Levaquin and diagnosis

Im sad to find out all the problems people are having from levaquin. But now Im able to put 2 and 2 together because Im realizing whats been compromising my health. This is my second year with bronchitis and my second prescription of levaquin. I now believe its what has caused me horrible nightmares, suicidal thoughts, irritation, mental anguish, stress tendon/muscle pain in my arms and shoulders. I bent over to pick up my dog to help him into the car and I got a terrible pain in my chest. I thought I was dying. And I still have a rattle in my lungs after 2 weeks of levaquin so it has not helped at all. If anything it has caused me more problems that has opened the door for additional medications of unknown origin. I wish I could find a real witch doctor.

Prescribed Levaquin 750 mg for diverticulitis. This was a higher does than prescribed for a previous bout of diverticulitis. Experienced extreme nausea at each dose. Eventually developed a skin rash that burned so bad it felt like I was being skinned alive. I have had shingles in the past and they were less painful than this!!! After 5 days of antihistamines, steroids, oatmeal baths and pain killers I am finally able to put clothes on again!! The dermatologists diagnosis was delayed reaction to the Levaquin...never again!!!!!

I am currently taking levaquin for a sinus and double inner ear infection, i have also taken this antibiotic before,i am 35 years old. I think this drug works wonderfully and tell the doctor this drug works the best for me.i have noticed a harder time falling asleep if i take it too late in the evening and some mild stomach cramping if i do not eat at least 2 hours prior to taking it.i also take it with a full glass of water.some of the side affects listed in this blog that people are describing are normal if you read your insert that comes with the medication.And if you follow the directions and eat and drink with a full glass of water the side effects are not as severe.Unless you are allergic to the drug,i do not find it bothersome knowing i will not be taking it forever and it is just temporary that i will be having a hard time falling asleep.i do eventually fall asleep.My suggestion while taking this medication if you are in reasonably good health,is to read the directions about eating and drinking plenty of water and don't panic,that just makes things worse.

It saddens me to read all the horrible effects this drug has caused. My husband took Levaquin back in August 2007and after 2 days starting have aching muscles, joints, drenching night sweats, high fever, rash. He took this poison drug for days(for a swollen lymph node in groin) and the side effects would not go away. He too was a very healthy 43 year old who worked out 4-5 times a week and very physically fit. This went on for months. He was tested for TB, AIDS, Lyme disease, I think every infectious disease and lymphoma, all came back negative. In Oct. 2007 he was hospitalized for 6 days and we were told that he had a very rare disease called Still's Disease. (google it and read about it please) I with all my heart and soul feel that LEVAQUIN brought this disease on. There is very little known about Still's but it's scary to think that doctors are giving this poison to patients. My husband has been on daily injections of Kineret, Methotrexate and Predisone since October and thank God these meds have given him relief. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE LEVAQUIN and tell all you family, friends and co-workers about it!

Well, I am not posting a side effect. I actually stumbled upon this website while trying to look up whether hypoglycemia is a side effect of Levaquin. I am a physician assistant and routinely prescribe this medication. Unfortunately ALL medications have the potential for causing many many many different side effects. Obviously one has to weigh the benefits of using the medication with the risk of side effects. And certain side effects are obviously more common than others. While I appreciate the point of a website like this, it is very frustrating for me, as a clinician, to read someone posting things that are absolutely untrue which can potentially cause undue distress or worry for everyone who may read it. I am referring to the person who wanted "to let everyone know of the relationship between levaquin and vancomycin." Her only source for this WRONG information is a nurse who told her daughter. Did she ever think that the nurse could be wrong and that maybe before posting something like that she should ask a pharmacist or a physician. Vancomycin and floroquinolones are not related pharmacologically!!!!

O>K> here i am again. After taking Levaquin back in the spring I SUDDENLY developed a severe case of arthritis!!! Imagine? I had a UTI and then wham!!! Can"t walk joint painb beyond belief! Now it"s Almost November and my knees are still killing me and my hands, the joints are so swollen,. The doctor can"t understnad why this happened. She sent me to a rheumatologist and my counts went so drastically up he thought the lab test was a mistake. ThankYou, Levaquin!!!! Marsh

I had a chronic cough which got worse and developped into bronchitis. My doctor gave me 10 days of 500 mg levaquin. Ten days later I went back, still coughing, even though the bronchitis was a bit better. He gave me another prescription for 7 days of levaquin with a refill.
A week or so into this routine, my legs started to hurt a lot. I thought I was just out of shape and needed to get back to the gym and do some stretching exercises. I could barely climb the stairs to the gym, but I must say that after working with the trainer and stretching a lot (and it hurt a lot) I was able to walk easier and the pain lifted quite a bit. . . for a while.
I also have developped total diarrhea, which made sense to me; because I was trying to kill bad bacteria in my system which I thought was causing the bronchitis.
Fortunately, last week I decided to go to another doctor because I wasn't getting better and I felt my old doctor was just overwhelmed by the health care system and was just going through the motions. This doctor, an ENT doctor, immediately diagnosed me with LPRD (acid reflux which goes all the way to the vocal chords, resulting in cough, tightness in the throat, etc.) I know he's right because I have felt the acid reflux thing at night when I have eaten late and had a couple of glasses of wine with dinner.
Tomorrow I'm heading to a gastro doc to attack the diarrhea, but I wondered if the leg pain had anything to do with the levaquin, since it came about after a week or so on the stuff. and lo and behold found all these postings which have now scared whatever shit I have left out of me!
I'm off to get some magnesium, as someone suggested and would appreciate any other tips anyone might have. My only tip is that stretching out your legs and butt muscles, does temporarily help a bit.

