Levaquin and primary care

On 7-15-08 I had a total abdominal hysterectomy and was given Levaquin thru IV while I was in the hospital.3 weeks to the day later I had a abscess next to my bowel that had to be removed and again was given Levaquin thru IV while I was in the hospital,both times I got very sick right after I was given Levaquin and when I was discharged on the 2nd.trip I was sent home with Levaquin 500mg pills.After taking 2 of the Levaquin pills I again was so sick and could not keep anything down so I called my DR.and explained to him what was going on and I was told I had to keep taking the Levaquin.After a few more days had passed I went into the office to see the DR.and again told him how sick I was and that I was unable to go to sleep,again I was told to continue the Levaquin and that my hormones were out of balance and that was why I was unable to go to sleep.On 9-2-08 I finally went back to work after being off for 7 weeks. I still was suffering from insomnia and was only getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night but was feeling better.On 9-30-08 I had a follow up with my primary care DR.my blood pressure was 211/160 and my pulse was 177 and also had a bad cough with wheezing and was sent straight to the ER.I was admitted and for the next 6 days was given Levaquin thru IV and the more I got the sicker I was to a point I thought I was dying.I ended up with a rash all over my face and finally on day 7 a Lung DR.came into the room and took one look at me and said "oh my god,we have to take you off of that antibiotic")
I was sent home on day 8 and after being home for 3 days all of the Tendons in both legs,ankles,arms,hands and right shoulder were inflamed to a point where the DR.was afraid that they were going to rapture so I was on complete bed rest for 3 weeks.I am now suffering from both ankles swelled and ache all the time along with all of the minerals in my body have completely bottomed out along with the calcium and potassium and also now I have several inflammatory markers in my blood and have to go see a Rheumatology & Arthritis DR.My lungs have also been damaged from Levaquin and I am now using 3 different inhalers and I have never had a breathing problem previous to this.Now for those who have commented that we should have researched the drug before taking the meds in my case I was unable to do so being as though I was given it in the hospital ! I still have no idea how much damage I will be left with and what will be permanent.I will post again when I find out more on the damage that this drug has done to my 44 year old body.

My husband was having gastrointestinal problems for about a week. The PA at his primary care physician's office prescribed Levaquin for 7 days. Blood taken ½ hr after Levaquin started showed liver levels to be a little high. By the 3rd or 4th day my husband was jaundiced. Blood taken on the 6th day revealed liver levels dramatically higher. He is still jaundiced and liver levels are still at the higher level. Had ERCP procedure, CT scan of abdomen and MRCP, but no conclusions other than stricture of bile duct and possibly pancreatic cancer, although a mass has not been seen on any film. Has this happened to anyone else on Levaquin? Doctors want to try ERCP again and if that does not work then the Whipple Procedure which is major surgery to remove a possible pancreatic cancer that they have not seen.

Recently took a twenty day run of 500 mg Levaquin for a cellulitis infection that popped up after a knee surgery. It seems that unlike most people I tolerate the drug pretty well. The only side effect I have noticed is a little muscle stiffness when I wake up which is quickly remedied through light stretching and a warm shower. After being put on this medication I looked up it's side effects and was frightened by how many people have had terrible and debilitating side effects. Next time I'll trust my doctor and not look them up. I think any lost sleep and nervousness can be attributed to worrying about side effects that never came up.

I was prescribed Levaquin 1000 mg. for 5 days for pneumonia the last week of December 2006. I was also prescribed Prednisone. Everything I ate tasted like metal. A couple of days after I started taking the Levaquin I started experiencing muscle cramps in my rib cage which are so severe it makes me double over in pain. After more than a year I still have the muscle cramps which now include not only my rib cage, but the arch of my feet and sometimes legs. I have a torn tendon in my left arm which didn't happen until about a month ago, but I am sure it is caused from muscle damage from the Levaquin. I am also on Advair Discus 250 which I didn't take before using the Levaquin. I didn't require inhalers or other medication before the pneumonia. My doctor now says I have COPD caused from asthma and chronic bronchitis. I used an Albuterol inhaler when I first got sick because the pneumonia was so bad. I thought after taking the Levaquin I would get back to normal. But even after the infection was cleared up I would get out of breath, so I returned to my doctor. She did an x-ray and said I had COPD and prescribed the inhalant. What I don't understand is that I didn't have breathing problems before the Pneumonia. I didn't have joint pain and muscle cramps either. I have had to quit working this past year because of it. I cannot go without the Advair, I can no longer walk long distances without pain. I have constant muscle pain just trying to do normal housework. How long do the effects last? Must be a lifetime.

