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*The following is an individual’s story of surviving fluoroquinolone toxicity. It is not medical advice. Please see the disclaimer at the bottom of the story. Thank you, and please be cautious with all treatments. 

Amber’s Fluoroquinolone Recovery story – Cipro Toxicity

November 4th 2013 I was prescribed Cipro for a UTI.  I can’t remember the mg at this point but I do remember that the doctor wanted me to take two pills a day for ten days.  Which I thought at the time was a little strange but I didn’t question it.  From the beginning the pills made me sick.  I just didn’t feel right on them but I kept taking them for about five days then decided to go off of them.  Please keep in mind the beginning of my story starts with having no clue what was wrong with me.  I did not know about Cipro toxicity until one year later when I started to do research on my own.

Unlike many others my symptoms did not hit right away.  The first system was sciatic nerve pain up my left leg.  I thought I pulled it at work and just took it easy for a week.  That went away.  The second symptom was a small itchy, throbbing pain on my right foot.  I thought I had a fungus since my boyfriend had slightly the same symptoms on his foot.  Both of these symptoms came two months separate of each other.  In February four months after taking my first pill I was hit with so many symptoms I had no idea what was causing it.  My hands and face started to go numb and tingly.  I started to read up on my symptoms and that right there could be the worst thing that you can do.  I found out that search engines are not your friend and you soon become a hypochondriac.  I of course thought I had MS or ALS or any other disease.  I couldn’t eat, I barley slept, and started drinking nightly.  I would wake up every morning and wonder what new symptom of some sort of disease that I had would poke its head up today.

I went to two neurologists.  The first one did what she thought was best.  I had an MRI with and without contrast, EMG, and some blood work was taken.  She found nothing wrong and then told me sometimes you just get tingly.  That wasn’t a sufficient answer for me.  By the time I went to the next neurologist I had twenty-five different neurological symptoms going on.  They did a series of tests and found nothing.  At that point they wanted to start giving me different prescriptions to basically cover up what I was feeling.  I refused.  When I told her my anxiety was high (I had little anxiety issues before my floxing) a light bulb must of went off because that is when she recommended me to see a behavioral health specialist.  Because you must be crazy if the medical community can find nothing wrong with you right?  That was the turning point for me.  I was officially done with doctors and started to research things on my own.  I just by accident stumbled upon the “small” percentage who have Cipro side effects.  And they matched me! I was so excited to learn that what was going on was real.  It didn’t matter to me that there wasn’t a cure I was just happy to learn that what I was going through was real and others had the same experience.  I was directed to a facebook site and met lots of great people on there.  Many of them have the same symptoms as what I did and knowing that there were others out there just like me made me feel a million times better!

I can describe to you some issues that I had and what I did to help myself.

Symptoms:

Brain fog – Even though I had a hard time concentrating I still had work and school and was not about to stop either.

Eye issues – including pain, light sensitivity, and dry eye.

Bee stings throughout my body

Vibration sensations

Muscle twitching

Pain in my legs- I had a hard time walking up the stairs to my apartment.  I would feel like I just ran a mile when I only took a few steps.

Anxiety

Sensitivity to alcohol and caffeine.

Sunburnt sensation all of my body

Hot spots on my legs

Migraines

Back ache

Supplements:

Magnesium- to help with the twitching

Min-col

Folic Acid

Vitamin C

Multi-Vitamin

B12

B6

Before I knew what was causing all of my issues I was in a very bad place.  But as they say knowledge is power.  Once you know what is causing your symptoms you can then try different things to see what helps YOU.  The number one thing that helped me was/is staying positive.  Your mind has the biggest power over your healing.  I try to turn the situation around and make it a positive one.  My friends and family now know the dangers that these drugs can cause.  I try to make sure that others will not have to go through the pain and confusion that I did. 

I am 95% better. I had a flare in June which lasted about a month. All very small issues most of which I ignore.

The road to recovery is not an easy one and I am not saying that you won’t have relapses because you will.  And when you do you have to push through that no matter how long it lasts and how frustrated you are.  At two years out I want to say that I am 95% healed.  Only thing lingering is some dry eye and random twitches.  But I can handle it in hopes that one day it will be completely gone.

** The story above is truthful, accurate and told to the best of the ability of the writer. It is not intended as medical advice. No person who submits his or her story, nor the people associated with Floxie Hope, diagnoses or treats any illness. The story above should not be substituted for professionally provided medical advice. Please consult your doctor before trying anything that has been mentioned in this story, or in any other story on this site. Please also note that people have varying responses to the treatments mentioned in each story. What helps one person may not help, and may even hurt, another person. It is important that you understand that supplements, IVs, essential oils, and all other treatments, affect people differently depending on the millions of variables that make each of us unique. Please use appropriate caution and prudence, and get professional medical advice.