Medical profession symptoms and conditions

I took the drug for 2 days for a sinus infection. Midway thru the first day, I started to feel numbness 2 front teeth, palate, upper lip and nose. Thought it was the sinus. Took one more pill.

The shoulder and elbow pain was exacerbated by the pill as I already have tendinitis.

The sinus infection is gone, at least for now. I hope it doesn't come back to bite me!

I was fitted with the Mirena in January 2009 as I have PCOS and I had bled constantly throughout 2008. They thought that the Mirena would be the best course of action as BCP just never agree with me.

I was ok until around March, when the coil REALLY kicked in. I had mood swings, lethargy, a real 'whatever' attitude and worst of all - my extremely healthy sex drive just got up and left. It has affected my relationship with my fiance as we only got together in December 2008 so the Mirena has dogged our entire relationship.

I finally got it removed in August, and for the first two weeks things were great, then they just went back to how they were March-August. I am going to my GP tomorrow as I want advice - the medical profession put me here, they can help me out. I want my notes to be updated with how the Mirena has affected me.

I even had to sit in A&E for hours as it had moved and caused me to bleed heavily!

If you haven't had it fitted - don't!

I check back from time-to-time on this website. For me it's returning to the crime scene. It's like looking at an Alfred Hitchcock film, the one about a sociopath who observes a sea of humanity from a top of the ferris wheel, and concludes that humans are just so many ants for whom the observer should not be overly concerned. And so a large pharmaceutical company devised levaquin. From a top of the ferris wheel it appeared to big pharma that its medication helped many people and squashed only a few. It's a tad sinister. The anonymity of it all. The stunning ineptitude of the FDA. The lassitude. The profit motive. A pharmaceutical scourge adversely impacts the health & welfare of thousands upon thousands of ignorant and hopeful patients who put their trust in their doctors' hands. Harried doctors in turn put their trust in hapless pharmaceutical representatives who pass along trial packages of ludicrously-named meds, which the reps urge upon doctors too harried to read the insert's small print. In some instances the patients become deathly sick from the prescribed medications. But the patinet cannot discern cause and effect. "Are you nuts?" asked the doctor. You want me to believe that the pill caused the pain? No way. I'm your doctor, and I believe it not at all." But the pill DID cause the pain. Image the aftermath of levaquin where the patient experiences insomnia, depression, heart palpitations, profuse sweating, eye floaters, headaches, tendonopathy in the calves, ringing-in-the-ear, anxiety, and intense agitation. "Gee, doc, I only suffered a mite from prostatitis BEFORE I took your pills. But it seems like my life is on-hold, in suspended animation, after I took three pills from your five-pill prescription. Do you think there is any connection between taking the pills and the fact I feel so awful that I want to die?" Strangely the medical profession by and large sees no evil, hears no evil, smells no evil. The patient feels as if he were in one of H G Wells' short stories about a small island where medical experiments are performed routinely on caged and mute humanoids. The experimenters profess ignorance, visitors to the island remain ignorant about the experiments. Only the human guinea pigs know the full extent of the horror, but they remain drugged and too incapacitated to make any impact even upon the well intentioned. It's really ghoulish. It's fiendish. It's today's reality for many for whom the health care industry has run amok and gobbles up 16% of GNP.

Hey guys, just wanted to thank you for speaking out. I just had a baby three months ago and so my doctor suggested the Mirena. Two months after my pregnancy I had it inserted, however 10 days later I started having these exact symptoms: dizziness/foggy head, anger/anxiety/and moodiness, I new something was wrong. In addition, the string attached to the IUD hurt and irritated me down there. Realizing my gut instinct is usually spot on, I decided to research a little and thankfully found you guys. When I went back to my doctor and informed her of my symptoms she said the symptoms were due to sleep deprivation from the baby ( but I am a stay at home mom, and therefore take naps with my baby) hormones, and that it takes a while to adjust to my body. She said I should stay with it. However after a good 21 days, I had her remove it. It has only been two days and I am still feeling dizzy. I guess it takes a while for the drug to exist your body. My mom has been in the medical profession and has always informed me that the drug companies withhold many truths as they are a franchise and optimally want to make their money. The sicker we stay (sometimes from their own drugs) the richer they become as we now need another drug to counteract the first. Be careful ladies and lets stick together. We know our bodies better then any one else!

