Acknowledgement of Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Toxicity

It is important to get acknowledgement from the doctors you are working with.

Though fluoroquinolone toxicity is not near as acknowledged as it should be, it’s not completely unheard of.  After all, most of the symptoms that people experience are listed on the warning labels.  Fluoroquinolone toxicity has also gotten some attention over the years, from Stephen Fried’s 1998 book, “Bitter Pills: Inside the Hazardous World of Legal Drugs,” to Nancy Edwards’ documentary, “Certain Adverse Events,” to the PBS Frontline special, “Certain Antibiotics Spur Widening Reports of Severe Side Effects,” to the dozen+ news stories about fluoroquinolone dangers done in the last month (linked to here).  Hundreds of media, blog, and peer-reviewed journal articles have also been written about the deleterious effects of fluoroquinolones (linked to here).

So, when a healthcare worker says, “I’ve never heard of reactions like that,” it makes me wonder, are they ignoring the warning labels, not paying attention to the media, or both?  (Yes, I know that my perspective is a bit biased and not everyone sees FQ toxicity everywhere, but it has been getting some genuine mainstream attention lately, and any doctor who prescribes these drugs should at least have his/her interest piqued by the stories and/or the existing journal articles.)

I suggest to everyone that they find doctors (or other health-care personnel) who, at the very least, acknowledge that fluoroquinolone toxicity is possible.  You can find a list of positively reviewed doctors here.

Fighting with your doctor for anything, much less a baseline of acknowledgement, is counterproductive to healing.  You don’t want to have that tension with the person who is supposed to be helping you.

Many Floxies have reported the relief they have felt when gaining acknowledgement of fluoroquinolone toxicity from a doctor.  In Diego’s Story, he noted that, “My doctors validating that LEVAQUIN did this to me” was one of the things that has helped him to heal.

Mike, a frequent commenter on this site, told me how great it was to hear from a doctor, “you are definitely floxed.”  And I appreciated hearing from him that his doctors told him that they read Floxie Hope.  🙂

Josh sent me this message:

“So, as I was telling you before, I had to schedule a root canal and was nervous about the procedure. When I went in to the dentists office, I filled everything out about my allergies to fluroquinolones and that I was under no circumstances to be exposed to them. Then, the doctor comes in and first thing she says is…

‘So I see you’re allergic to that poison that I would never dream of prescribing anyway.’

Can you imagine my relief? For about 5 minutes we talked about the adverse effects of quinolones and she assured me she would have never used them in the first place. As for the procedure itself, the first phase went very well (I have to get it finished in two weeks). I was given a lot of novacaine and she used eugenol (clove oil) to pack and seal the cavity temporarily and to bring down the swelling from a small infection in my tooth. I did experience a small flare (some mild muscle ache, nothing serious) for about 36-48 hours after the procedure. But 2 week out from the first phase, and 2 weeks until the second, my floxie symptoms are fine.

Please feel free to share the good news with the community that there ARE more and more medical professionals seeing things from the right perspective here! This woman is a very well respected endodontist in the Philadelphia area and she was just as adamant as I was about staying away from these drugs. Definitely encouraging news, and I felt like God really sent me her way to calm my nerves about the procedure and show that there are some doctors who know what’s up.”

It is noted regularly in The Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Group, a facebook support group for Floxies, that a doctor or other medical professional has acknowledged fluoroquinolone toxicity.  (Frustration with doctors not acknowledging fluoroquinolone toxicity is also noted often, and I suggest that everyone who experiences that try to find a new, more empathetic and educated doctor, if possible.)

Life is too short and precious to fight for the baseline of acknowledgement.

There is a lot of information about fluoroquinolone toxicity available.  Curiosity isn’t too much to ask for either.

The words, “I believe you,” are healing.  I hope that you all get that.  It’s more healing than any medication I can think of.

I’m really glad that more and more doctors are acknowledging fluoroquinolone toxicity, and how dangerous and destructive fluoroquinolones are.  To every doctor who acknowledges the pain and suffering of their patients going through fluoroquinolone toxicity, and especially to those doctors who don’t prescribe these drugs because of the devastation they bring – THANK YOU!

Acknowledgement, curiosity, knowledge, and caring will bring change.  When doctors bring those traits to their practice, they can change the lives of all of their patients.  The more doctors who see and acknowledge fluoroquinolone toxicity, and care about the patients who are suffering from it, the more quickly change will happen and the better the world will be.