*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.
Lisa’s Story
In the middle of November, 2011, I took Cipro to treat a urinary tract infection. I took 2 pills (500 mg each, I believe) a day for three days. I didn’t feel like the infection was gone, so I went back to the doctor and requested more antibiotics. He gave me macrobid and the infection subsided within a couple of days. Life went on as normal for the next couple of weeks, until December 2, 2011, at which time I got my period and started taking ibuprofen to help me to deal with the cramps.
Before I continue with my story, I would like to note that I had taken Cipro to treat a urinary tract infection approximately a year earlier. I had no notable side effects at that time. Though, looking back on things, I did develop an eyelid twitch at that time and some strange stomach cramping that came and went started then. I didn’t think anything of the eyelid twitching or the stomach cramps. I certainly didn’t think that they were tied to the Cipro. I took ibuprofen regularly after taking Cipro with no adverse effects.
On December 2, 2011 my legs started to itch. On December 4th I broke out in hives all over my body. I went to the doctor and was told to take Benadryl. I took more Benadryl than the box recommends and my hives got progressively worse. On December 5th my feet and hands swelled to the point that I couldn’t use them anymore. It was painful to walk, or even to just stand. I went back to the doctor and was put on prednisone. The prednisone suppressed the swelling and calmed the hives a bit. On December 7th my left leg went weak. For the next few weeks the following symptoms got worse and worse:
- Weakness in my legs. I could barely walk. The steps that I could take took a tremendous amount of effort and energy. I couldn’t stand for more than a minute. I had to drag a chair into the kitchen in order to cook rice because I couldn’t stand to stir the pot.
- Tightness of the tendons in my legs. I had inflammation, and possibly tears, in most of the tendons in my legs and feet. My hips, knees and ankles, to simplify things, didn’t work right.
- Loss of use of muscles / loss of strength. My muscles, especially the muscles in my legs, wouldn’t move like they used to. All of my movements were slow and deliberate.
- Brain fog. I couldn’t think straight. I felt stupid. I couldn’t concentrate. It was a struggle to do my job.
- Loss of memory. My short-term memory decreased significantly.
- Loss of peripheral vision. Large, black floaters entered my peripheral vision.
- Loss of appetite and weight.
- Loss of flexibility. I went from being able to do yoga several times a week to being unable to sit with my legs curled up under me.
- Loss of balance.
- Severe loss of energy. I felt like the plug had been pulled from my energy source. I wasn’t necessarily sleepy, I was just drained. The feeling was similar to the feeling that I have when I have a cold – weak and like I just want to collapse. Just slight exertion would drain me of my energy. Walking would make me tired for a whole day afterward.
- Dry mouth.
- Anxiety. I had an ongoing anxiety attack for the first couple of months after being floxed.
- Pain in my feet. I felt like I was walking on hot coals with every step I took.
- Loss of reading comprehension. I would read a page and have no idea what I had just read.
- Loss of social skills / connectedness. I felt anxious and scared in social situations. I lost confidence in both my physical and mental abilities. I felt very alone despite having a wonderfully supportive family.
I felt as if I had aged 20 years in just a week or two. I couldn’t move, think or eat. My body and mind were falling apart and I had no idea why. I didn’t think that the sudden decline in my health had anything to do with the Cipro. After all, I had stopped taking it a couple of weeks before my body started to fall apart. I thought that I had an autoimmune disease. My symptoms seemed similar to those of rheumatoid arthritis. I went back to the doctor and they ran every test imaginable on me. I was relieved to find out that I didn’t have an autoimmune disease, but it was somewhat frustrating to hear that all of the tests were showing that I was normal and healthy when, clearly, I was neither normal nor healthy. The doctors did not provide me with a diagnosis or a prognosis. Though I was desperately seeking a diagnosis and prognosis, I am thankful, in retrospect, that they didn’t misdiagnose me. If I had been mistakenly diagnosed as having an autoimmune disease, I may have treated it with pharmaceuticals that could have made me feel even worse.
I was desperate for some treatment, something to stop the downward spiral that my body, mind and spirit were in. The traditional medical doctors I saw provided no relief, treatment or healing. I started seeing an acupuncturist. He was able to stabilize my condition, calm my nerves and keep me from spiraling physically or mentally. After a few weeks feeling stable physically, I started to have days where I felt better than I had the day before. Mentally, I kept going downhill for a while, but, eventually my mental health stabilized and started to improve as well.
