Levaquin and bedtime

Wow. OK. Yesterday I was prescribed Levaquin for an upper respiratory infection. Once I re ceived the medication I quickly looked it up and found this review board. My first reaction was yea, yea, yea. Well now I will say this YEA YEA YEA. I took it before bedtime. What a complete and utter nightmere. I thought the Dr. made a mistake and prscribed me some bad LSD. I had the worst nightmeres I have ever had in my entire life. It was brutal. Each time waking up thinking it was true. Even awake drapes appeared to be blowing from the wind when the windows were shut. This morning I must say that my chest feels a bit better but my lower back seems stiff. I have nine more doses of this left and will continue on. Just a confirmation that this stuff is wicked. Thanks for reading,

HI, I was prescribed Levaquin for a sinus infection. I took it for 9 days. I could not sleep but worse than that I got pain in my knees. It started in the back of the knees and felt like a pulling sensation. Then the pain moved into the front of the knees and limits me to how I bend. I can not kneel down or squat since taking this medication. It has limited me considerably on how I do things. It has been 2 months since I stopped the levaquin but I still have the symptoms. Does anybody else have these symptoms and if so does it ever go away????

I was prescribed Levaquin for a sinus infection.
I took one pill before bedtime for 3 days out of a 5 day Rx.
I had wierd dreams and sleeplessness, nausea and felt like I was high-
By the 3rd morning, my hands were shaking so badly, I couldn't sign a permission slip for my daughter and that day at work, I had serious tremors- people were shocked at how badly my hands were shaikng.
Thank god I looked on the net, because I was scheduled to play a soccer game that night. Instead, stopped the meds and told my team I can't play for 2 weeks. WIth 4 children under 8 and the youngest 2 (22 month old twins) both disabled, I cannot afford to be out of commission with torn ligaments.
Now, 3 days later, my knees ache and I have had pain in my chest this evening.
How long will this last?
Is 2 weeks long enough to skip strenuous activities?
ANy advice would be appreciated.

I TOOK MY FIRST DOSE OF 750MG LEVAQUIN LAST NIGHT AFTER STAYING UP LATE WATCHING A MOVIE..ABOUT 2:50AM. I WOKE UP, TOTALLY ALERT, AFTER ONLY 2 HOURS OF SLEEP. THERE WAS NO GOING BACK TO SLEEP. I WAS ALSO HAVING WHAT FELT LIKE A HOT FLASH BUT COOLED DOWN OK AFTER TURNING ON THE FAN.
TONIGHT, I TOOK MY SECOND DOSE AROUND 1 AM AND WOKE UP EXACTLY 2 HOURS LATER. AGAIN, WIDE AWAKE... BUT THIS TIME I AM HOT, BUT ALSO FEEL LIKE I AM HAVING AN ANIETY ATTACK OR SOMETHING...I FEEL LIKE MY HEART IS FLUTTERING IN MY THROAT. ANYWAY, IT SCARED ME ENOUGH TO GET ON MY COMPUTER AND GOOGLE/DOGPILE THE DRUG NAME... AND I WAS CERTAINLY SURPRISED TO SEE A SIMILAR RESPONSE. I ALSO TOOK SOME VITAMINS AND MINERALS AT BEDTIME AS WELL. I WILL NOT CONTINUE THIS DRUG AND HOPE I FEEL NORMAL SOON.

I've been on Levaquin for a throat infection for 12 days, taking the pill at bedtime. On the morning after the 12th dose, i noticed lots of red dots that were slightly itchy on the palms and fingers of both hands. Later in the day, i noticed its concentrating on my ankles and legs and a few are scattered on my torso. It rings back to an allergic reaction I had to penicillin (amoxacillin) about 20 years ago but without as much itching. Thus it dawned on me that it must be the Levaquin. I will not take another dose of Levaquin and I will go see my doctor in the morning.

I did spend some time in the sun (with 40spf sunblock) this weekend, so that may have aggravated the reaction.

I have also had the metallic taste in my mouth but did not think much about it. Otherwise, i have had no other effects.

I just started taking Levaquin yesterday, one 500 mg dose at about 5:00 pm according to Doctors Instructions, and another at bedtime, also according to Doctors Instructions. I took the first dose with food,(two slices of pizza) as was instructed. I dont know whether or not it was due to the fact i had not been eating hardly for about a week with a urinary/kidney infection, and suddenly food was re-introduced or due to the pills themselves, but i had terrible pains in what felt like the beginning of the intestines for about 4 hours until about 2:30 am when i decided to get up and drink a small glass of milk and a couple of lady finger cookies (no filling) hoping the mass would help me get to sleep. After about a half an hour at approximately 3 or so, is when i think i finally gave in to exhaustion and finally fell asleep. I woke this morning with a slight pain still there in what seems to be my intestines, on the left front side, and some pain in my left kydney area. What's up with this drug? Dare i continue taking it or should i call my doctor to get something else much less apparently dangerous.

