Prophylactic symptoms and conditions

I took this medication as a malarial prevention whilst traveling through India.
Never EVER again. My boyfriend had suffered from depression in the past and we had heard bad things about Larium in relation to anxiety and insomnia so we specifically asked our doctor for the malarial tablets with the least amount of side effects associated with that kind of stuff. He reassured us that there was no record of Doxcycline ever having caused those sorts of effects.
So off we went- we followed the instructions exactly and began our trip.
A week or so into India I began to notice shortness of breath and stomach pain- I put it down to typical India travelers upset and thought no more about it. A bit later I began to suffer moments of anxiety that were really out of character ( I've never suffered from anxiety or depression). I'm very well traveled ( I work in the travel industry and have traveled extensively in the Americas, Africa, Australasia and se Asia) and so although this was my first trip to India- i knew my anxiety had nothing to do with India itself. ( people kept telling me this but I loved India)
It came to a head on a overnight bus from Goa to Hampi- I was feeling really anxious, sweating and clammy, I couldn't sleep and my breathing was really tight. Eventually I had a full blown panic attack that was almost like a out of body experience- I couldn't see and I couldn't breath. The whole bus had to stop ( embarrassing!) at 3am in the morning. Eventually I managed to get back on and make it to the next town ( although not as far as Hampi) so we could take stock.
I was petrified and had no idea whatsoever what was going on. It never occurred to me it could be the malaria tablets as we had been so clear and our doctor so confident they didn't have these kinds of side effects.
I was worried about being on buses, trains even planes again since I didn't know what caused the attacks and I was terrified another one would happen. I had no valium or any other sort of thing that might have helped. In the end we had to cut our trip short and make it back to Mumbai - In Mumbai I suffered from another two panic attacks- one where I could see the walls closing in in our cheap hotel room. Shortness of breath, tightness all through my body, hysteria, blurry vision - it was awful! And also this ongoing pain and upset in my stomach.
I ended up cutting short a RTW trip that my boyfriend and I had been saving for for over a year and coming home to Australia 2 months early.
It was devastating and I still had no idea what was causing it. Finally a friend said her doctor had mentioned sleeplessness and anxiety as a rare side effect of this drug when she was taking it for some problems to do with vaginal bleeding and spotting. I started searching on the internet and was amazed to find loads of sights with people experiencing heaps of the side effects that I'd been told were never a problem with this drug!
Obviously Malaria is really serious but if I had been properly informed I could have made the decision to come off the drugs and look at alternate medication. For now - Im taking the risk of no malaria tablets at all for my next couple of trips (to Borneo- so not a major risk anyway) and will actually research much harder before taking anything again!

Took Levaquin for 5 days as a prophylactic measure to prevent infection from a prostate biopsy. Experienced severe Achilles tendon pain and itching and swelling in both feet after the 1st 2 days but did not originally attribute it to the Levaquin. The pain has finally subsided after 12 weeks but some swelling remains. Could barely walk in the beginning and still have some balance problems.
I take no other medications and do not jog or exercise strenuously. I had a heart catherization 1 week ago and all is OK (no blockages). I have been to 4 doctors and only one would say that it might have been the Levaquin. Meanwhile I have been left to my own devices. Found some exercises on the internet to strengthen my Achilles tendons which have helped and found that lotion and massage have helped my feet.

i took doxycycline daily for several months as an anti-malarial prophylactic and had disastrous health problems as a result. the worst part is that i didn't think all of my sudden health problems were due to the doxycycline, so i continued to take it daily, even when i could no longer eat because i could not swallow anything!!!

it hurt to swallow spit, let alone water or food, but i thought the doxycycline was a crucial thing to continue taking to avoid malaria risk, so i made myself continue it despite the excruciating pain i was experiencing every day. none of the doctors i consulted could understand what was going on, but none of them thought it was due to the prolonged taking of doxycycline either. but it was.

i was one of the people who developed esophageal ulcers, which initially felt like a lump in my throat (like if you were to eat a hunk of french bread and swallowed without chewing well enough) and later was so painful that i stopped eating altogether. this was 8 years ago, i don't remember if i was experiencing headaches or the other common side effects, aside from nausea, digestive problems, and sun-sensitivity, which i did experience.

eventually i was unable to leave my bed, no energy at all, in severe pain, feeling like i was ready to give up and die (it was that alarming and scary; i actually remember that thought) and finally i was seen by an ayurvedic doctor (indian traditional system of medicine). she was shocked that americans are prescribed such a strong drug for anti-malarial prophylaxis. she said in india they will take it at that dosage for three days max, but i had been taking it for months at my doctor's recommendation! she insisted that i stop taking the doxycycline IMMEDIATELY and eat custard and vanilla pudding, which counteracted the burning effects of the ulcerations of my esophagus and stomach lining (and also didn't hurt as much as solid food would have).

i started feeling better immediately and decided i'd rather deal with getting malaria than ever subject myself to taking antibiotics for anything other than an acute serious infection that could not be addressed by any other means. i certainly will never take doxycylcine again. i am someone who reads about potential side effects of all medications and prefers to take none; however, back then, the esophageal ulcers weren't even mentioned in the side effect literature that i received.

i hope this helps someone who may be going through similar issues now. antibiotics are stronger drugs than we realize, and i'm amazed at how regularly and almost carelessly they are prescribed. but i put more blame on the fact that we as consumers don't have access to adequate information provided to educate ourselves about the possible risks of the drugs we take. the drug industry wouldn't be such a moneymaking machine if we were well informed.

I started Levaquin 3 days ago and have been suffering from headaches, fatigue, nausea, sleeplesness, severe changes in body temperatue, muscle pain and serious anxiety problems. I have a UTI and get them chronically and unfortunately cannot stomach bactrum or cipro. After reading this web site I called my doctor and requested klonopin an anti-anxiety medication i took for a year just for the first five days of treatment. She offered to change the antibiotic but said using all different kinds might leave me in worse shape with the infection than I started with. Since I get them chronically and will be starting a prophylactic when I'm done I want to make sure this infection is gone, I get them every 60 days. If you can stomach another antibiotic and have a choice definitely get something else. I'm hoping the klonopin will calm me down.