Eventually, with the help of my acupuncturist, I connected my symptoms to Cipro. Once the connection was made, I realized that all of my symptoms were consistent with those of others who have been poisoned by Cipro and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics. I entered the scary world of being a floxie.
For about a year, I considered myself to be sick. Though the symptoms listed above were improving, slowly but steadily, I was still sick, and a long ways from the healthy, active, energetic woman that I was before I took Cipro. After a year, I started to put “sick” in the past tense. Though I wasn’t back to the level of health that I was prior to being floxed, I was getting better and, as far as most people could tell, I was well.
Following is a list of things that I did to help me to get well, to heal. I am not a doctor. This is a description of my experience and what helped me. I hope that what helped me helps you. Everyone is different though. What helped me may not help you. One thing that I know helped me and that I know will help you is hope. I hope that the fact that I have largely recovered helps you to have hope. I hope that the other steps that I took to get well also help you to gain hope and healing.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns, or to share your story.
Lisa’s Healing Tips
One of the many frustrating things about fluoroquinolne toxicity is that everyone’s body is different. Everyone’s symptoms are different and everyone’s body reacts differently to treatments. Following is a list of things that helped me. I hope that what helped me will help you, but it may not. I am including other people’s healing tips as well, in case their tips can help. Of course, please read these tips with the typical disclaimer in mind – I am not a doctor or medical professional of any kind. I am sharing my experience with the hope that others may find it to be useful. Please ask your doctor, or other trusted medical professional, for medical advice, and before taking any of my advice.
In no particular order, here are the things that helped me to heal.
- Time. With time, I have healed. Each day is better than the day before. Time will heal your wounds too. Eventually, you will get better. The poisonous reaction affecting every part of your body will eventually stop and you will begin to recover. I have heard several stories of fellow floxies having a timeline similar to mine – slow, steady recovery for about 2 years. Other people take more, or less, time to recover. Time does help though, and most people do end up getting better as time goes on. Very few people get worse and worse indefinitely. There may be bumps in the road, but time is your friend. Time will help you to return to a state of health.
Try to be patient with yourself. It will take time for your body and mind to heal. I see this whole ordeal of getting sick as a lesson in patience (and compassion, gratitude and health). Pushing yourself too hard too soon can lead to pain, frustration and injury. Try to give yourself the time necessary to heal, and, with time, your body and mind will, indeed, heal.
- Avoid NSAIDs and steroids like the plague. Both NSAIDs and steroids are contraindicated with fluoroquinolone toxicity. They will make your reactions and symptoms worse. There are some published medical articles on PubMed about the contraindication between NSAIDs/steroids and fluoroquinolones. Searching at the library or on Google will give you more detailed information than I can provide. Anecdotally, I know that my reaction was triggered by taking NSAIDs (ibuprofen that I took to help me to deal with menstrual cramps) and it was exacerbated by taking prednisone (a steroid). Please note that I did NOT take NSAIDs or steroids at the same time as Cipro. I took ibuprofen 2 weeks after I finished taking Cipro and it triggered my toxic reaction and I took prednisone 3 weeks after I had finished taking Cipro, after my reaction had started. I will never take another NSAID or steroid again.
Unfortunately, NSAIDs and steroids are the drugs that are the most commonly prescribed drugs used to “treat” fluoroquinolone toxicity. This is because the combination of NSAIDs/steroids and fluoroquinolones does not always cause a toxic reaction, the toxic reaction of combining fluoroquinolones and NSAIDs/steroids can occur even when the drugs are taken weeks or months apart, doctors and other medical professionals don’t acknowledge fluoroquinolone toxicity and so they don’t look for the contraindications and because many of the symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity are treated with NSAIDs and steroids. The pain killing qualities of NSAIDs and the swelling reduction qualities of steroids make them the drugs of choice for treating many of the symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity. Don’t take them though! In my nonmedical opinion, I suggest taking non-NSAID over-the-counter pain medicine like acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain (or marijuana – which is probably better for your liver), and antihistamines for the swelling.
