Levaquin and mom

I have some of everything above and am in so much pain that I feel as if I am dying a slow, painful death. I am on heavy pain meds and even with those I have severe abdominal cramping. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have this pain relief. I am very worried as to what is happening to me internally. They are scheduling cat scans and I am awaiting a phone call to get something diagnostic done. This all started 8/15 and not only are things not easing up, but I think this is getting worse. I also have a urethral discharge, UTI, and alternating constipation and diarhhea. Initially, I had a 102 degree fever and now my temp is low, only 97.1! my husband plans on calling a lawyer today, 8/26. One day I passed brown urine and it shocked me! I'd appreciate hearing from others as I feel so alone in this horrible nightmare which is unfolding! FYI, my dr feels that my muscle tissue is breaking down...has anyone heard anything like this from their dr? The stomach and abdominal pains are like labor!

My mom took Levaquin for a sinus infection and within three days of starting the medicine her kidneys began to fail. Her heart rate and blood pressure were elevated. After 6 months of going to doctor after doctor, she was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure. Now she is on dialysis three times a week. The kicker...she had just had a complete physical with a blood work up three weeks prior to taking Levaquin and she was absolutely fine. Now, she's dying of chronic kidney disease.

Im a 16 years old female and I was given samples of Levaquin because the doctor thought I had a kidney infection. I did fine the first 3 days but on the 4th day I started to feel really weird and confused, I couldn't even drive. My stomach hurt really bad also. I didn't take anymore of the pills but it has been almost 3 days since I have stopped taking Levaquin. It wasn't until today that my mom found out that it is illegal to give to people under 18. I went to a different doctor today and he said the side effects should go away in a few more days. I was prescribed Hydroxyz to help with the symptoms. I just want to let people know that you should be aware of the side effects before taking any medication.

I was given a 10 day dose of LEVAQUIN for a mild bronchitis/respiratory ailment on Jan. 29, 2008. I took 1 500mg pill for the full ten days. Three days after I stopped taking this medication, I experienced incredibly painful swelling in both knees. I could barely walk, and couldn't bend my knees. I was scared, upset, and in absolute misery. I spent a week literally throwing myself backwards onto chairs. It was unbelievable. When I could finally get to my normal health care provider 5 days later, she immediately identified the culprit as the Levaquin I had taken. She said she knew it to cause people's tendons to burst. It was obvious since it was both knees that it was not an injury and I never had any other problem with my legs. I am, or shall I say I was an avid walker. I was told to see an orthopedic doctor if I had not improved in one week. I had not improved in a week. The orthopedic doctor sent me for an MRI which showed irreversible, permanent cartilage damage in my left knee. The right knee he didn't MRI at the time, saying he could determine what he needed to know from the one knee and would only be able to do corrective surgery on my knees in 6 week intervals. This horrible drug has permanently altered my way of life. I was a 53 year old active, ambulatory adult who would walk miles a day. Two months later, I still have constant knee pain, cannot stand for long periods of time without leaning on something and can no longer kneel, etc. I can only walk around a bit and if I'm on my feet for long periods of time I experience knee, ankle pain and swelling. I sent a report to the FDA who obviously cares nothing about this situation, since I'm not the only unsuspecting person to have this happen. I've been studying this drug now and there was evidence in animal clinical trials of joint and tendon damage, To me it would have been no different an experience if someone had come up and hit me with a baseball bat across both knees. I am permanently damaged from Levaquin. I think it's criminal this drug is given to younger ambulatory adults at all.

I work in a health care system and we have used levaquin for this last cough, cold and flu season. It has worked wonders for the various upper respiratory infections.

No one has developed rashes, boils, or bone/muscle pain. After reading the first response, her abnormal reaction sounds more like a bad case of shingles.

Then, I read the last post where the person drank two glasses of whine to help with the blah blah blah. Mixing alcohol with any type of medication will not help with Your sypmtoms were a "full fledged panic attack" as you stated from the beginning.

Nothing but idiots posting here!

My 15 year old daughter was prescribed this medication for a sinus infection. By the 2nd day she had a headache and by that night she was having nightmares bad enough that she wanted me to watch her fall asleep. She is now paranoid, anxious, she has slept the entire day for the last 5 days and hasn't wanted to leave the house. I left the house and she called me on the phone very paranoid to the point she asked me not to hang up the phone and she kept asking how long until I come home. I was just a few blocks away and she kept telling me to hurry home. I put her in the car with us just to get out of the house then she said she felt sick and threw up. She hasn't held a full conversation in 5 days and says she feels like she's crazy. I called the on-call doctor's hospital and they surprised a doctor prescribed this to a teenager.

WOW!! am I thankful for this site. My 73 year old mother was given a 5 day, 750 of Levaquin for pneumonia yesterday. She is to see another doctor tomorrow for setting a date for surgery on an abdominal anyrurism. She has taken 2 doses and is feeling really down not even wanting to talk. I was told by a friend that the drug family Cipro is really bad so I decided to check out this one and I am so thankful. I just got off phone with mom and she is not going to take anymore. She is going to double up on her nutritional supplements especially MAX GXL which will help with the cellular inflamation and magnesium to get this Levaquin out of her system as quickly as possible. Again thank you

