Sense of taste symptoms and conditions

I was in the hospital for a gall bladder surgery 2 weeks ago and found out while in there I had a UTI. The doctor's at the hospital put me on Clarithromycin the first day. Then my family Dr. came in and changed it to Levaquin via IV drip for another 6 days. I was then prescribed 2 pills for when I got home to take. The first 2 days in the hospital I had pain in my shoulder and I know that was from the air they blew into me for the surgery. BUT, after that, I have had continued shoulder, neck pain and now has spread into my wrists, my legs, virtually I feel like one big ache. Last night, I had to take my shirt off because it was hurting my skin for the shirt to touch it. My sense of taste is weird too. I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome but I know that my pain right now is a direct result from Levaquin. I went in to fix one problem and came out with another one. Like I need that! I feel for all of you. I identify with most all of your complaints. I was on the drug for 10 days. I can barely grasp anything without pain in my left hand. I don't know what to do. Does this go away? Or is this permanent?

I have been on Prednisone 40mg x 5 days and am now reducing to 30mg x 5 days followed by a 10mg reduction q 5 days until I am off the med. I have read your blogs and my heart goes out to you all.

Has anyone lost their sense of taste? I can only taste salty things, but just the salt only. I have the nausea, stomach pains, depression, mood swings, inability to focus and a tremendous amount of 'floaters' in my eyes. In general, I am extremely drug sensitive, but the Prednisone has brought me to a place I don't want to be.

I welcome your input on the sense of taste issue. Thanks in advance for your comments.

Metallic taste, loss of taste: A few weeks after beginning my once/month Boniva dosage, I lost my full sense of taste. I now continuously have a sort of metallic taste in my mouth, a combination of salty/bitter tastes, and have lost the 'sweet' tastebuds. Further on the back of the tongue I still have some taste, but it is not what it was before. It's a personal loss, as I used to have very sensitive taste buds, this loss handicaps my ability to cook well, and I had been a very good home cook. I still retain a full sense of smell.

I have been on Boniva for about a year and a half, my doctor says she's never heard of anyone losing taste sensations as a side effect of this medication. I'm too concerned about possible osteoporosis, as I have osteopenia, to discontinue the drug for this alone. Has anyone experienced this side effect, is it permanent, or does it disappear if the drug is discontinued?

I have a complete loss of my sense of smell that has not returned after stopping Nasonex for 4 months My sense of taste has diminished too.

I have been taking Nasacort for only a week. I developed a rash on my forearm 2 night ago and decided to stop taking the Nasacort and Amoxicillin. I noticed last night that I couldn't taste my food. I could only sense the saltiness. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF ANYONE HAS REGAINED THEIR SENSE OF SMELL/TASTE. I'm in the restaurant business. My sense of smell and taste is my livelihood.

Have been using Nasacort for a couple of weeks, and am loosing my sense of smell and my sense of taste. Have not experienced any other side effects.
Has helped my sinuses.

I've been on Levaquin for only 2 days, combined with Prednisone... Taking them due to a nasty sinus infection. One of these two meds is making every joint in my body hurts, as well as me having lost almost every bit of my sense of taste. I ate general tso's chicken today for lunch and could not taste anything, so as an experiment I ate one of those little red Chinese peppers that I normally throw out because they are WAY too hot - I couldn't taste a thing. Last night I had to drop the air condition down to 68 degrees as one of these two meds made me sweat very heavily and uncomfortably hot.

Hello,
I have just found out about this and have been on cipro and levaquin and guess what. 2 weeks ago i was jumping in a pool and the tendon in my arch let loose. I went to the orthopedic doctor and he sent me for MRI then put me in a boot cast. It felt like i stood on a golf ball and it still hurts like hell. I have problems walking on it still. My doctor stated that i will most likely be flat foooted now in the foot that the tendon let loose. then i seen this on the news. Damn i have never had problems in my foot. He called planter facititus.

Took z-pak, in March, have lost my taste buds and cannot smell anything,this is going on three months, I don't know what to do, n smell at all, no taste buds at all.