Often, fluoroquinolne toxicity is misdiagnosed as an autoimmune disease. In particular, it is often misdiagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. Many of the drugs that are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis are NSAIDs. Don’t take them.
- Acupuncture. I credit my acupuncturist with saving my life. I can only guess how I would have fared without my acupuncturist, but I imagine that I would have ended up in the emergency room, pumped full of steroids and antidepressants, having a massive anxiety attack and unable to walk. That didn’t happen though and there really isn’t any point in surmising about what could have been. I do know that acupuncture stopped my downward spiral and got me on the road to recovery. Both the acupuncture needles and the herbs that he provided gave me immense relief. I don’t know why or how acupuncture works, but I do know that it worked wonders for me.
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Supplements. I have taken more supplements than I can remember. 90% of them had no noticeable effect on my health. Here is a list of supplements that I think helped me.
Iron. I take a low dose iron supplement – only 5 mg. – daily. The brand of iron supplement that I use is Pur Absorb, but I’m guessing that other low-dose iron supplements will work equally well. Within just a couple days of starting taking the iron supplement, my energy levels increased dramatically. I could walk a mile without being exhausted afterward. In addition to improving my energy level, the iron supplement seems to make my muscles and tendons more supple and malleable. When my tendons are feeling tight, a dose of iron helps to loosen them up – within just a couple hours. Too much iron is really bad for you, so please be careful with supplementing it (ask your doctor, yada yada), but it helps me immensely.
Magnesium. I take 250 mg of chelated magnesium daily. I don’t necessarily notice that it makes me feel better, but I do notice that I feel worse when I don’t take it. My muscles twitch if I don’t take my mag.
Zinc. I take zinc when I get around to it. I remember feeling mildly better when I started taking it. It doesn’t seem to affect my health dramatically though.
Chlorophyll. I take chlorophyll about every other day. It seems to help with my energy level and mental functioning.
I also take fish oils, resveratrol, a probiotic, a joint supplement, CoEnzyme Q10, vitamin B12, chlorella, glucosamine, brewer’s yeast and some other supplements. They may help. I can’t say that I feel a difference using any of them.
- Meditate. Meditating has so many amazing, positive benefits for your brain, your life, your spirit, etc. that I can go on about it ad nauseam. Meditation helped relieve a lot of the mental symptoms of my fluoroquinolone toxicity. My anxiety, inability to concentrate, inability to connect with others, depression, loss of reading comprehension, decreased mental acuity, etc. were greatly reduced (or improved) through meditating. I meditate about 10 minutes each day. I should meditate more like 20-30 minutes a day.
Meditating helped me to gain compassion for myself and my situation. It also helped me to let go of the anger that I felt toward the pharmaceutical companies and the medical culture that allows fluoroquinolones to be on the market. The pharmaceutical companies and the medical culture are both messed up and blame of them is justified, but anger and blame were not serving me mentally, emotionally, spiritually or physically. I needed to let go of my anger and blame in order to move on with my life. Meditating helped with that.
I learned to meditate through taking a class called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction that was offered by my health insurer. It was an excellent class based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn. Many Buddhism centers offer Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction or Meditation 101 classes.
- Get off the internet. Most of the information available on the internet about fluoroquinolone toxicity is horrifying. Fluoroquinolone toxicity is horrifying. It is scary. It is completely unacknowledged by the medical community – the doctors, nurses, etc. who we go to in order to make sense of things when our body goes hay-wire – so we seek answers on the internet. Unfortunately, most internet sites devoted to fluoroquinolone toxicity do not provide a balanced picture. They show the harm and the horror of fluoroquinolone poisoning, but they don’t show the healing and hope that most people eventually experience. I am writing and distributing this in order to provide the perspective of hope and healing. Some people are permanently disabled from fluoroquinolones. My heart goes out to those people and they have every right to scream their story on the internet. However, their story is not your story. My story is not your story either. But if you’re going to look to the internet for a prognosis, it’s better to find a hopeful prognosis than one that is full of doom and gloom.
When I participated in the online forums for Floxies, I noticed that my anxiety levels increased significantly. Even after I was 90% recovered and I thought I could handle it, my anxiety levels would go up simply by reading about people being floxed. Inducing anxiety is one of the worst things that someone suffering from fluoroquinolone toxicity should do. Anxiety makes all symptoms worse. I would slowly relapse and my symptoms would get worse every time I participated in the online forums.
