My son is 14 years old and was given two rounds of this drug for ...

First of all I want to note that your son should never have been given Levaquin in the first place. I don't even think it is approved for those under 18.

Here is a link that offers some advice from Dr. Jay Cohen. He is an expert in adverse reactions with medications.

http://www.medicationsense.com/articles/july_sept_03/reactions_cipro_other.html

He offers some advice but to be honest there seems to be no sure fire way to help in these cases.

I was poisoned by this drug >3 yrs ago and still have not recovered. I just recently published my own website to collect the stories of others and see if I can force the medical community to take a serious look at this problem.

I would appreciate it if you would go to my site and share your story.

http://fluoroquinolones.net/

I'm trying to build a very comprehensive site that provides resources and support for the victims of this drug. Kerry

i'M SO SORRY ABOUT YOUR SON. HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN GIVEN THIS DRUG. ITS' NOT RECOMENDED FOR ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18. PLEASE GO TO WWW.FDA.GOV AND SEND A MEDWATCH REPORT IN. ALSO GO TO WWW.FQVICTIMS.ORG AND YOU'LL BE DIRECTED TO MANY HELPFUL SITES. GOOD LUCK

With any luck it will take at least two or three months as it did with me. I had it in April and am now almost normal Marsh

I writing to let you all know the latest developments with my son's ADR to Levaquoin.

After completing the 5 injection series of Supartz I told you about last time, he didn't respond. It helped a little with the pain so long as it was in there, but within a week of the last shot, the pain was back full force. Also, the "grinding" never lessened. Basically he's back to square one.

We met with the doctor earlier this week - this is the doctor that has dealt with this before numerous times. If he had seen any sort of a response to the injections, the route would have been to keep going that direction. But since this was not the case, based upon his analysis of the situation we could do either of two things:

1. nothing - which would could very likely lead to arthritis and permenant damage but also might clear up over the coming months on its own.

or

2. Arthoscopic surgery on each knee.

We're going with number 2.

The doctor's thinking is that the Levaquin has settled in the lining around the cartilage and is causing the cartalige to break down. He will go in arthoscopically and remove the lining and smooth out by laser anything that needs to be smoothed out. Unlike cartilage, the lining will grow back - and should be Levaquin free.

He said the only problem that might pop up is that once he gets in there and gets a good look at it, there is a possiblilty that the cartilage is already deteriorated very bad to the point of bone-on-bone. The MRI we took earlier, however, makes it look like this is not the case.

Craig V