I started taking Levaquin for a sinus infection. On the 3rd day I started getting heart palpitations and felt very tired. By the fifth day I woke up with excruciating pains in both shoulders and very limited movement of both arms. I went to my primary care Dr. He stopped the Levaquin and gave me pain pills and an anti-inflammatory. I was sent to an Orthopedic Surgeon who injected both shoulders with steroids. I then went through a series of acupuncture treatments which helped somewhat, but finally admitted that I needed more help. I went back to the Orthopedic Surgeon and had surgery on June 11, 2007 on my right shoulder. At first this Dr said that there was no possibility that this could have been caused by the Levaquin, but after the surgery he admitted that he was starting to see other patients with the same problems from Levaquin. I can’t afford to have the left shoulder operated on but the pain has lessened and I still have limited movement of both arms.

On June 4, 2007 my husband had achilles tendon surgery on his left leg. He will be in a cast until July 19th at which point it will be determined if he has to be cast again. He took Levaquin 750 mg for 10 days beginning April 10 - 19th. On the early morning of April 21st he was CONVINCED that someone was trying to break into our home, he called 911 TWICE and the police came to our home to find nothing. I forgot to mention that he was also taking 500mg of Lortab for the extreme pain in his legs. Just after the police left for the 2nd time he took 2 steps and fell, rupturing the left achilles and tearing the right. I took him to the emergenceny room and he was so dehydrated that his kidney function had pretty much subsided. After 2 more visits to the emergency room he was hospitalized with Kidney failure. After a different round of antibiotics and fluids he was released after 4 days in the hospital. During his stay the swelling is his legs was terrible and the pain with the ruputures and tears of tendons was unbearable. After a vist to a rheumatologist she immediately diagnosed his injuries as a result of taking Levaquin. So currently he has a cast on his left leg and a boot on his right in hopes the right will heal without surgery. His primary care physician apologized because he didn't know about this drug. Surely there is something that can be done.

I was just given 750 mg 5 day pack of Levaquin over a week ago for acute bacterial sinusitis. I have have never taken this antibiotic before and since I am allergic to penicillin, the Dr. (who I have never met before) felt that it was a good option. Let me say that I am a physically fit woman with 3 small children and exercise everyday. I fortunately enjoy good health and rarely complain about anything.
Once I began taking this medication, I could barely function. The fatigue was incredible and I suffered from dizziness. The Dr. failed to tell me to stay out of the sun, and as a result I have blisters all over my legs due to the photosensitivity from the drug. I also had neck and jaw pain and still have knee pain. I do feel much better know, but still suffer from slight dizziness and fatigue. I would never take this medication again, and I hope that there will be no long term effects from such a short period of time. By the way, my Primary care physician who was not available the day I needed the antibiotics saw me for a follow up last week and told me that I am entirely too tiny for this drug, and it is generally prescribed to grown men. She also felt that all of my aches and pains were from a direct result of the Levaquin.

I have just been told by my primary care doctor that he cannot continue to okay any more time for me on my state disability.

He asked if I was going back to work ( I've been out 6 months ) and I told him my legs are still so weak and sore so often I cannot be on them for more than one to two hours without them feeling like they are going to go out from under me, as well as my arms to a lesser ( 50% ) degree and often the rest of my body if I do anything physical for more than 1/2 hour to one hour. And that I was also still totally depressed and feeling I could have an anxiety attack at any time which I do maybe every 3rd, or 4th day....so that no, I could not work at this time. I was still feeling about as totally disabled as I ever have been in my 54 years.

I also told him my feelings about Levaquin perhaps being the cause of all this. He got very agitated and ended the visit and said it was not the Levaquin but I would not be able to understand his explanation as to why it could not be the Levaquin because of my lack of education in the medical science field.

When I said that every symptom I have had since the second day of taking Levaquin were symptoms that I have never experienced in my entire 54 year life and I wasn't having "any" of these during the 4 or 5 days previous to being prescribed Levaquin when I had the flu and beginning bronchitis, he just wouldn't even comment.

He just stood up and turned to walk away. Then he stopped and said, "look...one thing we are sure of...is that you have serious mental health issues, and that's all we can find outside of some maybe beginning Crohns Disease with the results not coming in until later next month from the U.C.S.F. Med Center tests.