I think it's important to keep perspective. There are people reading this forum who have just started Levaquin or it has just been prescribed to them. Keep in mind that everyone posting here did so because they had problems with Levaquin.

There are far more people who have taken it with little or no side effects, and chances are, you will be one of those people. I just completed a 10 day course of 250mg for acute kidney infection, and experienced no side effects at all.

I have no doubt that this drug does have extremely horrible side effects for some, but listen to the diagnosis for many of these people. Sinusitis? It's the most common diagnosis in doctors' offices each day. And many foolish doctors are prescribing something this strong for sinusitis. Thousands of people start this medication each day, and most will not have problems. If everyone had problems, you'd see thousands of posts each day, a class-action lawsuit would have been organized, and the drug would be off the market.

Eventually this WILL happen, but because the side effects happen to so few people, it will take years to amass enough participants to make it worth the expense an attorney will have to front to take on the company.

This is what really scares me. Reading page after page of awful side effects can actually cause someone to manifest these side effects phychosomatically in their body. So if you're reading this after just having started Levaquin, DON'T LET YOUR IMAGINATION GET OUT OF CONTROL. It's not likely that you'll experience what these people have.

If you do, be responsible, report it to your doctor and to MedWatch.

I took half of 750mg i.e 375mg levaquin for 3 days for sinus infection. i have numbness and tingling sensations in my hands and feet. i took the last dose 2 days ago but my symptoms are persistent. i saw a neurologist who does not believe me. he is checking me for multiple sclerosis but does not think that this is the right diagnosis.
please help me....i am convinced that this has something to do with levaquin

Update: I went to the ER last night and was pretty surprised when I received the results from my labs and the doctor's interpretation (diagnosis). My X-rays were completely normal and free of alignment problems or visible fractures which was expected. But, my blood work told the entire story... General inflammation indicator was slightly elevated and my uric acid concentration was through the roof. This indicates that I have developed Gouty Arthritis over a period of three-four days and have inflammation in my joints, the latter of which is improving or not severe enough to scare anybody.

I am just wondering if anybody else with sore, numb, and weak feet, ankles, wrists, and hands after/during the course of Levaquin has had a similar diagnosis? I have never experienced anything like this before, but hate to think that I may have aggravated it by drinking in order to alleviate some of the pain over the weekend.

There is no family or personal history of Gout for me. I must note that potassium deficiency and dehydration are side effects/warning conditions of Levaquin and am wondering if I was just dehydrated to begin with and my muscles were in pretty bad shape from coughing and aching for 5-6 days, then the antibiotic worsened it to this point. Either way, I will never take one of these drugs again and plan on considering this as an allergic reaction in the future.

FYI: The ER Dr. recommended Ibuprofen for the pain because the aspirin that i was taking could have been aggravating the condition. I also awoke just before four again this morning after having only slept 4.5 hours and experienced very vivid dreams and was unable to return to sleep. I'm beginning to believe that this is never going to end.

After 5 days taking levaquin that have been prescribed for a sinus condition my daughter started having strange feeling, being afraid of people. She when to the eR and they told her to stop taking them immediately. 2 days later she tried to kill herself.

When brought to another hospital they did not beleive the other doctor diagnosis and thought she was depress. After she recovered a day or two later, they realized she was not depress at all and that the cause was the Levaquin.

This is a very dangerous medication and I do not understand that nobody is doing something for it to be retired from the market.

In June of 2003, I went to the Dr. for sinus infection syptoms and weakness. I have never been seriously ill in 60 years.
She prescribed 500mg of Levaquin.
After taking the first pill, I woke up on the bathroom floor with a bath mat around me , disoriented. The Dr, advised me to go to the ER. The ER Dr. said to take only 1/2 a tablet and go home; I did so and ended up in the ER the next day in a coma that was life-threatening. The diagnosis was bacterial spinal meningititious, I recovered but never tied it to the drug.
A year later, I went to another Dr. for a checkup and was feeling fine. He suspected some prostatitous and prescribed Levaquin. I took it for 5 days and then became unsteady on my feet, with a tendency to almost fall to the left when I walked. I began to drag my left foot slightly. I went to the ER. The ER Dr. took me off Levaquin.
During the hospital stay, the Dr. administered an MRI and declared that I had a small stroke on the right brain (thallamus area). It has been a few days since hospital
discharge,and my walking has improved. I am concerned about the coincidents that have occurred with my taking Levaquin.
Does anyone know of brain problems that may be associated with taking Levaquin?
I am not an alarmist, but I am concerned about this drug.

Have taken 500Mg Levaquin for bronchitus or bacterial pnemonia. Experiencing four days of night sweats and symptoms of paranoia, wandering the house hold and causing general upset. I am also a diabetic Type 2 which was considered during the diagnosis. I find nothing good to say about the drug and consider it detrimental to my ongong health issues. What with halo vision and nausia.
The couse of Levaquin treatment was prescribed for ten days. Will discontinue today. How do these drugs get recommended by physicians without clear warnings.