I went back to my PCP today. Yes the one that gave me the Levaqu...

thank you for keeping us informed. hope you make a quick recovery. In the meantime, please go to www.fqresearch.org and read some of the stories and help posted there. Also, keep sending in medwatch reports. I still think that's our best bet to getting someone to warn the drs. Good luck and God bless. Helen

God bless you, and you should have kicked him in the -alls for all the suffering you are going through. Give HIM a 10 day dose and let him see for himself how RARE it is!!!Good Luck and hang in there! I can finally go up and down stairs normally after 10 months of baby steps like a 90 year old women!!!!! Marsh

Be very careful from what I've read taking steroids can increase the risk of having a tendon rupture.

I also got a call at home from my PCP this morning, after I sent a letter informing her of my complications. She was apologetic but said I was the first one to complain about these symptoms. This seems odd, because everyone without exception who has told me that they were prescribed levaquin had some sort of adverse reaction. My cousin has had a torn meniscus and ruptured achilles tendon. He had been on levaquin months before, so never made the connection. I suspect that's the case for a lot of patients. To her credit my doc did listen to my concerns and agreed that they need to be more careful when prescribing. She agreed that the FDA had been little more than a rubber stamp for the pharmaceuticals who are foisting untested and expensive drugs on unsuspecting patients, but she admitted that they (the providers) simply "don't have time" to research everything they prescribe. Incredible! The fact that doctors don't have the time is due in no small part to greedy insurance companies who hamstring docs by restricting the tests they can do and the time they can spend with each patient. Until the profit motive is taken out of health care, these problems will persist.
On an up note, I got through the whole day and last night for the first time without having to take advil. I still have the dodgy tendon in my shoulder which snaps out of place periodically, but the ankle is on the mend and I'm adjusting to the floaters. Other than that, I'm sleeping well and generally feeling better. I do want to have blood work done eventually and make sure I've had no damage to my liver and thyroid. I'd also like someone from the medical or pharmaceutical profession to tell me if the reduced blood flow to tendons caused by quinolone is permanent or reversible. So far I have not had an answer to that question.