Ladies,

I hope you don’t mind a male posting on this forum but I do have a reason for doing so. I am a Coroner’s Officer in England. I will not at this time disclose whereexactly I am based as I need to protect the identity of the family. I would however like to use you as a sounding board in the hope that you can help me, help the family and perhaps, just perhaps, I can help you.

Sadly I am dealing with a suicide. The lady in question, who has taken her own life is in her 40’s, married and has children (all over 11 years). The lady has no history what so ever of any form of depression during her life.

The lady has described her life as being perfect with a family that loves her and who she loves in return and as the Investigator I believe she is truthful in that comment. She states she has been extremely happy until last week. She makes comments of - I am just very ill, cannot sleep, feel dizzy, cannot concentrate, sometimes lose my vision, feel sick all the time and sweat at night. She cannot understand, but it makes her feel bad. I am not myself, something has made me ill which means I can’t be my normal positive, active busy self. I can’t bring myself to do anything that I normally love, like gardening, cooking etc. I am losing my memory badly going fuzzy in the head.

Her final comment, which is the one that has prompted me to post on this forum (with the permission of the family) is ‘I just don’t understand this – I’m so sorry . I can’t understand myself or what is wrong with me or what I’m doing so sorry. Just remember I’m not myself somebody else has taken over – I don’t know if it is all the anti-histamine pills that has mixed up my chemical balance along with the Mirena coil or is it just me’.

The mention of the Mirena coil has therefore prompted me to investigate it. I am not, by any means suggesting that this is responsible but it would be wrong of me to discount it after having read the posts on this forum and other places on the Internet.

The lady in question had the coil inserted in 2004/5 and it would appear that there were no problems or side effects reported.

I am therefore looking for some help from you. Some comments on what I have posted etc. Some advice on where to obtain expert advice (although I am trying some avenues of my own).

I may also ask, depending on what help you can give me if you would be willing to identify yourself to me.

Thank you

P.

I am in shock and so glad that I came to this website. I have been taking simvastatin for about 5 months now and this morning I decided to do a web search with the words simvastatin and headaches. Everyday I for the last two months I have been asking myself why am I having these terrible headache. My Doctor did a CT scan, I had my eyes tested, I had my hearing tested, my blood tested and everything comes back good. I realized that I have to do something about this problem myself because my doctor prescribed another pill for the headache and that's that. Today I did not take the medication and I will not be taking it again. The symptoms that everyone described are so real to me but the headaches were the worst. I have to thank you all for posting this information. I now feel that I will get my life back.
Thanks verdul1

I have had the mirena for 4 weeks now and i am still spotting which i totally expect. However i have had a constant dull ache in the left lower abdomen since it was put in which every day for a few hours turns into a stabbing pain which feels like appendicitis it is so bad but i know it can't be as i have no appendix it was removed. I was not instructed to feel for the string but been in the medical profession i thought i would as i wondered if this pain was related to the mirena? 2 days post insertion i could clearly feel the strings now i can located my cervix and i definitely have no strings does any one have any experience with this? Is this pain related to the mirena?

Due to chest infection I was on bottle after bottle of prednisone for 3 months.
I had the nerves of full blown menopause with no relief!! Thank god for a caring family. They could have walked out, no one could have blamed them. Anyway, I went on vacation for one week 9 months later, and came home with my 5th, yes 5th bladder infection, Dr. put a test strip, and low and behold...I have diabetics and (my number was 495 a1c was 10+), steroid induced he told me. 2 years later I do not eat sugar at all, (numbers are 120+ aic is still 7.5+) I still have diabetics and cataract in right eye. No one in my family has it, just me. Better make sure the cure for one is worth a lifelong battle with the other. There must be a better way to fix lung infections!!! I also had a heart attack since then, don't know when it just showed up on my last physical, I was clear on the physical prior to chest infection. I now have a DNR tatto on my right wrist...I don't have insurance and I'll be damned if the medical profession ends up with what little I have to leave to my family. As I said, make sure the cure is worth what it may cost you!!!

