding. Take the pill, wait about an hour and a half and you become very bad company.

Ah well, given the current alternative I'll have to keep on getting older.

 

[AndrosCreations]

Ive never been "floxed" as they call it... but Im really sorry to hear youre experiencing it, Brian. Many of my Lyme friends have had serious problems and one friends daughter is practically wheel-chair bound from cipro that was prescribed for something trivial. I hardly think its "rare". If they want to retain use of the drug, I think it should be for life threatening illness only.

Im just sorry to hear youre experiencing the side effects.

 

[Brian Marshall]

OK, here's an update and most of what I PERSONALLY know about the Levaquin reaction to date.

I think that all forum members over the age of 50 (and there's a bunch of us - both professional engravers and hobbyists) should at least read or watch a couple of the videos.

I am not saying that the drug is not useful - it is. It has saved thousands of lives...

I AM saying that you'd better stay the hell away from it if you have ANY of the current contraindications. There are plenty of "old school" antibiotics that are less dangerous to start out with. If your problem does not respond, you can always carefully consider letting this stuff into your life.

Because once it's bitten you, you may live with the damages for the rest of your life...


The proverbial “ball” in my case has been dropped 3 separate times now… Our medical/pharmaceutical system is as broken as our government - or worse. None of the "fail-safes" supposedly built in to the system have functioned properly.

1. The prescription to begin with. A less powerful antibiotic would’ve done the job. (and did, I had the reaction after 3 days, quit and finished up with Azithromycin)

2. The CVS pharmacy that supplied the Levofloxacin – ALSO supplied the NSAID diclofenac and should have caught that immediately. They did not. It’s right there on the list.

3. The UC Davis Med Center is part of a teaching college. Having drug data that is 3 years out of date is inexcusable. The new warnings, including the "black box" were NOT in the system. Still aren't as of this writing. Everyone I saw there was totally unaware of what levofloxacin could do.


I have found no less than 6 contraindications applicable to me regarding Levaquin:

1. Over 60

2. Regularly taking prescription NSAIDS – for 27 years.

3. Immuno-suppressed – no spleen.

4. Previous trauma to head, joints, tendons, and ligaments.

5. Radiation treatment.

6. Leading an active lifestyle, long distance bicycling, manual work.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm now a lab rat for the UCSD study on the stuff. Also candidate for another study. This is nowhere near as rare as the docs & drug companies made it out to be... there are 10,000 of us in the UCSD study...



http://www.saferpills.org/

http://www.levaquinadversesideeffect.com/blog/page/8/

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/the-cure-that-kills/Content?oid=935475&mode=print The Cure That Kills
When the side effects of medications are worse than the ailments they're prescribed for (Dr. Jay Cohen, a medical researcher and associate professor at the University of California San Diego - worth a try? He has written a paper on the damage caused) Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb and her colleagues at the University of California, San Diego are conducting a new study to identify and describe side effects and risk factors for good and bad outcomes involving antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone class. Other example fluoroquinolones include Zymar (gatifloxacin), Floxin (ofloxacin), Zagam (sparfloxacin), Trovan (trovafloxacin), Tavanic, and Vigamox. http://www.fqstudy.info/Fluoroquinolone_Effects_Study/Welcome.html

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...ne.wsj.com/article/SB1004037326704969960.html Wall Street Journal article -
Surge in Use of Cipro Spurs Concerns About Side Effects

http://fqresearch.org/

http://medicationsense.com/articles/2011/FQreactions042011.html

http://medicationsense.com/articles/jan_mar_04/congress_ltr.html

http://www.levaquinadversesideeffect.com/medianews/





PBS VIDEO http://video.pbs.org/video/2007003914/
PBS national news segment on Quinolone toxicity and the FDA. The PBS news special features Levaquin and is ten minutes long: http://video.pbs.org/video/2007003914

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIquu3wwUas
Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Toxicity Victims Levaquin Cipro

Certain Adverse Events (Fluoroquinolone Documentary)
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A0CEC6B7479E84E1

http://www.certainadverseevents.com/home_page.html

 

[Marrinan]

Always Read the Info sheets

Thank you Brian for the up date and warnings-Please heed the warnings about the over prescribing of drugs and the doctors pas and pharmacists (caps intentionally not used). Like you I have been living with long term effects of the medical profession (use the term profession loosely). These drugs are on my rather long list of don't takes. Fred

P.S. Always, Always read the entire info sheet the pharmacist provides. Read the side effects and possible side effect info carefully. Decide if you can live with worst case scenario If not look up on the net, go back to the doctor with your concerns and get a damn good reason why he wants you to risk the effects. My lack of fusion in a simple neck surgery has turned me into a drug zombie. Developed or increased blood pressure problems those meds make you sleepy and stupid, nitro because I have developed two to four heart episodes a day. Can't sleep because of Flomax needed because blood pressure meds cause swelling causing blockages. Different additional blood pressure meds which make me sleepy and confused, Xanax for the anxiety all these are causing, now cholesterol pills added There is no quality left in my life. I'm to doped to hardly anything. I spend more time talking to pharmacist than my doctor. Fred