Baseball bat symptoms and conditions

Hi, I am a 45 year old male with high cholesterol. prescribed 20mg. of Lipitor to control it. Am having a strange twitching muscle in my right calf since I started the meds. Forearms hurt, trouble sleeping, twitching in my sleep, apparently, tiredness. I'm worried about going off it. My dad died of a heart attack. Would it hurt to try going off it for about 3 months?

I saw my family doctor on May 16th for a new onset UTI. I hadn't had one of these in about 8 years but I knew how bad they could get if you didn't get them treated right away. I did the over the counter URISTAT for 2 days until I got an appointment. After doing the UA dipstick, they confirmed my UTI because of the high leukocytes and gave me sample packets of LEVAQUIN 500 mg. b.i.d. for 5 days. I went home thinking, "Hey, this will be easy and I will feel great in a few days." I WAS NEVER SO WRONG ABOUT SOMETHING IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!!! I took my first dose that evening and went to bed. I woke up the next morning with a headache so bad that I almost passed out when I lifted my head off the pillow. The UTI went away after a few days, but the migraine stayed for over 2 weeks. The left side of my neck felt like I had been hit from behind with a baseball bat and my scalp became so sore from the pain that I couldn't even use a blow dryer on my hair. I made 2 more trips back to the doctor complaining of the horrible migraine headaches, light sensitivity, neck pain and joint pain. He put me on IMITREX, PROPANOLOL, APAP, and FLEXERIL to control the migraines. I MAXED OUT THE DAILY DOSAGE ON THESE MEDS EVERY DAY WITH NO RELIEF! I went back to the doctor again and he decided to run some lab tests. The next day, my headache had started to get better but I noticed a lump under my left armpit (large pea size) and that I had significant joint pain in my right middle and index finger. My middle finger would hardly bend in the mornings when I got up and the stiffness in my neck was still there. Later that day on my way out for a mini vacation with my family, my doctor called to tell me that my ANA had come back positive and he wanted to send me to a Rheumatologist to rule out things like LUPUS, RA, etc. Needless to say, I was totally freaked out for the remainder of my trip until I went back to the doctor to review my ANA Titer. My titer was high at 1:160, but he keeps telling me not to worry because this happens all of the time and an ANA and high titer is not definitive. I want to also note that one of my friends and my husband have also had very similar experiences. She was convinced by the physicians that she had Lymphoma because of her ANA and titer and my husband was certain that he had RA. Both are negative!
I am still concerned about all of this even though I am feeling better and it may be that I have permanent side effects from this. I was a totally healthy person and there was nothing going on besides a UTI until the LEVAQUIN was introduced. It has been almost a month since I took this drug and the things I have been reading online are horrible. I am sure that I will never take one of these antibiotics again. My advice to anyone else is to READ< READ> READ! There are some excellent websites out there and of coures the blogs are great for information from other patients. A good site for information about positive ANA's is:
http://www.rheumatology.org/public/factsheets/fana.asp
Also, read up on LEVAQUIN and the other FLUOROQUINOLONES. I did not know that these are the drugs that will be used to treat people in the event of a biological war. It's pretty scary....

I was given a 10 day dose of LEVAQUIN for a mild bronchitis/respiratory ailment on Jan. 29, 2008. I took 1 500mg pill for the full ten days. Three days after I stopped taking this medication, I experienced incredibly painful swelling in both knees. I could barely walk, and couldn't bend my knees. I was scared, upset, and in absolute misery. I spent a week literally throwing myself backwards onto chairs. It was unbelievable. When I could finally get to my normal health care provider 5 days later, she immediately identified the culprit as the Levaquin I had taken. She said she knew it to cause people's tendons to burst. It was obvious since it was both knees that it was not an injury and I never had any other problem with my legs. I am, or shall I say I was an avid walker. I was told to see an orthopedic doctor if I had not improved in one week. I had not improved in a week. The orthopedic doctor sent me for an MRI which showed irreversible, permanent cartilage damage in my left knee. The right knee he didn't MRI at the time, saying he could determine what he needed to know from the one knee and would only be able to do corrective surgery on my knees in 6 week intervals. This horrible drug has permanently altered my way of life. I was a 53 year old active, ambulatory adult who would walk miles a day. Two months later, I still have constant knee pain, cannot stand for long periods of time without leaning on something and can no longer kneel, etc. I can only walk around a bit and if I'm on my feet for long periods of time I experience knee, ankle pain and swelling. I sent a report to the FDA who obviously cares nothing about this situation, since I'm not the only unsuspecting person to have this happen. I've been studying this drug now and there was evidence in animal clinical trials of joint and tendon damage, To me it would have been no different an experience if someone had come up and hit me with a baseball bat across both knees. I am permanently damaged from Levaquin. I think it's criminal this drug is given to younger ambulatory adults at all.