I am allergic to Prednisone. My primary Dr. does not believe me nor does most of the medical profession. The arrogance and assumptions that Dr.'s make has me at my wits end as I am allergic to many things. The 2 main things are any form of Ibuprofen and Prednisone.
I had an LAVH and oophorectomy performed last Tuesday.
To make a long story short, after surgery the attending Dr. ordered Motrin. I went into anaphylactic shock and was aware that I was in serious trouble but didn't know why. I thought I had developed a new allergy as all my known allergies were clearly listed on my chart. As they were moving me to ICU he stated he was going to give me Prednisone and my family told him no, you cannot give her that, she is allergic to it. Once inside ICU I became aware that I was in a fight for my life as they were going to keep experimenting on me like a guinea pig until they killed me. The Dr. came to me and said he was going to give me Prednisone and I fought back. I told him l would NOT take the Prednisone. I told him I did not want him or anyone else there to administer one more thing to me. I would not take anything except Benadryl and I demanded to be discharged. (IV/Oxygen/Catheter/everything still hooked up to me) Luckily, my surgeon showed back up at that point and took charge of the situation, immediately administered the Benadryl I had been asking for and I did indeed leave the hospital later that night with her blessing.
I believe in my heart that had they given me the Prednisone there is a good probability it would have turned tragic.
You have to fight for yourself because sometimes the Dr.'s think they know more than you do about your own body.

I have to comment..... look at how many entries there are showing side effects.. so many people have the same symptoms. does this not open the eyes of others to accept that it can be a real problem to some people, admittedly not all, but it obviously doesn't agree with all of us. I could not believe my ears the other week when the local GP said that it's rare there are side effects, then 4 hours later a DR. in a hospital emergency department stated that statin drugs are very common for muscle problems, in particular one named brand (need I say more??) Couldn't wipe the smile off my face after hearing someone finally admitting it..
Come on professional people, start listening and accepting that people do know their own bodies and can see and feel so many vast changes in their day to day activities. Maybe guide people to a better understanding of diet and lifestyle before dishing out meds. so quickly. Give us some credit......some of us exercise regularly, we want to live healthy too and all this has done is put a stop to that luxury.
I have to add, I posted earlier this month, I AM getting much better each day, clearer thinking, vast improvement in mobility, so please stay positive and take care of yourselves, obviously we all need a little patience, hard to do after some long term suffering i know, we want overnight fixes just to feel normal again.. :-)

