Ankel symptoms and conditions

I am glad to find this sight! Here is my story. Started on 10mg. Withing 2 weeks had the sudden onset of horrible knee pain in BOTH knees at the same moment. Could hardly walk and don't try to squat down, the pain was unbearable. Had this the rest of the time I was on the stuff, 5 to 6 years. Within weeks of quitting, it went away and hasn't bothered me since. I noticed a odd swelling around my ankle but didn't think much of it at that time. Increased a few years later to 20mg. Indigestion, acid reflux that woke me up hourly with a mouthful of acid/vomit, gas, leg and feet cramps, the swelling on my feet started spreading and became painful, burned and itched (nothing I did would stop it, no doctors could tell me what it was or how to stop it.. saw 4 different doctors just for this), loss of libido, vertigo. I didn't realize it until I quit the drug but it began stealing my energy and my legs started becoming real heavy. But wait, it gets a lot better!! 40mg really did a horrible number on me. I was always so tired that I could hardly get out of bed. All the previous effects I mentioned got a lot worse and some new ones were added. I started stumbling, could hardly walk, couldn't remember words and when I did, I couldn't say them, it came out as gibberish, the memory went, I was so confused that I couldn't hardly do my job. Writing became chicken scratch. It was like I had aged 40 years overnight and I couldn't understand what was happening to me. I was terrified I was going to loose my job and I knew whatever it was, within a year, I would be on disability and not able to take care of myself. I had quit driving because I hit a pedestrian while looking right at her, I just couldn't connect her, my car and what would happen. I would pass up the places I was going or not even be able to find a place I had been numerous times, I ran stop signs and red lights constantly. I was horrified, terrified and scared to death because I have always taken care of others and am very independent. I saw a TV ad that brought this into light that it could be the Lipitor and came right home and typed in memory loss/Lipitor and BINGO! I immediately got off of it and within the second day, the head fog went away. Every day, I would realize another problem had went away and within a few weeks, I was back to normal again, with NO sign of knee problems anymore. Only then did I realize how much of my energy/life this stuff had stolen from me.. That is time I will never get back! Everyone at work kept asking me what I was on with all this energy and how much ,my job performance improved. This lasted for about 3 months, then the attacks started. Every morning, I would wake up with something attacking a different joint. Horrible, crippling pain that left that joint useless for several days. It always hit while I was sleeping so I never knew what I would find when I woke up in the mornings. Wrists, ankles, elbow's, hips, back.... every joint, none was spared. Then it settled in my shoulder. The pain was so bad I could not use my right arm for about 3 months. MRI showed tendinitis, arthritis, bursitis and a bone spur. Now, I ask you... How does a person with no prior history of joint pain anywhere, wake up one morning and have all this at one time? It is going on a year now that I have suffered with this. There was NO straining, NO injury, NO impact to bring all this on. Shots in that joint only last ONE week and now, it is moving to the other shoulder. Before Lipitor, the only health issues I had was HIGH CHOLESTEROL! I want to also add that in my last colonoscopy, I had 5 pre cancerous polyps when I have never even had a polyp before. I was so stunned that I really thought my doctor had mislabeled the bottles she sent off with my name on them and I kept asking WHY? WHY? WHY? What happened? What changed? How could someone with no polyup history suddenly has 5 and they were all precancerous and in only 5 years since the last one? Pfizer will have to answer for all this one day (and nothing we can say will smear their name like they are doing all by themselves) and I hope they have to pay all of us for the way they have changed our lives and reimburse all those insurance companies that have paid the medical bills for the problems THEY created. I am betting they already have a way set up to avoid doing that (they know it is coming, you can bet on that!). That big tobacco scam has nothing on big pharmacy! They have the doctors so brainwashed that the doctors brush your complaints off and just write you another prescription. They are making complete idiots out of the doctors and permanent patients out of us. Only when the patients start using the doctors for giving them this poison and a few doctors have to pay, will they quit believing the ones who profit from the prescriptions they write. They need to be held accountable too!

Easter weekend (April 8. 2007) i came down with an outer ear infection. The Othorhinolaryngologist whom I consulted discovered that I also had a severe maxillary sinus infection and put me on Levaquin 500 mg, one tablet for ten days. After three days of taking Levaquin my neck and shoulders began to hurt severely keeping me from sleeping. On day seven I noticed signs of tendontitis in my right Achilles tendon. A day later the left achilles tendon also had symptoms of tendonitis, as do my aductor tendons in the groin, my hips hurt also, so do my fingers and wrists. I am absolutely MISERABLE and unable to sleep even now, six days after taking the last Levaquin. I was caught by surprise: how could a sinus infection and prescribed antibiotic cause me to walk like Frankenstein's Monster? But taking Levaquin was the only thing that had changed in my life. I did finally find the insiduous tendonitis connection ("If tendeness of tendons or rupture occurs, stop taking Levaquin immediately") that was NOT mentioned in the flyer from the pharmacy about possible side effects. I am certain that the Nose/Throat/Ear specialist doesn't know about the fact that prescribing Levaquin might clear up a sinus infection but keeps people from being able to walk and puts them into absolute misery because of severe tendonitis pain all over the body. I do hope this will wear off as it is almost causing me to contemplate that this is no way to live. Friderun Ankel-Simons, D.Sc.

After suffering severe reaction to a penicillin based antibiotic, my doctor switched me to Levaquin. Luckily I purchased only 4 days worth. The second night, I had excrutiating pain in my left knee. I took one more dose of Levaquin and then reread the warnings. After only 3 doses, I cannot walk for the pain and swelling in my left knee, hip, ankel, shoulder etc. It is spreading to the right side as well. I have a headache and dizziness. I assumed much like the diarrea reaction from the first antibiotic, that the symptoms would go away as the drug left my body. I am now concerned that they may linger indeffinately. What is the average time frame for the swelling, painful, joint reaction?