I started taking Boniva 150mg Jan.1,2008.I followed directions. By Sat.Jan 5t.I woke up thinking I was paralyzed.It felt like somebody beat my legs with a rubber mallet and I had been hit behind the knees with a baseball bat.To this dayFeb10,2008 the pain has never gone away.I only took this medication once and my legs are still in severe pain everyday.It hurts the worst after I sit or lye down for a while.It feels like my legs have been poured in concrete, they are really heavy and whenever I sit or stand up ,it feels like my knees are breaking. I would not wish this on anybody,it could be used as a form of torture treatment if you ask me. If you have ever had any experience like this from this medicine please email me and let me know if it ever goes away

I was prescribed Sulfamethoxazole-TMP tablets for a severe UTI that I developed. I was given 10 tablets total--and instructed to take two per day. Within an hour of taking the first tablet, my UTI felt much better, however, the rest of me felt horrible! I got nausea, dizziness, extreme confusion and depression, and stiffness and pain in my neck and shoulders. I continued the medication anyway, b/c I never had sulfur or ANY medicinal allergies. I had difficulty sleeping the next few nights, I would wake up in the middle of the night for no reason. The soreness of my neck and shoulders then extended to my butt and thighs. I can't describe how uncomfortable this was. I was sitting at work literally writhing in pain from what I felt in my legs. (and I blamed it on my poor desk chair!!) This happened on day three of five. Also, while at work I had an "episode" if you will, where I became extremely confused and disoriented, and nearly had a panic attack. It felt like the world was crashing down on me!! It only lasted for 15 minutes or so, but I will not forget the way I felt. All the while, my UTI symptoms were getting better and better. I was completely unable to have a bowel movement...sorry for this information...but it will start to make you worry if you can't poo for 5 days!! Day four of five is what I like to call "The Enlightenment". I was getting in the shower, still dizzy as hell, and noticed that I was very itchy. I looked at my lower back and I was covered in red, itchy bumps. I was say they looked like small mosquito bites, all in a cluster of about 8 on either side of my lower back. I realized then and there that this medication really was ravaging my body like I had feared. I found this site and others online which confirmed that I wasn't crazy...just poisoned. Later that day I was resting on my couch and looked in the mirror and saw that my entire face was covered in a red rash. (and I got a horrific headache) The worst part is you don't really look outwardly sick or anything...you just feel terrible. Everyone I told was very nonchalant about it..."Oh just take some Benadryl". I've lost my faith in the FDA. I stopped this medication one pill shy of my last dose. I am terrified of the possible lasting effects and will never take this drug again!! PLEASE!! NEVER TAKE THIS MEDICATION!! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!

I was prescribed the drug for a bladder infection, and on the second day of medication I woke up feeling like someone had taken a baseball bat and beaten me with it. It was worse in my lower back (I'm assuming it was my kidneys that were actually sore), but my legs were sore too. Later that night after work I thought I'd do some light stretching of my legs thinking maybe it was just from being on my feet for eight hrs. About an hour later I was relaxing on the couch, and started experiencing a shooting pain on the outside of my left calf, 45 min later it dissipated then it happened again on the outside of my thigh, another 45 min go by it dissipates, then it comes back on my inner thigh, 45 min later, dissipates, and settles just below my knee above the calf on the inside of my leg. Soooo, I'm thinking I just stretched too hard or my legs were just that sore, but two days later I find bruises in the exact areas that the pains were.