Of course, the people participating in the online forums are seeking to help fellow Floxies, to commiserate and to participate in a support group. It is not their fault that my anxiety levels increased when viewing their sites and/or support groups. After all, most people on those sites are trying to be helpful and supportive. However, the net result of participating in the forums for Floxies is that my anxiety levels increased and my health declined while I was on those sites. I am healthier and happier not participating in the online “support groups” than I was while I did participate in those groups. Of course, this is my experience only. Many people find solace in the Floxie community and if it helps you, great!
The people who have worked hard to create a community of Floxies to support one another should be commended. It is because of their hard work that thousands of people have realized what is going on with their bodies and that they are not alone. The community of Floxies is full of wonderful people. However, you need to do what you need to do to take care of your health and if you find that hearing other people’s stories increases your anxiety levels, get off the internet. For you.
- Diet. I lost 11 pounds in 18 days when I first got floxed. My body was going hay-wire and it seemed like an allergic reaction. I had no idea what I could possibly be allergic to so I stopped eating almost everything. I didn’t eat sugar (including fruit), gluten, dairy, soy, anything non-kosher or anything spicy, or drink any alcohol or caffeine, for a month. I only ate vegetables and organic meat. It’s a highly effective way to lose weight, but I don’t think that restricting my diet severely helped me to heal. Restricting my diet gave me a sense of control, and that’s not a bad thing when your body is self-destructing, but I don’t think that it made me feel any better physically. After a month of only eating veggies and organic meat, I started to add normal foods into my diet. As soon as I started eating an appropriate number of calories, I started to feel better. Not only was I Floxed, I was also wasting away when I wasn’t eating normally. Getting enough food is an important part of healing. Of course, it’s generally good to be on the “don’t eat junk” diet, but I didn’t find that cutting my food intake significantly helped me to feel better.
Many Floxies develop GI problems. I was lucky in that I didn’t have many GI problems. Many people seem to be helped by cutting gluten, sugar and/or junk food out of their diet.
I notice that I feel slightly worse than normal when I consume sugar and/or caffeine. I think that most people do, I am just now accustomed to paying closer attention to my body.
The only food that makes me feel noticeably better is beets. For some reason, beets make me feel great. I just boil them and eat them.
I’ve heard good things about the benefits for Floxies of eating broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. I love broccoli so I try to eat a lot of it. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’ve noticed that it makes me feel better.
- Swim. My tendons and muscles feel significantly better when I’m in the water, and for several hours after I finish swimming. Swimming in the ocean feels especially therapeutic. There are so many minerals and trace nutrients in the ocean, I surmise that they’re helpful for healing. Unfortunately, I don’t live near the sea, so I swim in a pool. I feel better when I do so.
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Pilates. I started doing Pilates about 7 months post-floxing. Pilates strengthens the core, something that is generally important, and gently stretches muscles, tendons and ligaments, something that is particularly important for Floxies. I started slowly and gently and didn’t push my tendons, muscles or ligaments too much. I feel that gently stretching helped my tendons, muscles and ligaments to heal and return to (close to) their pre-floxing capacity. Take it easy though.
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Healing arts. I love to dance. I’m not a good dancer, but I love to do it. About 16 months post-floxing I started to dance again. Dance has been healing for me. I feel spiritual, strong and joyful when I dance. I’m not sure if it’s the dancing itself that I find to be healing, of if it’s the joy that I feel when I dance that is healing. Either way, it helps. I surmise that other forms of expression would have similar healing qualities. If you love to sing, sing. If you love to paint, paint. If you love to write, write.
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Attitude tips.
Try not to compare yourself to how you used to be. I used to hike 20 miles in a day. I can’t do that anymore, but I can hike 3 miles today and I couldn’t do that when I first got floxed. Compare yourself to how you were yesterday, not to how you were before you got floxed.
Do something – anything – to work toward healing, every day. Walk a little further than you did yesterday. Meditate. Take an Epsom Salt bath. Get an acupuncture treatment. Do a puzzle. Whatever makes you feel good – do it. Every little step helps.
Don’t kill yourself. Have hope. You will get better.
