Adverse Reactions to Fluoroquinolones are Like Earthquakes

I first wrote this essay about 4 months post-floxing.  My perspective has changed a bit since I wrote it, but a lot of it still rings true –

I’ve come to think of bad fluoroquinalone reactions like earthquakes.  They’re both scary, the world as you know it shakes and destruction and tragedy can occur.  Like earthquakes, they also vary in severity.  Some are minor, like the August 23,2011 earthquake in Washington D.C. that caused little damage to infrastructure and no fatalities – but you can certainly be sure that it was scary to those who lived through it.  Some are major and devastating, like the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti that left hundreds of thousands dead and destroyed billions of dollars of infrastructure.

Most of the stories that you read about on the internet about horrific fluoroquinalone interactions are Haiti-like in intensity.  Lives have been ruined by fluoroquinalones.  People are unable to walk, work, sleep, etc.  Some are in constant pain.  My heart goes out to those people.  Through no fault of their own, their life was shaken to its core, and, in many cases, their world came tumbling down around them.  I certainly don’t want to take anything away from them or the tragedy of their situation by mentioning that there are others out there who have more minor, D.C.-like, reactions.  However, I do want those who are new to researching fluoriquinalone toxicity on the internet and scared for their life that a more minor, non-devastating, reactions are possible.  I know that I needed to hear that when I first got sick.

You might be okay in a couple of months.  You might not.  I hope and pray that you are one of the people who recovers quickly and completely.  Know that it is possible and have hope.

I was lucky enough to have a D.C.-like reaction.  (June 2013 revision – I wrote this before I recognized a lot of my mental issues and before I went through some cycles of feeling pretty lousy.  I now think that I had a reaction that is more like the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.  Still scary, but San Fran has recovered, as have I.)  I don’t know that I’ll ever reach 100% of my pre-fluoroquinalone poisoning capacity.  I have lost some abilities that I may never gain back (my memory, flexibility, balance and immune system reactivity aren’t what they used to be), but I can deal with the level that I am at now.  I can still work, walk, interact with my loved ones, etc.  It is possible that fluoroquinalone toxicity did some damage to my system that I’m not seeing right now.  It’s possible that there’s a fissure in my infrastructure and that my world may come tumbling down around me at some later time as a result of the earthquake that was my bad reaction to fluoroquinalones.  I hope not, but it is possible.  Each day is better than the last though, so, at this point, I have no reason to think that I won’t be fully recovered 6-12 months after my initial reaction.  I hope so.

June, 2013 addition –

For those of you who have been shaken, whose world has been rocked and who are facing the rubble, now you have the chance to rebuild.  It is a chance – an opportunity.  You never asked to be knocked down and you certainly didn’t deserve it.  But since the earthquake happened, you can view the opportunity to rebuild as a gift.  You can make yourself amazing.  You can build skyscrapers and bridges and arches – you can shine and scream and let your greatness be known.  You can build a tiny little house in a meadow, ’cause you didn’t need all that crap in the first place.  You can build a safe house in the suburbs, where your family will be protected, ’cause you’ll never let an earthquake knock them down.  You can rebuild yourself to be awesome, and beautiful, because you are.