THIS DRUG IS HORRIBLE adn should be taken off the market...im a 21 year old male in decent physical shape...i was taken to the ER for dehydration from what i thought was a virus...the ER doctor couldn't tell if it was a virus or a bacterial infection so he automatically prescribed me Levaquin just in case it was a bacterial infection...Now it really makes me mad that he wasn't sure what it was and he prescribed this poision to me....but anyways he gave me one pill at the hospital 500 mg and prescribed 8 more doses to be taken home...that night i felt HORRIBLE! my heart had this erratic heart beat...my breathing was irregular...i just thought i was over reacting....that night i couldn't get to sleep i was tossing and turning...the next day i felt like my love handles were SWOLLEN and it was a very uncomfortable feeling also i had a painful jabbing/burning feeling in my lower back it was horrible...i just thought it was part of the virus...as the week went on things got worse i started developing anxiety...and i felt depressed...i actually told my mom i felt like i was dying...it was a miserable experience...my mom then insisted it maybe a side effect of the levaquin so we called the doctor and of course he said "Hes never heard of anything like that" he also told me i should stay on it b/c if i stop the antibiotic won't work or w/e and ill get sick again so i stupidly listened to him and things got worse...the last couple days my eyes felt really weird they were very dry and irritating and when i woke up in the morning or went from very dark to a very light environment everything was so bright it hurt to look at the light...ive been off levaquin for a week now and i feel a lot better but still have problems with my eyes...they are still irritating me and are very dry and now my legs feel weak and sore...i never thought an antibiotic could be this potent...thankfully my anxiety and depression have subsided a little bit...IM NEVER TAKING THAT DEMON SEED AGAIN!!!!!

I took 7 days of Levaquin back in late August--it is the day after Christmas and my legs are still very swollen, sore and stiff, with major knee pain. Of course my doctor denies this, saying that I have "poor circulation."

Before this happened, he always praised my GREAT leg circulation. Has anyone else had this symptom and how long did it last?

Hi, this is guest 21606 reporting back about a month after finishing 6 weeks of levaquin. The good news is the prostatitus is cured.

For the most part the muscle pain has dissipated although I still have an occasional twinge. It is sometimes hard to sort out what is a drug interaction and what is normal muscle pain, when I am sick everything hurts. None the less, the peculiar pain I associate with use of levaquin did not happen until after about 10 days of taking the drug, steadily increased for a few days, remained steadily painful until a few days after I stopped taking it, then gradually diminished. Although it is possible the muscle pain was coincidental, I doubt it.

When I told my Urologist about the muscle pain he looked at me like I was from some other planet, like how could I possibly be so dumb, my family doctor also gave me a look, copped an attitude, and suggested I have sciatica. I don't quite understand this attitude, although the official side effects do not include muscle pain there are sure a lot of anectodal reports including my mom who credits levaquin with saving her life but had muscle pain for more than a month after completing her treatment.

Meanwhile keep in mind this is a very mysterious and powerful drug whose actions and interactions are not completely understood. If you are considering taking levaquin for anything less than a life threatening infection I suggest you think twice and try something else instead.

Good night all

Peter

Tues. Mrach 29, 2005
My mom has taken levaquin for a sinus infection for 18 of the 21 days prescribed. She stopped taking it at day 18 because of SEVERE joint and muscle pain. I've read that many of you have had the same experience. Can anyone tell me if this side effect is permanent or how long the joint pain lasted??
THANK YOU!!

My 89 year old mother, a resident of a nursing home, was given Levaquin for a UTI. Within about three days, she was bizarre. She actually could not distinguish between reality and her dreams. She believed so strongly about what she perceived being real, that I asked that two psychiatric evaluators be called in. Knowing the doctor's attitude (based on an immediate past experience with Lexapro that made Mom a zombie and his reluctance to take her off of it), Mom refused the Levaquin. In our state, at least, the nh cannot force a patient to take a medicine when it is refused. After seeing this site earlier in the week, I was adamant that she would not take one more Levaquin and will not in the remainder of her life.
Tonight she is still a bit fuzzy on some things. And as a happy postcript, the evaluators said her mind was very good and her memory was excellent and agreed that her bizarre (and I do mean bizarre!) behavior was likely caused by either the Levaquin and the UTI; also that the Lexapro was too strong for someone her age.
We are in the process of changing doctors. His "I am god, you are stupid" attitude can be gone! It is unacceptable.

My mom was prescribed Levaquin (500 mg) for a UTI. She experienced many of the side effects already mentioned - rashes with blisters on her cheeks, nausea, dizziness, feeling weak, muscle aches, back ache, low blood pressure, heart palpitations, sleeplessness.
We're just waiting for this nasty stuff to clear out of her body.
We will now check for adverse side effects before taking future medications.

The first two - three days on Levaquin, I experienced nausea and a spaced out brain.

Days four - ten (last day of medicine), I turned into the mom on Requeim for a Dream - not really that extreme but comparable. I felt like I was on speed, not an antiobiotic. I would lay in bed until about 3am, nightly. I kept thinking the next night I would be exhausted and fall asleep quickly since I had little to no sleep the prior nights, but this was never the case. I started getting worried daily, and randomly thought maybe I should see a counselor but did not attribute this to levaquin. I went running one days as normal. Usually I can run one-two miles without stopping. While on Levaquin I turned into a super runner, running 3-4 miles without stopping that is while getting no rest at night. I found this to be strange. I would have discontinued the medicine, but I have had reoccurning bouts of strep due to stopping my antiobiotics early; i didn't want a similar effect so I stuck with the drug.

Now that I am off the drug, I feel sleepy. i have had some random dreams, but that is fairly normal. After reading everyone's postings, I am a little concerned if more madness is yet to come. I would recommend anyone currently on the medicine to change drugs. I am still confused as to how an antiobiotic is able to have so many terrible side effects.