My last comments that I "tried" to say to this doctor as he was walking away were that " Why would I have myself taken to our local ER 3 times in one week as soon as I started taking Levaquin with terrifying symptoms like all the ones you all are describing here on this board from incredible insomnia to massive weakness and panic attacks, etc., when even with the flu I wasn't feeing that concerned and my 54 year long local resident history does not show a pattern of ever having to rush to an ER that often? And why....WHY would he nor any of the ER doctors ever once give one seconds thought to the "possibility" that I was having a sever reaction to Levaquin...especially when the symptoms I was experiencing are ones that are listed as those that may occur to certain people taking this powerful antibiotic? Can't we even consider this "levaquin reaction" a "remote" possibility?

His answer..."no." " I'll see you in 2 months."

If this doctors comments and behavior towards me isn't the most obvious and disheartening conveyance of dismissal, what is? This doctor would love to have me just never call him back. And sadly, so many doctors are acting exactly like him in my case.

And I've never had a problem like this before in my entire life! BOy, if a doctor doesn't see something on a test...there minds shut down on any other possibilites. I think also they are constantly thinking about the insurance companies questioning them about care provided when they aren't finding anything. So the whole system is geared toward dumping you when normal testing can't find your problem...and doctors are so insurance comapny minded...much more so than patient minded. OR, there is something else in these doctors training or mind set , that makes them very quickly dump their patients into the "psychiatric" area when they hit a dead end. And to do this to someone who has never had to see a psychiatrist in their life before...is what I would call a complete breaching of medical ethics.

When your primary care doctor gives you the "psychiatric brush off" after 6 months of torturous suffering, it's a pretty tough place to be as far as encouragement and knowing where to go from here. You have to take a deep breath and muster up even more courage and you realize that every month with this Levaquin problem...you are more and more on your own to just suffer with it. What a sad weight to add to this already horrible nightmare.

Let me start by saying that I have a middle ear infection. First my primary care dr. gave me Ketek, which did not work at all. He sent me to an ENT sepcialist.
I was prescribed 500 mg. of Levaquin for an ear infection. Dr. told me to take it once a day for 7 days. There was some improvement, so I continued to take it for a few more days. The ENT dr. became concerned so he increased the dosage to 750 mg. i am now on round 3 of 750 mg Levaquin. I still have the ear infection. I have bloody drainage from my right ear and I am totally deaf in my right ear. The ENT dr. tells me that this is the best drug out there. This cannot possibly be true. I dont have all the nasty side effects described by others, but this drug is NOT working. I am concerned because I have read through these messages and don't see anyone else who has been give Levaquin for an ear infection.

Thank you to those who wrote me with words of advice. I'm now 14 days out from levaquin and am feeling a bit better. I have had a complete physical and blood workup. I've also seen an allergist, a rhematologist, two ER doctors and my primary care. My primary care and one ER were at the Cleveland Clinic and advise that it's the levaquin. I have yet to run across a doc who didn't say it's the levaquin. I was sure it was MS, ALS or something worse than an allergic reaction. I am getting a little better and hope I continue on this path. I wanted to share the list of meds the allergist told me to NEVER TAKE and even suggested that I get a med alert braclet. It appears that if you have a bad reacation and take the offending agent again, next time will be worse including shock. My daughter who is an RN also agrees with the medic alert braclet. She said that if I were ever in a car wreck, one of the first things they would do in the ER was start an antioboitic IV.

The meds in the same family to avoid are:

Cipro, avelox, faxtive, levaquin, varoxin, tequin and trovan.

This same Dr. (the allregy immunology doc) says that I have had nerve damage, that I should fully recover and that it will not get worse.

My symptoms were mostly pain in my limbs, if you have had the pain in your limbs at the least please put a note in your wallet that says that you can not take the above listed drugs.

Hope this helps. God bless

Taunda

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Levauin was prescribed for me as an anti-diarrheal when I received my yellow fever vacinnation for a trip to Nigera. On my third day in Abuja I took one 500mg tablet because I was experiencing gas. Within a few hours I experienced such extreme heart arythmia and tachtycardia that I thought I might die. This has continued for three weeks, in addition to severe lower back pains. There was absolutely no need for me to have received such a powerful and potentially fatal medication when an over the counter would have been sufficient. I have made an appointment with my primary care physician because my distress continues.

My 86 year old mother was given levaquin for a respiratory infection and immediately began to exhibit the following side effects: diarrhea, confusion, sleeplessness, hallucinations, weakness (cannot stand up or walk at this time). We discontinued the meds today (after we got her home from the hospital with her primary care physician's consent).