i am really glad i found this site, and got to really understand what may be my problem. its the SINGULAIR, i really believe. i will share my story so no one has to go through what i have been going through. (i just stopped my medicine a day or two ago, so i will repost and see if i start seeing changes in my behavior) well first off i am 19, and i started taking singulair when i was a senior in high school, so about 2 years ago. i didn't see any noticeable changes for awhile, except for probably a year now, a little more or a little less. for this whole time, i have not been sleeping, i wake up 3-4 times a night, fully awake and can never fall back asleep for hours. its almost like my body tries shutting down, but my brain never does, i have the craziest dreams, most of them are me suffocating or not getting enough air, which are really scary. I have been having really bad anxiety, panic attacks, basically i have been just feeling like i am going to die every second of the day. the feeling of being trapt inside my own body. it seems like every month it just gets worse and worse. i cant focus, i don't go to school, i don't work, and i believe its from the side effects of this medicine. i also always feel so tired, and so weak, i cant even look through a clothes rack without my arm aching. i have been having a hard time breathing, which is odd seeing its supposed to help me breathe, i have been sick at least once a month, through this whole time i have been going to my Dr. at least twice a month or more, telling her my symptoms, i even went in their one day crying i was so scared. and she just kept telling me, its probably all in your head, this, that and the other. she even put me on probably 10 different medicines trying to see which one would help. and of course none of them helped anything. I started thinking, and feeling like i was going crazy, what was wrong with me? i wondered constantly. For a couple months now, i figured i had to take it into my own hands to figure out what was wrong, seeing this Dr. doesn't seem to understand me. I looked up every disease or problem imaginable, and had blood tests done, but every thing came back normal. i didn't understand what was going on, every month i just feel worse and worse, lately i have been telling my mom i just want to die, that i cant keep living my life this way, of course i would not do this for the fact that i couldn't do that to my mom or my little sister, or anyone, but it feels like it would be easier then dealing with everything i have been. along with everything else i was/am feeling, i also feel a lot of hate toward myself, i feel like i am not good at anything, and i feel very ugly, sometime i don't even want to leave my house, because i just feel disgusting. Finally, a couple days ago, my little sister which is 10 and really smart i may add, was watching TV and they happened to have a commercial for SINGULAIR. she told me that everything i have been saying that was wrong with me (she hears me complaining a lot about all my problems to my mom) were all the side effects from SINGULAIR. of course i wanted to know more about this even though i have taken this medicine for awhile without any of these problems, i started researching and realized that all of my symptoms happened to be the side effects from singulair. and then i started reading other peoples stories about it, and about linking it to suicides and everything. i told my mom and i told her i wanted to stop the medicine right away, at least just to see if this is what it was all along. i haven't taken it for 3 days now i believe, and i already see a difference, i actually get tired now instead of staying up reading till 5 in the morning, and i haven't been waking up at all during the night. i am pretty angry that my dr. couldn't figure this out, or at least maybe even think about it. for awhile i thought i was honestly going crazy, i lived in fear for so long that something was extremely wrong with me, that i haven't lived my life the way i should of, or wanted to. i never thought that it was just the EXTREME side effects of this medicine. i am so thankful for my little sister listening to all my complaints and all my anger toward myself, and actually putting it together that it would be my medicine that was supposed to make my asthma better. as i said its only been a couple days and i already feel better, i will repost to tell you if im back to my "normal" self after being off this medicine for a longer period of time. i feel so grateful for my little sister, who would have guessed she would tell me what a Dr. couldn't even think about. i really feel that if i get back to my normal self, i really have her to thank for saving my life. <3

February 24,2009
I am a 66 year old woman in good physical condition(that is until I took Levaquin) I took it in December 2008 and it is over two months later and
i am still suffering from extreme jount and muscle pain especially in my left
shoulder and left knee. I took it for twelve days for a sinus infection and
on the eighth day woke up with great swelling lumps on the back of both knees. Initially thought it was just old age and arthritis. Soon all the joints in my body begin to ache and swell causing severe constriction of movement. Could hardly manipulate the stairs in our house. I quit taking the meds as I had never experienced anything like that before and knew it was the Levaquin. I can only hope that the damage is not permanent but am afraid it might be. I can't sleep on my left side for the pain and it never goes away. Left knee is still swollen and sore. Elbow joints are also painful and hands are sore. I know the medical profession will not acknowledge this so I didn't even tell the Dr. This drug is dangerous
and should be taken off the market. L. H., Blanchard, Ok.

I have read soo many negative responses in regard to this medication you would think these people are all in the medical profession and could diagnose their symptoms as being avelox triggered.For a few of these people that could be true but unlikely.People have this tendency to read about side affects and believe they are having them.For a minority of people thats true,thats why they are called side effects.I have been taking this drug for 4 days now and I am feeling great!!! I started out with body aches,fever,severe sore throat and sinuses that would not stop.By day 3 only minor sore throat remains.

I had my thyroid removed because of cancer. I was 18 years old. At that time, I was put on Armour thyroid because that was the only thing available. I am now 56. Somewhere along the line they figured out how to make chemical thyroid and of course I was put on it - for the next 35 years. Blood checked so many times I can't remember, dosages changed. Always a runny nose, hot and cold always a problem. I drink something hot and I start sweating, I drink something with ice and I get the chills. Back on Armour now - not the absolute best - but certainly much better than synthroid! Still what do you do when you have no thyroid? Also to let you all know, after the thyroid was removed I was treated with Radioactive Iodine, and told that I probably could not have children. Well, I am stubborn - I have three boys - had them at ages 23, 25 and 37! Many, many problems through the years ( oh yeah, the radiation treatment that I had at 1 month old fried my thymus as well as starting the cancer - it took 17 years for the cancer to develop. It was only after all this that they began to find out the you really did need a thymus too. Oh well, I could go on and on. So find me a solution to my thyroid that is gone. Can we regrow it like they are regrowing ears, fingers, etc?? Something to look into for the medical profession...