After reading so many of everyone’s stories, I feel I got off easy, but not without some agony. I developed a double whammy of acute bronchitis and pleurisy in my left lung. If you are not familiar with pleurisy, it feels like hit with a baseball bat in your ribs each time you attempt to take a normal breath. I was completely uninformed of the condition and it is now burned in my memory forever. I was prescribed azithromycin and Prednisone for a month. I started with two 20mg (40mgtotal) tabs for 7 days and then tapered off in the following manner. 1 ½ tabs for 7 days, 1 tab for 7days and then ½ a tab for the last 7 days. I have read many of the users who have been on Prednisone for years at a time and my heart goes out to each and every one of you. I experienced a large number of side effects for being on it for such a short period. My wife was ready to attach the ole cinder block to my ankles and drop me in the lake, but she stuck through it. The first side effects began within the first week. My appetite went through the stratosphere, my heart felt like it was going to erupt out of my chest on some nights and finally, my memory just went to (for lack of a better work) shit. After coming home from the grocery store on multiple occasions, I left the house key in the key hole on the outside, only to find it the next morning on my way out the door. My short term memory was just misfiring constantly. There are too many funny stories to tell. For some odd reason, I did not gain near as much weight as I should have given the mass quantity of food I ingested. The total weight gain was only around seven or eight pounds. The most prominent side effect was my mood swings. I am a laid back person my nature, but not for that 30 day period. I had to make a conscious effort to not put myself in a position to disagree with another individual. When it did occur, it was just not a pretty site. A few of the other side effects were lack of sleep and profuse sweating. I would wake up every morning and my pillow was drenched. I live in Austin, Texas, so the AC was pegged and 67 degrees and no one was allowed to touch the thermostat without grave consequences. I broke out the winter pajamas for the kids and my wife wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing, while I was spread eagle under the ceiling fan (Highest setting of course) in my birthday suit, and was still only the in the moderate comfort range. More side effects included swelling of my ankles and hands. I was not on it long enough to get the infamous moon face or the hump on the back of the neck. The side effects after stopping the dosage were no less entertaining. I took my last dose seven days ago. The three main effects have been rashes on my ankles and under my arms, severe energy loss and heartburn. The worst of it all has been my energy level, or the lack of. My energy level crashed so hard I have had to literally peel myself out of bed each morning. If I did not have a two year old daughter and a four year old son, I would probably still be asleep right now. It has been getting a little easier each day. I have started walking each morning now and hopefully this will end soon. I have also been drinking large amounts of water. That has seemed to help me out. The heartburn was easily treatable with some Pepcid AC. I hope my experience offers some solace to those in a similar situation and fair warning to those who are about to embark on this medication.

DO NOT TAKE THIS POISON!
flu like symptoms, headaches for 2 wks, nausea,
extreme leg pain as if struck by a baseball bat,
very weak, no energy for several weeks following...
It has been over a year and still not completely
recovered!! I can't beleive this is still being prescribed.

Our normally mild-mannered 7-year-old son has only been on Singulair for a few days, and we noticed immediate behavioral changes including acting out, aggressive behavior, and he even went so far as to hit another child with a baseball bat at baseball practice last night! Because we had also experienced behavioral side effects with Zyrtec (aggressiveness, etc.), we were particularly in tune with the possiblity that sudden changes of this type might be attributable to the medications. We had thought that switching him to the Singulair would help with the allergies and NOT have the behavioral side effects that we had experienced with the Zyrtec, but found instead that it was even worse! I think we're going to stay off all drugs and just buy extra kleenex for allergies!

I take vicodin with soma. If I stay up and wait for relief of pain, pain begins to subside and I pick up dirty glasses left out and head for the kitchen. I begin cleaning my kitchen--dishwasher emptied then filled, counter scrubbed, cupboards wiped down, fridge wiped, floor swept and mopped...it's as if I'd taken amphetamines...off to bed I go and can't sleep til around 3am. My pains gone and I get a clean kitchen out of the deal...waking up for work is another story, though. Don't take too many vicodin with somas or visa-versa....unless your kitchen needs a good cleaning!

I WAS prescribed 500 milligrams of Levaquin for 21 days. After 14 days on the medication I could barely walk. My achilles tendons felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bAT. That was in January. It is now August and I still have pain. My thighs hurt and I can barely lift my legs to walk up stairs. My knees ache severely, but it is mostly the weakness that is bothering me. I always had strong legs. Now I find it difficult to get up from a sitting position. I can't imagine what it will be like in a few more years. I am under a new doctor's care and am trying to weed out any other causes. I plan to sue if I do not regain the strength in my legs.

I had two TIA'S In May and they put me on Lisinopril and told me to walk and then walk some more. After about two blocks I would start to develope a pain in the calf of my left leg, not a cramp but it felt like some one hit me in the back of the leg with a baseball bat. With pain I could do a mile and then it got worse. I would need to stop numerous times during the mile and give the leg three or four minutes rest. After the rest it wouild feel normal for about three minutes and then the pain would start to return. I have told my doctor that I think it is the Lisinopril that is causing it but he says it is impossible.

