Brandon

*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. 

The road to recovery.

I was first floxed in December of 2010 from a 6 day cocktail of flagyl and cipro. I had symptoms of food poisoning. I took two 500mg cipro a day and 3 flagyl a day for 6 days until I started feeling worse and having a pain in my left flank, rib area. I went to the ER and was told to stop the medication because my infection it was treating was gone. I was prescribed a 10 day course.

I Started feeling better the next day and felt fine about 4 days later.

In mid January I got a sinus infection, didn’t have any money to go to the doctor and could not afford to miss work again. I decided to take the cipro again as I had taken cipro for sinus infections before with no problem and had concluded that the pain I got in my flank previously was caused by the cocktail of cipro and flagyl together. I had 8 pills remaining, and decided to take one a day instead of two. On the 5th or 6th day I went to the ER in the middle of the night sick as I have ever been. I was having severe heart palpitations, tachycardia, high blood pressure, parastesia, racing thoughts, anxiety, diarrhea, throwing up, anorexia, suicidal thoughts, nightmares, lower back and flank pain, etc. They diagnosed me with low potassium and high calcium and despite me bringing the meds I was taking with me to the ER, they did not correlate it with the cipro. 8 visits to my doctor and 3 visits to the ER and no answers, all tests were normal except for low potassium once and high calcium once.

After about three weeks I found out about FQ toxicity. Another couple weeks of tests to rule out other possibilities (cancer, MS, ALS, lyme, diabetis, etc.)and I was convinced I was poisoned by cipro. Since then I have focused on healing.

Its now 4 and ½ months out from the second floxing and I am feeling much, much better.

I had mostly CNS symptoms the first 6 weeks (the worst was the suicidal thoughts and feeling’s of hopelessness), and then I got moderate tendonitis and other connective tissue related pains after that. The symptoms have cycled from the start. I felt good for one day the first two weeks, then 5 days the next two weeks, etc. My last cycle of symptoms was this weekend and was very mild and not debilitating, lasting only three days. It consisted of mild parastesia, some flank pain and a little anxiety and cold feeling in the mornings, loss of appetite, and slow digestion. I had been feeling very good for an entire 2 months before this, only having very mild tendonitis and pains that last only seconds. When I am feeling good I am 98% normal, and my cycles are improving significantly.

Things that may have helped me– Drinking a lot of water, Eating a lot of broccoli, carrots and eggs, salads, apple cider vinegar, Muscle Milk, Fish, Vit.C, magnesium citrate, calcium citrate, Vit.D, Fish oil, Probiotics, Epsom salt baths, meditation, low impact exercise (bicycling), sunlight, a good hobby (gardening), staying active.

Almost forgot, I stay away from the doctors, and I don’t do anything stressful to my body anymore, like CT scans, x-rays, blood tests, etc. I think those things were slowing my recovery.

I can remember many times looking back at the weeks and seriously wondering If I was getting better, I can remember thinking it was hopeless many times. It was easy to do considering I had never been sick longer than a few days at a time in my entire life. But now I know it is never hopeless.

The only constant in existence is CHANGE, nothing stays the same for long. Tomorrow will be different, something will change, it may be your mind, your body , the pain; something is going to change, and it will be different, and it will be BETTER as you learn to deal with the changes. Hang in there everyone, your going to make it threw this!

Update 3 years 7 months from second reaction.

I felt 100% healed for a full year, the period between 12 and 24 months. Two years after my reaction I suffered a severe relapse with new symptoms.  The main symptom has been sensory neuropathy, at one point so bad I was wondering how much longer I could go on. The relapse was triggered by severe emotional stress caused by a divorce. It’s been a  bit over a year and half since the relapse and things are doing much better now. I’m working full time, often overtime; manual labor, managing a wood shop. I lift 100lb+ pieces of wood all day, sometimes up to 10,000lbs of lifting a day. I lift weights, mountain bike, jog, jump, garden, work on cars, whatever I want. I’m not 100%, but it doesn’t hold me back at all! At one point I could barely walk up the stairs in my house and now some of my post floxy feats have included mountain biking 30 miles and running 5 miles in the snow. Don’t ever think you can not recover and have a normal life,  you can!

** 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, effect 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.