IM trying to figure out if Boniva is causing me to have severe eczema on my hands and feet; palms and soles. I am 58 yrs old and never had this happen before. I began taking Boniva in late Nov 2007. Followed directions carefully. The first week I STARTED TO HAVE the flu like symptoms and fatigue lasted well into january and also seemed to lose a sense OF TASTE FO R FOOD AND DRINK. JAN17TH -FEB 2 GOT AN AWFUL FLU THAT LASTED ABOUT 5 DAYS. 102 FEVER, MUSCLE ACHES, PAIN, JUST AWFUL. THEN MISSED TEN DAYS AT WORK BECAUSE IT TURNED INTO A SERIOUS BRONCHIAL/ UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTION- I FELT LIKE I HAD WHOOPING COUGH.THE DOC GAVE ME A REALLY STRONG ANTIBIOTIC-( CLARITHROMYCIN ) AND IT TOOK ME UNTIL MID MARCH TO FEEL LIKE MY SELF. NOTE; I HAVE NOT MISSED MORE THAN A DAY OF WORK FOR SICKNESS IN OVER TEN YEARS.)drink. The taste buds seem to have come back but WHEN I TAKE THE BONIVA PILL I FEEL FLU LIKE AGAIN- FOR ABOUT THREE-FIVE DAYS.
ALL OF THIS WAS BAD ENOUGH BUT I CHALKED IT UP TO FLU SEASON ETC' THEN IN MID MARCH I STARTED TO HAVE A TERRIBLE CASE OF ECZEMA ON THE SOLES OF MY FEET AND PALMS OF MY HANDS, IT IS REALLY CHRONIC AND VERY PAINFUL. I HAVE TO SLATHER MY HANDS AND FEET WITH VASELENE EVERY NIGHT .AND HAVE BEEN TAKING PROBIOTICS AND L-LYSINE FOR THE PAST MONTH WHICH DOES SEEMS TO BE HELPING- BUT NOW I'M WONDERING IF THE SKIN CONDITION IS A SIDE EFFECT FROM THE BONIVA? FIRST THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE THE CLARITHROMYCIN. BUT I HAVE A GUT FEELING ITS THE BONIVA/ ANY IDEAS?

After taking Plavix for one month, I experienced a constant sour taste in my mouth (like bad dairy products). Within 24 hours of being taken off Plavix, my normal sense of taste was restored.

A little over 2 weeks ago I lost my sense of sweet taste and I think the newly discovered sense of taste related to glutamate. I was on 20 mg of Lipitor daily. When I found the fine print on the package insert related to loss of taste (after 4 days), I dropped to 10 mgs for two days but the effect did not lessen so I stopped altogether. At first everything tasted like bitter cardboard. Now over 2 weeks later everything tastes bland with no sense of sweetness whatsoever. I have been able to taste salt all along. This has nothing to do with my sense of smell since that still works fine. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar reaction and, if so, how long it lasted?

My father (87) was on Lipitor for many years. He had a stroke and serious brain injury a few years ago and has been in assisted living since. About a year ago he began to complain that different foods tasted bad. He was convinced that the assisted living chef wasn't any good! This problem with taste and smell got worse until nothing tasted good to him, and he basically stopped eating and became seriously depressed. His neurologist suggested to his primary physician that this loss and distortion in taste and smell might be related to Lipitor, so his primary read the Physician's Desk Reference on Lipitor side effects and found one sentence that described my father's experience perfectly. So his primary immediately took him off Lipitor (this was last fall), and my father's sense of taste and smell returned gradually over the next 3-4 week and is now back to normal. I haven't seen a description of this side effect for Lipitor as I've researched it, but I'm convinced that this effect is one that many others may have without realizing the "culprit," so I thought I would share our experience.

Male age 69. Switched from another blood pressure medication to 10 mg. lisinopril in November. Within 2 weeks my sense of taste changed completely. Terrible constant taste, usually bitter, in mouth. Could not stand to eat any foods with starch as enzyme in mouth to change starch to sweet taste was gone. After 2 months I switched to 2 mg. and lessened the terrible taste but still could not eat anything with starch and certain spices tasted terrible. In February I switched to another type of blood pressure medication and as of today I still have an acidly mouth, my tongue feels like it is burned on top, and starchy foods and spices still taste terrible. I have been told it may take 3 months to clear the chemical from my system. I hope it clears out! I wouldn't attempt to use this drug again unless there were no other alternative.

I've been taking 20 mgs of Celexa for a month now, and have been having trouble sleeping and have leg cramps and muscle twitches, and headaches. i find it hard to get to sleep and stay asleep. i have constant cramps in my calves. food has been tasting really good. i feel like my sense of taste has been heightened. anyone else have these effects? do they go away?

I've posted here before about my nightmare with Levaquin that began in December of '06. I had all of the usual nasty side effects including: anxiety, thoughts of dying, unable to eat, redness, chest pain, strange blood pressure and temp readings, and finally a ruptured bicep tendon. Still, one side effect that I have not seen mentioned is one I'm still curious about..... I had a tremendous change in my sense of smell. To the point where I literally could not stand the scent of the deodorant I have used my entire life. To this day I still cannot tolerate that smell (as well as changes in other smells). Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Just curious.

Does anyone else notice a highly increased appetite with Lexapro? I think that it is a good antidepressant drug, but at what cost? I think most of these newer, cleaner, drugs for depression are causing to much of an increased appetite which causes a large weight gain.

Scary drug. After only 11 doses i suffered hoarseness, thrush (very unpleasant) extreme pain in chest, neck and shoulders in particular. Though i was having a heart attack!! My digestion seems totally screwed up as does my sense of taste. Also, it seemed that when dosage wore off breathing was much worse than before; forcing you to take it again. Bad side effects lasted long after i stopped taking 50/250, and stilll continue. How did this make it thru FDA?