You’re not crazy. You’re sick. Have hope. You will get better.
You’re not stupid. You’re sick. Have hope. You will get better.
Try not to identify yourself as sick. The mind is a powerful thing so try to stay positive. It’s hard, I know. But try, because it’s worth it.
You will have bad days. They will pass. This all will pass. It is not permanent. You are strong – present tense. You were knocked down, but you weren’t killed. You will get better.
Don’t quit your job. Try to maintain as much normalcy in your life as you can.
It is not your fault. Even if you knew better, even if you demanded the most powerful drug possible from your doctor, even if you self-medicated, even if you coerced your doctor into giving you the fluoroquinolone antibiotic, even if the infection that you were treating was something that you got because of doing something stupid, or from sex, even if you continued to take it after you started to get sick, even if you floxed your child/parent or other loved one – IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. You are sick. You are poisoned. You are not to blame for your sickness or for the fact that you are poisoned. Who to blame is a discussion that I don’t want to get into because I want this to be positive, but it is not you. You are not to blame. You are a victim. It is not your fault.
Lisa’s Life now
Life is good. I don’t consider myself to be sick any more. I’m not quite up to my pre-floxing capacity in a couple of areas. I don’t have the endurance, energy, strength or flexibility that I used to. However, I’m pretty close to my pre-floxing capacity in those, and other, areas. I’m about 99% better. Not being capable of intense exercise since December, 2011 has left me a bit out of shape, but I’m working toward being able to exercise intensely again and my stamina, strength, energy, etc. are increasing. I can’t hike 15 miles with a backpack on quite yet (something I could do before I was floxed), but I am capable of most physical and mental activities that would put me in the “normal” or “not sick” categories.
I can work full-time. I am grateful for the fact that I have a job that is not too demanding physically or mentally because I was able to hold onto it through my worst times. My boss and coworkers were wonderfully understanding and they claim not to have noticed that I couldn’t think straight for about a year. I even got a promotion about a year post-floxing!
I can do Pilates 4 times a week, swim 2 times a week, dance once a week and walk daily.
When I was unable to walk a block I told myself that I would consider myself to be “better” when I could dance all night in heels (my feet hurt like hell when I was sick), I can do that now. I never liked high heels, but I can wear them now.
My memory isn’t quite what it used to be, but it’s good enough to do well at my job and to maintain my relationships.
In many ways, I’m a different person than I was before I got floxed. This has been perplexing for me and my loved ones, but it’s not an altogether negative thing. I’m a much more spiritual person than I was before I got sick. I was a pretty firm Atheist before I was floxed. Now, through meditation, dancing, believing in alternative therapies that focus on energy, etc., I’m finding some spiritual outlets that I didn’t have, need or want in the past.
I have become a more compassionate and patient person. I now empathize with people who have mystery diseases. I used to have the attitude that I now find so frustrating in medical professionals – that if there isn’t a way to diagnose or treat an ailment, it doesn’t exist. Now I know that people are genuinely suffering and that there is a real cause for their pain – regardless of whether or not it is acknowledged by the medical community. My heart goes out to those in pain.
I had to become more compassionate and patient with myself as well.
I like some things that I didn’t like before I was floxed and I don’t like some things that I used to like a lot. I hated swimming for the first 32 years of my life. Now I love it and consider it to be an important aspect of my healing. I used to like working out in an intense way that got me dripping with sweat. Now I like to do exercises like Pilates that are focused, slow and deliberate. I used to love hiking, camping and backpacking. I miss loving those things so I’m going to try to get back into them, but I’m not sure that they’re my passions any more. Drinking used to be one of my favorite pastimes. My tolerance for alcohol is shot now and I don’t really enjoy it any more. I missed it for a while even though I knew that it was for the best that I wasn’t drinking like a fish. My appetite has changed as well. I used to be able to eat a lot of food and I loved to eat. I still eat, of course, but I don’t eat as much as I used to and I don’t eat with as much gusto. This is probably a good thing seeing as I’m not into exercising intensely any longer.
Even though I would do just about anything to turn back time and not take Cipro, the place that I am in life isn’t bad, and I probably would be someplace different if I hadn’t gotten sick. It sucks that I had to gain empathy for people who suffer from pain, mystery ailments and debilitating fatigue, but it’s probably a good thing that I now have more empathy. I would like to think that I’m a better person from going through this. I’m not a stronger person, but maybe I am a better person.