I have had a ultrasound done on my legs and it shows about 50% artery blockage but the specialist says it would need to be 80% clogged to cause these symptons.

I would be interested to know if any of you have had these symptons that you can directly charge to Lisinopril.

I have a 4 year old step son, that has been on Singulair since he was 18 months old. Before his mother and I had gotten married she had noticed that his moods were not the same, his sleeping habits had changed, to where he would be wide awake and wired to passing out like a drunk would. He would make comments like he was stupid, he was worthless, he was dumb. He would tell you he loved you one minute and the next he would say that he hated you and everyone else in the room. He would hit himself everywhere on his body (including hitting himself and other men in the family jewels) and hittiing women in the same area. From the time that he started taking Singulair he weighed around 28.12 pounds on 4-4-03 and shot to 32.01 pounds 24 days later on 4-28-03, and with in almost a year he shot to 50 pounds at 37 inches tall on 1-30-04. By 2-16-05 at the age of 4 he weight 70 pounds at 41 and 1/4 inches tall. He would bruise very easy, and from him playing in the yard and trying to play sports like he would see on tv he would come back in looking like someone had taking his plastic baseball bat and beat every inch of color out of him. At many times when his mother would take him back to the Doctor, which the doctor himself had never seen my step son and a nurse practitioner who saw him every time and my wife would tell them that he was acting out and the effects that were coming out in him, and the she would raise hell with my wife because she would take my step son off the meds that she would perscribe him. I have gotten a copy of my step son med records from this Doctor's office and have found out that they did make a note in his charts that my wife told them about the effects and they never tried to take him off the Singulair or even looked into the meds. And the Doctor would sign off on everything that his office would send out to my wife in the mail. (Which tells me one that he was not reading the charts that was put in front of him or that he wanted the KICK BACKS that Merck pay Doctors who prescribe Merck Products more then he cares about what these meds are doing to Children and Adults) My step son had an appointment with this Doctor on 6-15-2005 which by this time my wife and I had decided that this Doctor Office had done enough damage to her son that we would never take him back there again, and they can not understand why we will not bring him back there. I started doing a lot of research on this med and have found out that Singulair had killed 2 children under the age of 5. Snice then I have called Merck and asked them if they knew what their product was doing to children and adults. And they acted like my step son was the only one that was suffering from these side effects and that they did not care. I have talked to a lawyer and the lawyer himself stated that my step son would have to die before there could be a lawsuit put against Merck. It seems like we are fighting a losing battle. I have contacted the FDA, and made a report about this med and have sent them the info on what I have found and other posting that I have found on the internet and a copy of my step son med charts. I am starting as of 6-30-2005 to collect names and info of others who have had the same effects that Singulair has done to them or their children, so we can put a stop to what these Doctors are doing to our children and to us. I plan on taking all the info that I collect to the FDA and to another Lawyer that has told me that if I can get enough Names of people that have a copy of their med charts and the charts of their children and can prove that these effects did happen then he would be more then happy to file papers in Court against Merck, and even the FDA if the FDA did not pull Singulair after I have sent all the info that I get before coming to him. Even if the FDA calls for a recall of this very dangerous med, then we would still file papers against Merck and the FDA for not pulling this sooner. Thank You for reading this and please if you can help so we can get this off the market please contact me.
Brian ******

wow, I was prescribed levaquin 9 days ago for a UTI and started having a pain in my neck 2 days agoI didn't give it much thought as this happens off and on in that spot over the years. Then last night my right arm developed deep and severe pain as if I had worked out wrong. Except I haven't worked out in months. I became suspicious and decided to look up side effects of the drug, something to this point have never felt motivated to do, to see if joint pain was listed as a possible side effect. I happened upon this site and found that as a recurring and prominent side effect. I am very grateful to find this site. I was considering refilling my precription as I feared my infection was getting worse. I had sever prostitis ten years ago which caused weakness and muscle pain in my legs and abdominal area. I now realize that my fear of that recurring is probably based on symptoms which are for me simply a minor side effect of this medication. My arm though is in severe pain, like I was hit by a baseball bat. I am discarding my last two pills now, realizing that the medication has probably helped me clear up the UTI. I am hoping that I will recover in the next few days from the pain which clearly appears to have been induced by the "cure". Once again this site has been very very valuable to me in confirming my suspicion. Thanks again
Richard W