My mother-in-law was recently hospitalized for a kidney infection...

My mother-in-law was recently hospitalized for a kidney infection. She is 79 years old. She has had allergic reactions to a number of antibiotics in the past few years, including Cipro which is in the same "family" as Levaquin. Since her infection was severe (temperature went to 104.7), the doctors decided to try a half-dose of Levaquin because she had had an allergic reaction at least one in every "type" of antibiotic. The first 3 days, she had mild leg spasms resembling restless leg syndrome. Since that is common in elderly people, especially those who have been very ill with little movement, we were not concerned about it. On the 4th day, after she had come home from the hospital, she began to have leg pain. At first, it was more of a burning sensation under the skin, but, as the days went by, it became unbearable pain. What had been helped by 2 mg of Valium and some tylenol, became barely tolerable with Darvon every 4 hours, Valium every 6 hours and 600 mg of Ibuprofen every 4-6 hours. The pain became so severe that she could not walk, and within a week, she was hospitalized for 9 more days with pain so bad that she could not sleep or walk. They finally put her on Vicodin for pain, which made it tolerable. They tested for everything but, by process of elimination, the Doctor decided that it must have been the Levaquin. It took over a week after they discontinued the Levaquin for the pain to lessen enough to leave off the Vicodin at night. Even after she came home, she had to take the pain medication round the clock to be able to bear it. She is now learning to walk again and still taking Vicodin at night for pain (2 weeks after she stopped taking the Levaquin).