I stumbled on this site while doing research on DVT's. I am a nurse and was on YAZ continuously (skipping the inactive pills and going straight to a new pack) to control my migraines for about a year. I developed 3 DVT's in my left calf and behind my left knee. I have been having charlie horse cramps as well. I am now on lovenox injections 2 times a day and 7.5 mg. of coumadin to deal with the clots.I have also had the issues with heart palpitations, chest tightness, and feeling like i can't catch my breath. I read in one of the posts where it was described as she "had to think to catch her breath". I totally agree! I thought this drug was great, until now. I stopped it last wed 1/7/09 when they found the clots in my calf/knee. Can anyone with experience tell me how long it took them to recover from the palpitations and breathing issues. I am a very health person, non smoker, with no prior or family history of any clotting issues. Thanks for all the info on here and God Bless everyone who has suffered!

I was put in the hospital November 8th, they were giving me Levaquin through IV's and then after they seriously hurt the back of my hand, I demanded to take meds by mouth-I had already had around 5 days of this through the IV-I was diagnosed at the emergency room with a ruptured appendix, and it had been that way for 3 weeks-it took 1 doctor and 2 hospitals to diagnose that!! really makes we wonder about the medical profession these days! so when I was released from the hospital after a 6 day stay and appendix still in me, they gave me a prescription for Levaquin for another 10 days-well, I took it for 8 days and had to stop all together-I have been so weak and from my knees down kill me! I have bad joint pain in my knees and hips, but I thought maybe this could be from sitting in a hospital bed for all those days-now that I've read all these complaints, I'm wondering if I should have taken this stuff at all! I hadn't taken any kind of antibiotics for over 3 years-have been ok up til now. I am so scared of the pain and tingling in my feet, thought maybe it could be blood clots in my legs from not moving around as much as I'm used to-my grandmother recently passed from a blood clot and my cousin also at the age of 33 died from a clot after knee surgery! so what do I do?? is it a clot or is it the dreadful drug "Levaquin" that is causing me all this pain?? any suggestions out there?? and I have no insurance either! what a terrible experience!

I'am 45 year old female and I have been on simvastatin 40mg for at least 6 months. Here in the past 3 weeks I have had very weak legs and arms,they felt like they were wet noodles. I also was getting these week spells where it felt like I couldn't lift my arms or legs cause they was so weak.I had pain in my ear and big bad headaches that wouldn't leave. My heart feels like it skips a beat and I get very bad anxiety attacks. I have been to the ER several times and they can not find anything wrong. I even got very dizzy. The ER doctor told me that the dizziness and headaches was from a inter ear disturbance,well I think the inter ear disturbance might have come from the simvastatin after running across this web site. I'm going off the simvastatin tomorrow! Oh yeah and forgot to mention the weight gain and the tiredness and how I feel like a couch zombie. I think I'll stick to my salmon oil.

Started with a Pred pak for a sinus infection. Made my heart race and had tach and early heartbeat, which kept me from sleeping. Went to Cardiologist. Several doctors denied that the Pred would cause the rapid heartbeat. Then the Cardiologist did an echo and found a pericardial effusion and some weird spots on my lungs. They suspected lung cancer which may cause the effusion, so I had surgery to do a pericardial window and a lung biopsy. Then a pulmonologist decided to put me on Pred again...steady dosage...because she didn't know what else to do. (Didn't have lung cancer) I didn't have any more funny heartbeats, so maybe the pred didn't cause it after all. But I've gained 40 pounds. My hair has grown faster, and I've gotten some facial hair (not supposed to have that, being a female)...which I call fur. Moon face with cheeks that are hard, muscle cramps, can't sleep, but once I do go to sleep, I can't wake up. Tired all the time, headaches, joint pain-sometimes severe, dry skin, generally bad attitude, with very little patience, low potassium levels which add to my muscle cramping problems, difficulty swallowing, indigestion which I've never had, with painful and burning reflux. And occasionally when I eat, I have the rapid heartbeat again. I go in search of food like I'm going to store it in my thighs for winter. Anything you eat will turn to fat, including protein. Can't wait to get off this stuff which will take until June of next year. Then my doctor says it will be 3 months before all these effects wear off. No one told me I would get fur.

