I'm a 23 year-old college student from Michigan. I started taking doxycycline on 3/3/07 and was instructed to take it for about 2 weeks. I started taking it because i was experiencing a skin rash on my chin, and was told that it was due to a bacterial/fungal infection. i stopped taking it on saturday 3/17/07.
When i first started taking the medication there weren't any inital side effects. I then found that i was breaking out it tiny little red hives, and had red patches of skin on my stomach, neck and gentials. at first i thought it was just a food allergy, and then i started to get really tired and naseauted. then i noticed that the gland on the right side of my throat was constantly swollen. during the two weeks i was taking the medication, i lost about 5 pounds. i found myself weak, tired and with no energy. i had no appetite, had blurred vision (i have 20/20 vision so i though that was weird) and i was in a constant state of anxiety. My stress and anxiety got so bad that i seriously thought i was going to die.
i freaked out so bad that i thought i might even have HIV (because the side effects for doxycycline are similar to the symptoms of HIV: fatigue, rapid weight loss, diarreah, swollen glands, muscle soreness, rash etc. ) so i went and got tested for STDs and HIV. The doctors at the clinic said that everything seemed normal, and while i'm still awaiting the results from the tests, i found that all of my symptoms are in fact due to the antibiotic.
Since i stopped taking the antibiotic i've been suffering from sharp pains in my abdomen. I have very bad cramps and foul smelling gas/stool. I get dizzy very easily and find myself in so much discomfort that it's difficult to concentrate or do much of anything.
I was wondering if anyone knew how long this side effects tend to last, or how long it takes for the body to go back to normal? because this really sucks. I was self conscious about the rash i had, but the rash seemed a lot better than the side effects from the antibiotics.
anyone else feel this way?