I started with 60 mg per day for polymyalgia rheumatica and now after two years have weaned myself down to 5 mg per day. I have a side effect that I have not read anyone else having. It has effected my taste buds. Many foods that I loved in the past, have a foreign taste to me. I am 66, male and have tried to drop down to 2 1/2 mg but the pain is too intense to remain at that level, so had to return to 5 mg. I have lots of pain in the feet and especially toes. I can tell that I am getting better and am very anxious to get off of Prednisone.

In late March I went to my Doctor for allergy Meds. He prescribed Singlair. Within two weeks I began feeling as though I had an upper Resp infection (I did have one). My Doctor put me on Levaquin an antibiotic. Then I began feeling as though something was crawling all over my face,& my face began to burn. I went to the ER one week later & was informed that I had Pneumonia. Along with the antibiotics I was still taking Singulair & albuterol inhaler & Allegra D & Histanex cough medicine. I have had Pneumonia 2x before but this time was 2x as bad. It lingered on for over a month. Then I started to smell really bad odors kinda of like a sweaty locker room. I called my Dr's office his nurse thought it was weird & never heard of it before. Then I lost my sense of taste & smell. Finally I went to my Dr on 5/17/07 he informed me that if my sense's doesn't return in 3 weeks to notify him & he would order a CT scan. The scan was ordered & was negative. I still have no sense of smell or taste. Dr's nurse thinks it is psychological. I went to ENT Dr was given a steroid which didn't work. My Dr also asked me to try nasonex nasal spray but that doesn't work for me. Now it is August 1st & my senses have yet to re-surface. Although I can taste sweet, bitter & sour but couldn't tell you what it is I am eating. I also suffered pains in my legs & feet, was really exhausted & had bad dreams.
Please reply if anyone else is or has suffered the way I have & continue to suffer.

I went to my doctor last week for symptoms of a common cold or a flu. I was given free samples (5) of Levaquin and haven't felt better yet, six days later. I only took four of the pills and will never take it again. My head is constantly feeling like it's floating in space and my sense of taste has changed. I called her back about my faintness and was told to get plenty of rest and drink alot of liquids. I've been in and out of bed since Thursday; how much rest do I need?! I'm concerned about the taste change because several things that I like alot don't taste right to me anymore. Levaquin will never again enter my body!

I've taken Zpak twice in my life. Once for bronchitis, it was helping right away.(within a few days). Second time for a sore throat and ear pain I was having for 2 weeks. By the 3rd day I was felling good again. I have nothing bad to say about the drug. I think it is the BOMB!!! Though I never had any side effects to the drug,
I would take a little diarrhea and nausea over bronchitis ANY DAY!!!

OMG, I am so glad that I found this site. The Dr. Has me taking Advair for about a year.

I am a 27 y/o Female and I quit smoking about two years ago. I thought my breathing and sense of taste would come back but after a while it didn't. I went to my doctor last year to complain about chest congestion, runny nose, all that good stuff. He said I could have some sort of fibrosis of the lung and sent me for an xray and when it came back he said I had little bronchitis and asthma. I have never had asthma and only one member of my family has it. I assume I got this because I am a former smoker.

He started me on the advair and at first it really helped. Then I ran out and couldn't afford it for about three months. Basically the whole summer. I went to see him for a follow up and he gave me two more samples. I started back on it for the past week and I feel worse. Last night, I though I was going to die and all I kept thinking was that I am too young to die. I had a racey heartbeat and a terrible taste in my mouth that only elevated my heart beat and anxiety. Finally I calmed down but I thought I was going to die in my sleep. I am so scared. I can hear the tick in my chest, you know that sound, it sounds like there is a wind up toy in there.

I don't know if that's the bronchitis again. But it wasn't there before the advair. I think it's creating mucus in my chest. The Dr. said that if any mucus came to let him know. I am going to try to get in to see him, I don't want to take advair again. I just don't know what else to do. I am terrified and though I lost weight for the Cholesterol, my stomach is not going away, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Took Levaquin for chronic prostatitis. After a a few weeks experienceds intense pain in feet, calves and thighs. General feeling of maliase, fatique and depression. Inability to sleep. Sense of taste has diminished though sense of smell has been heightened. Fingers and wrists aching on and off. Fealt extremely dizzy and nauseous for several days. Nausea has diminished, but the feet, calf and leg pain remain. Have called doctor and recommendation is to cease taking Levaquin and see if syptoms abate after a few days. In the mean time he told me not to do any physical exertion as muscles and tendons are weakened when side effect occurs. Prescribed mild OTC anti-inflammatory (Ibuprofen) and pain-killer (Tylenol) for a few dayswhile we wait to see the progression and/or abatement of symptoms.

change in my sense of taste, loss of appetite, sore feeling in my tongue