I also have a child who has been on this drug for about a month and as I sit here and read these blogs the more I am remembering complaints made by my son. He has been getting into trouble at school lately, irritable, angry, sad, leg pains, stomach aches and also having trouble getting to sleep at night. I am an RN and it took me to glance at the pill bottle today to realize that I needed to do a little more research about this drug when I saw that it said "mood changes and depression". I feel horrible because after a great 2nd grade year I was disappointed that he was not behaving as well this year. I know know that the $60.00 wasted and tiring reprimanding was all a waste of my time! I owe my poor son an apology as I will be taking him off of this drug today! More information and advocacy needs to be available especially when core users are children who have little to no voice!!!

Oh My Gosh - as I sit here with abdominal cramps typing my experience - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I started taking Lisinopril in late April 2008. On May 2 I had severe abdominal cramps and massive vomiting for 8 hours. Finally got myself to ER after I sent my family on to our vacation (I joined 2 days later). The ER attributed it to food poisoning. Lo and behold, I had another "attack" on May 9th. Back to ER I went (my husband witnessed my attack and insisted I go). They took X-rays and MRI - found intestinal inflammation but didn't know why. My internest send me to gastro dr. Third attack hit on June 5th and gastro doctor sent me to major hospital ER. They, too, did MRI & blood work. Looked at gall bladder, pancreas, stomach, intestines, etc. They found intestinal inflammation. Gastro Dr. took more blood and did more test (CT, MRI, Colonoscopy, Endoscopy). He couldn't find anything so he sent me to rheumatologist. She did add'l blood work and genetic testing. She though I had an auto-immune disorder - like Mediterranean Familial Fever! Please...! But all her tests came back negative. She too had no answers, only treatment for symptoms - Colchicine and Prednisone. Yuk. After having my 8th debilitating attack yesterday (since May), I've had enough. I went to the Web and found this wonderful site - along with some others with helpful info. I don't have confirmation that the lisinopril is causing this - but it sure sounds like it. I am a 49 yr old female and I've had no "life changing" events in my life (except for this nastiness) and have been on no other meds. I find it interesting that out of all the doctors I've seen - and all knew of the lisinopril - that none suspected this as a side effect.

husband and brother in law both diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. dear friend's husband diagnosed with Parkinson's 3 months later . all had been on lipitor for 2-4 yrs. brother in law has died--diagnosis changed prior to death from Parkinson's to Parkinson's with lewy bodies, to Lewy body dementia to frontotemporal lobe dementia (despite NO family history of this disease entity). there are SO many metabolic substrates whose pathways are interrupted by statins--pathways to isoprenoid metabolism resulting in among many other results, a decrease in glutathione reductase; a decrease in production of coenzyme Q10; decrease in dolichol, the lipid consittuting the largest % of fats making up the substantia nigra in the brain (area diseased in Parkinson's ). and lipids constitute the substance that makes up the mylein sheath surrounding nerves, and the largest % of the dry weight content of the brain.
Tremors were the first symptoms. then non swinging arm while walking, flat affect, rigidity of muscles. all symptoms of Parkinson's...

I first read notes on this site in February 08 when our Doctor prescribed Singulair. My 7 year old daughter is a silent asthmatic which prompted me to push past the side effect warnings written here and give it a go. Rach had strong side effects for the first two weeks & then seemed to settle, so I persevered with it. The drug didn't seem to have no effect on her asthma flare ups but the doctors didn't believe me and encouraged me to keep going. After 6mths I called it quits and took her off it. She's now back to her normal self. No longer emotional, her school work picked up immensely, no more nightmares or unexplained body aches. She does still have tummy aches but they are subsiding. She's been off singulair for 3 months now. Every doctor and pharmacy I spoke to denied the side effects and promoted the product. To anyone researching this drug, do your little one a favour and don't use Singulair unless it is a last resort. There are so many other alternatives out there.

