I am scared to death after reading what everyone is going through...

Hey Jen. First of all I am so sorry for what you are going through. Especially with a newborn. I have a 4 year old and am terrified of not being there for her. I didnt get the hives with this stuff. I suffer from weakness and dizziness. Spend most of my day laying on the couch. I am still having a hard time after its been out of my system for 3 weeks. I also took 9 days worth of the poison. The sad thing is that everytime I swallowed one of the pills I'd feel worse but never put two and two together. I think you need to go see a dermatologist as soon as possible. If you are seeing a regular MD I doubt he deals much with hives to start with. I know the pred isnt easy either. It causes hunger and thirst, anger, and bloating. I also heard it can cause type 2 diabetes. Yahoo has a site that has a discussion group about Levaquin side effects. Alot of people have been hit with the pain part of it. It has only caused pain in my shoulders and left hip and right knee. I will be praying for you with all my heart. I know that God can fix us. Please let me know how you are doing... Blessings, Judy

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I can understand what you are going through. I developed a bad case of hives the last week of December the itching was so bad that I ended up in my doctors office 4 times in one week, the last time in tears. My doctor prescribed prednisone. I took it for a week and I did not have any side effects but the hives did not go away they continued to get worse. I then went to see a dermatologist who put me on 75mg of prednisone as opposed to 4mg. The hives went away by the 3rd day. I was on the 10 day supply. Then I started to get nose bleeds daily, my skin looked thin, my legs felt like they were going to snap in half, I was moody and would snap at the smallest things, my face and chest were bright red, my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest, I was having trouble breathing, spent the entire night in the bathroom peeing, caused constipation, my skin hurt in my back and arms, and I was not sleeping. This medicine gave me tons of energy and even when I was tired I was so wired I could not sleep. When I came off after the 10th day 5 days later the hives returned. Again I was on another 10 day dose but this time within 3 days I gained 10 pounds, my face was round and I think I am still retaining fluid in my back and joints. I came off this medicine a week ago and again 5 days after my hives have returned. My allergy test came back negative, my doctor thinks it could possibly be my birth control pills or stress. I was told by my doctor that I should give up everything to rule it out. I have stopped taking the pill just to see if that is it. Not to sure that is the case although I have read on some of the forums that the generic version I am on caused hives in other people. My doctors are telling me that trying to figure out where hives are coming from is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I have been trying everthing that I possibly can. This is by far the worst thing I have ever dealt with. I have been dumping oatmeal in the bathtub which helps for atleast 2 hours and today I bought gold bond lotion which appears to be helping. I have tried every anti-itch cream and lotion that I could try and the gold bond seems to be the best by far. So the only thing the medicine did was clear up my hives while I was on it and now I have to lose the 10 pounds I gained and I still have hives. It is not worth it. Good luck hopefully you will find out what is causing it.

Prednisone is awful. It destroys your circulatory system and is very hard on your vital organs. You can become dependent on it. Ask your doctor about a non-steroidal treatment for your hives. Steriods and Levaquin together are more dangerous than the levaquin side effects alone.