I went to the doctor fighting fatigue, weight loss/gain and increased sweating. All the blood work has come back OK for hormones, thyroid, etc. I was sent to an internal medicine doctor who is now checking for mono, etc. but is at a loss as to what the problem is. Becuase my breast bone is tender and I had a small cold prior to noticing the increased fatigue, I was prescribed Levaquin to take care of any viral activity that may be causing my symptoms. I took the first pill Friday night at 6:00 with dinner. By bedtime (11:00) I was noticing an pain in my chest. Not real sharp just noticeable and distinct, almost more like a tightening of my chest. I slept well and have noticed them again this morning (Sat.) After talking with my pharmacist and the on-call doctor, I will cease to take any more pills (I only had a five day course 500mg - 1 pill per day to take to begin with) and will be calling the internal medicine doctor on Monday.

I was prescribed Levaquin (500 mg) for a respiratory infection to be taken once daily for 7 days. I took the first two doses without incident. I remember feeling pretty good before taking my third dose of Levaquin at bedtime, but all that was about to change. I awoke at 2:00 AM from a disturbing nightmare feeling very agitated and depressed. I somehow managed to calm myself down and get a few hours of sleep. When I woke up I was still feeling very anxious and depressed. I knew right away that this had to be the Levaquin, so I immediately threw it in the trash. My depression finally lifted around midday; however, the anxiety stayed with me until evening. I am normally a very calm, healthy, and happy person with no history of depression, and I don't ever recall having any side effects to medication. The most disturbing thing about this experience was how I went from my normal disposition to becoming a completely different person in a matter of hours. I felt very emotionally unstable and kept having random thoughts and images of suicide. I never really felt in danger of doing harm to myself, but the fact that I was even having thoughts and images of this was extremely disturbing. I submitted an incident report through the FDA web site and I encourage others to do the same. Needless to say, I will never take any medication in the future without first investigating its potential side effects. I hope this information will be helpful to others. I felt comfort in this site knowing that others have shared similar experiences. I also wish the best for those of you who still suffer from your side effects from this dangerous medication.

What a horrible, horrible drug. I should have done my research before taking it but thankfully I only took one dose and realized something wasn't right. Why don't doctor's warn you of these potential side effects? I was prescribed levaquin for a "potential" bacterial infection in my throat. I took one dose last night and was up all night with sweats and a very rapid heart rate. I'm disoriented and still not myself almost 18 hours in. I'm definitely not taking any more of this stuff and hope that it works its way out of my system quickly. I'm 35 years old and pray that none of these other side effects on this page occur.

Follow up to my Mon, 17 Feb 2003 00:37:48 -0500 post

As "Guest" I stated in that post I'd update after seeing my doc so here it is: Feb. 18th I saw my doctor (a rare good doc) who after a full exam said Levaquin was not the cause of my pain symptoms.

Since July 2002 I've taken 10mgs Lipitor (rx'd by jerk doc), currently liver enzymes are elevated which she believes is the cause of this pain particularly since I have fibromyalgia, etc.

She stopped the Lipitor, rx'd Prevacol stating it was gentler on the liver. If I continue having problems with statins, cholesterol levels will be managed differently.

For this severe pain she asked to rx strong pain meds (opiod) which usually cause me horrible side effects. She listened to my reaction to a variety of these type meds and rx'd lowest dose 2.5/325 Percocet at bedtime only. Naturally my pharmacy nor 5 others had it in stock so it was ordered, due in on Monday, Feb 24th.

In the meantime my pharmacist called her office and got the doc on call who rx'd 5/500 Vicodin. I took it yesterday and I had all the usual side effects which lasted through this morning though milder and continuing to dissipate (dysphoric anxiety, violent shaking, headache, nausea) so Vicodin is added to the list of what I cannot tolerate. And it did not alleviate the muscle pain at all.

I'm wondering whether to bother picking up the Percocet she rx'd not knowing if this one at bedtime will have no or manageable side effects plus pain relief.

Much of this is for different message boards - I'll have to find opiod and statin ones - , however, I wanted those who read what I believed were side effects of Levaquin to know that my doctor decided otherwise.

Joanne Diffenbaugh aka George61