Thought I would come online to check up about another possible side effect and caught a posting about male libido. I off Statins on 9th July this year after suffering all the pain related side effects mentioned on the site and in my previous posting in August. Last week my normal monthly cycle started up again after 8 months. I thought that I had gone through the change but with no side effects. Seems to me that Statins might also effect hormones, but as we all seem to be of a similar age groups, we blame the way our lives are effected on our age. I know that I thought that everyone who hit 50 experienced exactly the same fatigue, pain (arthritis - gout), weight gain, loss of drive etc. I have been off them for 13 weeks now and I haven't looked back. I really can't remember now just how bad I was feeling towards the end, but I know that I was very close to giving up I just didn't think that I could live feeling the way I did at the time and knowing that I was getting progressively worse. Now I am just very angry that people are having to go through what we have. I just wondered if any other women had their monthly cycle altered/ stopped whilst on this drug, only for it to return after coming off?

Hi All,

I was diagnosed with dermatologists when I was 14 years old and put on very high dosage of prednisone to get my disease under control (40 mg a day at the beginning). My muscle enzymes were out of control (CPK was almost 8,500 when it should be less than 215) and I was barely mobile, huge amounts of weight loss, alopecia, Raynaud's, etc. That was 11 years ago and I am now almost 100% better. Prednisone saved my life, but the side-effects were TERRIBLE! Especially for a girl going through puberty. Kids at school don't understand you're sick, and they can be extremely cruel. Luckily for me a large number of my family members are in the medical profession all over the world and my parents were able to pool knowledge to find the best treatment for me without all the horrible side effects. An uncle in Germany suggested I take a Prednisone alternative widely available in Europe called Diflazacort. This medicine is not available in the states apparently because the FDA thought it was exactly like Prednisone so was unnecessary. I'm sure this is some pharmaceutical company lobbying to preserve Prednisone's monopoly on inflammatory diseases, but regardless it makes finding Diflazacort difficult for Americans. This is a HUGE shame since this medicine gave me ALL of the benefits of Prednisone with NONE of the side effects. My mood swings, water retention, increased appetite, hazy brain, thinning skin, etc etc etc ALL stopped with Diflazacort. This wasn't only true for me either. A family friend had been diagnosed with Crohn's at the time and he was put on Diflazacort from the beginning of his treatment after seeing how I reacted to it and NEVER had any of the negative side effects I had to deal with. Really this drug was like a miracle for me. Prednisone prevented my sure death, but Diflazacort gave me my life back in its entirety. I've now been off of any steroid for 7 years and my muscles are fully back to normal. Some of the fat deposits Predinose caused still linger, but to most people's eyes I'm totally back to normal. I wish I could find everyone having problems with Prednisone side-effects and tell them about Diflazacort. Even though it isn't available in the states (although I heard recently they are trying to get it approved again since a number of studies showed Diflazacort is much more effective treating Crohn's than Prednisone is) you can get it on the internet or if you have doctor friends abroad as I did. I'm always wary of buying drugs over the internet since there's no control so I would suggest contacting doctors in Europe or Asia directly or through your doctor here in the states. Anyways, I wanted everyone to know that some people do get better and I wish you all the best of luck!

I am a healthy female with little to no history of adverse reactions to medications. I was prescribed a 10 day dose of Levequin (500 mg) for a minor but stubborn skin abscess. After the third day, I woke up with significant joint soreness in my fingers. Progressively the soreness spread daily to my wrists, elbows, ankles, knees, hips, etc. I did not suspect the antibiotic at first, but I know my body, and I know something was WRONG.
After my 8th dose I decided to look online...it is at least good to know that what I'm experiencing is definitely from Levequin. Thank you all for sharing your stories.

I especially found MERCEDESLANE posting on April 15th interesting. I guess this person works in the health care system. Considering this uncompassionate individual, who apparently wants everythone to know he has a Mercedes, can't spell (whine), and does not have basic grammar skills. Wow...my faith in the our health care system is stronger than ever. But what do I know, I'm just an "IDIOT" with shingles that needs to have a couple of glasses of whine while I pop my remaining Levequin.