Levaquin and ucla

My son is 16 years old, a wrestler, and was in excellent health. He developed sinus issues and had surgery on September 17, 2007 (he had a headache on the left side of his head which the ENT said was due to sinus issues). After sinus surgery, the doctor prescribed Levaquin for 10 days. After 4 days, I called his doctor and told him he was getting worse and not better. The doctor said not to worry. After that he had sleepless nights, felt like the room was moving away from him, became dizzy and light headed. Then the joint pain came. First in his thumbs, then wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles. He developed severe headaches in the back of his head. The headaches were moderate to severe and with him 24 hours a day. He became extremely weak and his dizziness continued. He was tested for many diseases through numerous blood tests, had a spinal tap, MRI, MRA, CT of the spine, CT of the sinuses, x-rays of the knees, and an EEG. All came back normal, except his sinuses were still swollen which is normal after sinus surgery. He has seen numerous medical doctors (primary, pediatrician, two neurologists, allergist, two Ear Nose Throat) and is now seeing a pediatrician in UCLA and has appointments to see more UCLA doctors.

He has been out of school now for a couple of months. Luckily, the school has him on home instruction and sends teachers to the house and he is maintaining his honors classes. To give you all hope, he does appear to be getting better, but it is a very slow recovery. Up until two weeks ago, some days were okay and some days were pretty bad. It comes and goes like that. At first I never suspected Levaquin, but stumbled across the side effects when I was trying to research what was wrong with him. The only thing I found that had helped some people was taking high doses of magnesium (the kind ending in "ate" is better absorbed). I was and still am nervous about giving my child a lot of any type of vitamin, but no one was able to make him better, so I gave him 250 mg three times a day for three days. It could be just a coincidence, but about 3 days after I stopped giving him the magnesium, all of the joint pain was gone except for his knees, which still hurt if he bent down.

After a couple more weeks, he still had severe headaches, knee pain, some dizziness and some weakness, so I thought I would give it another go and gave him magnesium three times a day for 4 more days. After the 4 days of magnesium, he started on a new medication called Lyrica. His knee pain is almost gone and his headaches are minor with only an occasional flair up. I can see in his eyes and how he reacts that his is feeling better than he has in a long time. He has always been a happy kid, but I can tell he has his special spark back.

For the last two weeks, I just give him one 250 mg of magnesium a day, multi-vitamins, and Lyrica. By the way, one of the blood tests I requested was for magnesium, and it showed his level was normal. So, I have no idea if it is time that is making him better, the magnesium, or the fact that he is taking Lyrica. He will still continue to go to the doctors, none who believe Levaquin could be a cause, until he is completely back to normal. I believe that Levaquin was likely a culprit in his overall health issues, especially since no one can figure out how my healthy, energetic son suddenly became so ill he could no longer go to school. For the past two weeks now, he has had good days mixed in with okay days (no bad days though!!!) He has had only 2 weeks so far of better health and we hope it continues to get even better. Good luck to all of you and my prayers are with you. I hope somehow this will help someone.

"Maybe you people need to realize that just because you have a symptom, and it happened after you took a drug, the two aren't necessarily related. Take my word for it, I'm an M.D."

Take your word for it? I go to UCLA for my medical care. I must have seen about 4 different doctors there who are unable to diagnose what I have. I told them that after starting Trimox, 5 days later I had severe pins and needles in my lower right leg. They switched me to Levaquin and that made it worse. Then muscle twitching started. They too said that "it's NOT the Levaquin!" all right then, "what's causing the pins and needles and muscle twitches" I asked these doctors who's word I'm supposed to be taking. All their answers were "I don't know...". BRILLIANT. 4 doctors at UCLA say it's not the Levaquin, BUT cannot give me a viable explanation as to what's causing them. Ironically, within 4 days of stopping the Levaquin (because a pharmacist said that it was indeed a rare side effect from the drug) the pins and needles subsided. Hmmm, what could it have been?!? Maybe if the doctor gave an intelligent response when presenting them with our symptoms, they could say something other than "I don't know what could be causing that" and just passing the symptom by like it doesn't mean anything, we'd be more apt to 'take their word for it'. The words "I'm an M.D." are not synonymous with the words "I Am God". I will always question a doctor's word. It's my responsibility because it's MY health that they may be misdiagnosing. This arrogant attitude of Dr.'s is really getting tiresome. WE hire doctors to work for US. WE do not work for the doctors. WE pay THEM. They act like it's the other way around. Doctors have to stop dropping the ball and start investigating the symptoms instead of just shrugging them off with "Oh, that's just age". It's maddening!! ...-Dave