November 5th
2003
8:07 AM
Took Levaquin for UTI for 10 days. After about 2-3 days, began to have symptoms of sciatica; severe pain from lower back, down the buttocks, backs of the legs, into the knees, ankles, and feet. The bottoms of my feet, my heels, and my ankles ache constantly. Especially painful to stand, walk after sitting just a few minutes. Forget what it feels like to get out of bed in the morning. I was in such pain, that bt the end of the day, my legs, knees and feet hurt me so bad.
I also was very anxious, worried, angry, biting people's head's off, not very patient.
I felt as if I'd been doing rigorous exercise and was paying for it was muscle and joint pain. But I had not. Instead, I had been sick with the UTI. I also had halucinations at night, to the point where I sincerely thought something was in my room...saw flags waving in the air, streamers coming down from the ceiling. They were so real that I'd reach up to touch them, then they'd fade away. My husband says that I shouted in my sleep, and would begin frantically tossing and turning as if being shaken.
Also, I take other medications like Lipitor, Synthroid, Celexa, Ditropan, Vioxx, and thought (and still think) that Levaquin, combined with these other medications, caused this serious side effect. I have never in my life experienced this kind of ongong pain.
It has been at least 3 1/2 months since I took the Levaquin. I have had 2 blood tests to check for autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupis. One test came back positive, so another further test was done. It then came back negative for autoimmune diseases. I thought why did these symptoms all of a sudden appear out of nowhere? I know I couldn't have pulled any muscles to cause this much pain. It has been a constant 24-7 aching pain, from my lower back down. I have had no relief from any pain medication to date. I am now taking Feldene for inflammation. What next? Possible MRI to check for a bulging disk says my neurologist.
I feel that as patients we need to be our own advocates and learn all we can about any medication prescribed to us, BEFORE we begin to take it. Do not take your doctor's word and "WISDOM" for granted, do research first. Then decide to take the medication or not based on the listed side effects. DO NOT MESS AROUND WITH YOUR LIFE! I'm not even 40 years old yet, and I feel that I am an OLD WOMAN, and that I should'nt have THIS much discomfort. I'm 99% sure that this sudden onset of symptoms is not arthritis, etc. but merely a side effect of Levaquin. PATIENT BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!
April 16th
2009
12:52 PM
After what I have seen here and on some other sites I'm 99% positive this drug has hit me with several of the side effects listed. I'm a fairly healthy 49 year old woman. I have never had any health problems, no high blood pressure, no heart problems nothing. I went to the dentist in late March with a problem wisdom tooth. I'm allergic to penicillin so I was prescribed Clindamycin (sp) but it did make me sick to my stomach so I couldn't get the entire daily dose down. I had made it thru 90% of the prescription when I went back on 3-31-09 and still had some infection left in the tooth. My dentist took my BP and it was normal. He then said he wanted me on antibiotics for another week, and prescribed Levaquin as "a wonderful drug, it won't make you sick and you only have to take one a day". So I took the 7 day 500mg dose, went back the next week. True, it didn't make me sick. But I did notice my Achilles tendon was really sore and stiff. I also had a re-occurrence of an elbow problem that had healed and was no longer bothering me until then. I also noticed I wasn't sleeping well, and was having vivid dreams, which I attributed to the pain medication (vicodin) he had also prescribed. Went back on 4-8-09 and my BP was sky high!! As I said, never ever have I ever had an issue with my BP including when I was pregnant! He said he couldn't do anything with it so high. I mean a week and up almost 100 points! He attributed it to "White coat syndrome". So another week of Levaquin and back again yesterday. BP was the same story again, this time he didn't even see me but sent in the assistant to tell me to go get on meds with my Dr. So after that, I'm angry and totally confused. So I came home, hit the internet and I'm seeing what changed in that week to make my BP go insane. I'm also seeing other symptoms here. The Achilles tendon, Knee aches, Back ache, Hip ache, difficulty sleeping, and Steven King quality nightmares. I also read somewhere on the net that supplements like MoveFree with MSM would help and I do take that as a regular supplement to help with things just getting a little older as I'm a pretty active gardner. Now I have been off this since Monday and my aches are better today than they have been. I picked up a BP machine yesterday and it's down a little since at the doctor's. I'm keeping a close eye on that for a couple of days before I submit to a chronic disease for the rest of my life. Hopefully the side effects will gradually go away. Has anyone else's symptoms gone away after stopping the drug? How long did it take for them to go away if they did?
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