I hope that my tips and words of advice are welcome and helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
** 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.
Hi Thiago,
I didn’t use anything for the mental confusion. That improved without me doing anything special. Back when I was floxed in 2006, I didn’t know about the supplements.
I did not have dizziness.
I sure hope the kefir works! Thinking of you!
Hi MR,
Sorry I am taking so long to answer these two days have been crazy!! I had a bad flare up and barley coming out of it. It is crazy how the flare ups come and go and everytime is different. Do you have an email where I can send the candida diet since its like 2 pages long and need to scan it and send it.
Best regards,
Luceo
if any one needs it I can send it too just send your emails
also, just want to mentioned that I went to an acupuncturist and oriental doctor he check me and said that all my channels are weak. he said that my shortness of breath and my chest pains are from my weakness in my lungs and my energy channels. he did some acupuncture on me and came out feeling better of how I went in. I have read that after having some type of detox, new supplements, and or acupuncture the body suffer some type of relapse since we are trying to fix it. today was bad but right now I am feeling much better.
I also want to share this w everyone. I found in another page this Manfred Mueller at Homeopathic Associates which is the creator of the “homeopathic cipro” which it is said to reverse all of the symptoms that CIPRO caused. if anyone has anymore info on this I will gladly appreciate it if anyone could share what they know of their findings. or if anyone have talked to this doctor.
praying for all of us,
lucero
In my opinion that homeopathic doctor is a quack. I talked to him and the things he said about FQ toxicity did not at all match my understanding of it. I eventually recovered 95% by taking supplemental functional minerals and antioxidants. I also did ultrasound every day on my damaged tendons. He told me to discontinue all supplements and stop doing ultrasound immediately. He said the FQ had turned on a switch in my body and his treatment would turn it off and that supplements are like a band aid but would never heal me– actually would make me worse. He said all patients who follow his instructions exactly get healed from FQ toxicity. I read a blog by another Floxie treated by him who did not recover to 100%, and he claimed she started his ttreatment too late and did not follow his instructions carefully enough. Since most people heal from FQ toxicity anyway he can claim he cured them. Those who don’t make a full recovery can be blamed for their failure to heal by his claim that they did not follow his directions carefully enough. He had no understanding of FQ’s being chelating molecules, topoisomerase inhibitors or that Cipro is proven to deplete glurathione, at least not in what he said to me. And since ultrasound is proven to increase tendon strength following a injury his instructions to stop doing it make no sense. I would not be doing as well as I am had I become a patient of that quack. He is profiting off Floxies but not helping them– maybe even harming some. That is my opinion.
Hi Ruth thank you so much for this information. I needed to hear more information on this since I barely read it on another page. Do you mind sharing what kind of functional minerals are you taking and the antioxidants that helped you recover. how long did it take you to feel better.
thank you so much,
lucero
Though most floxies focus on magnesium I found that calcium, magnesium and zinc together were needed during the first few months. I get calcium through diet only now but take a little zinc most days. I take 800-1,000 mg of magnesium daily. I took alpha lipoic acid, benfotiamine, vitamin C and E, MitoQ and Idebenone. I have discontinued the MitoQ ALA and Benfotiamine now. The others I take daily. I was quite a bit better by three and a half months. By four months I was probably 75% recovered. I am 95% recovered now but have occasional relapses back to about 60-75%, but they do not last long. They happen about every two months. Most days I feel completely normal. The tendon damage to my left Achilles and right ankle did not heal 100%, but I did not have a tear or rupture.
do any of these supplements and vitamins make you feel more tired or cause any type of reaction? did you experience shortness of breath and heart palpitations, body weakness, numbness in your arms or legs? I am trying to help myself getting supplements and vitamins but I am a little scared how my body will react to them.
There is nothing that will reverse it quickly. But no one knows how to predict prognosis. Symptoms can resolve quite suddenly. But anyone selling a cure all that will quickly reverse FQ toxicity is scamming you. The fact that symptoms go away for most people and can do so suddenly works in their favor. But floxing is a huge hit to our bodies. It is going to take time for the body to heal itself. No one knows how much time and some treatments do support the body’s ability to heal itself. But I don’t think there is one magic bullet. I wanted that so much when I was first floxed. Then I got a little better after a couple more months and after a couple more months I realized that my symptoms were annoying but not debilitating and I could just go on living my life. I would be ok if I got no better. But I continued to get better and I’m nearing 100% now.
Thiago,
I have a mouthful of mercury fillings and I healed. Most cases of mercury poisoning happen when someone tries to get the fillings removed. Unless they are cracked or broken or coming loose, my advice is to leave well enough alone. I do not plan to have my mercury fillings removed.
Ruth
I had symptoms of a racing/pounding heart beat. It went away last year about this time and has not returned.
Thiago,
MitoQ is a targeted CoQ10, so you take very little of it but it is very effective. It goes where it is needed– right to the mitochondria.
Ruth
Thiago,
In order to have CoQ10 significantly impact your mitochondria you have to take a lot of it. About twenty percent of people get muscle bread ow with high doses of CoQ10. I do. If you can’t take MitoQ you might want to just skip CoQ10. PQQ would be better. It stimulates the formation of new mitochondria in aging cells. I would drop the CoQ10 and take PQQ instead. I have not been taking it lately but I think I might get some more. I had no side effects from it and it seemed to help with fatigue.
Ruth
Hi Luceo, I know its hard to get out of it. but we all will be good sooner or later so hang in there.
You take your time and send me details. You can send me details on mkr22013@gmail.com
How is your shortness of breath. are you taking anything or doing anything for that. I am planning to see Lung specialist and endogastrologist for acid reflux and ENT for candida infection since in back of my tongue I am still seeing redness and just wanted to double sure that it will be cured.
I read that due to fungi infection you face shortness of breath, chest congestion or chest pain so going to see ENT.
I am pretty much sure that we all will be fine its just matter of time. as I told you for me now burning sensation is very less and I am not taking it very seriously since I know if it reduce like anything then It will go away and I will be 100% okay.
so hang in there and we will get good news very soon.
God bless and take care
MR
Hi all. It has been many months since i commented. For awhile I couldn’t take any more horror stories. I was floxed over 2 years ago and have not recovered 100 percent. For the first 5 months my wife had to do everything for me. I couldn’t even sit up to type. I couldn’t drive. By some miracle, with help from my wife, I was able to keep my job. I have nerve damage which takes along time to heal. The left side of my body and my feet were hit hard. I have had all the problems that I have read about on this site and taken about every supplement mentioned. Trying to figure what supplements help you the most is very difficult. it’s trial and error and probably different for everyone. I had profession help and would take a supplement for a while and then stop it and get back on. I wouldn’t begin to tell any of you what would work for you. You will be detoxing for awhile so you want to support your liver and kidneys at a minimum. Initially a glutathion iv helped me immensely. Acupuncture also helped me greatly. I had the first acupuncture treatment at 4,5 months and started to drive 2 weeks later. Two months after that I was shoveling snow. About 8 months after I was floxed I started to relapse. I had stopped taking most of my supplements as I couldn’t afford them any longer. I continued to decline to the point that I was investigating filing for disability. If I didn’t improve quickly I would no longer be able to work. About 17 months after being floxed I bought a device called the eng3 NanoVI. The practitioner that I had been using was pushing me to buy it but I never really considered it because of the cost, $5000.00. I was at the point where I had to improve or stop working. I was able to work out a short term rental to see if it would work for me. I was told that they had a limited amount of units for this type of program. What this machine does is put a healing frequency into water vapor that you breath. When your body is exposed to oxidative stress your body creates a healing response to repair your damaged cells. This device is able to create that signal your body creates. You can read more details on there website http://www.eng3corp.com.
I got the machine the day before thanksgiving last year. I started using it on thanksgiving day. I could only use it for about 5 minutes as it made me very dizzy and I had to lay down for awhile. The people at eng3 corp said this was not a usual reaction. Most people had no negative reaction at all. I gradually was able to use it for longer periods. I can now use it for an hour or more at a time, There is no doubt in my mind that without this device I would now be on disability. I have hesitated about sharing this information because of the cost of the machine and I was hoping to say I was completely healed but I’m not. But I am so much better that I was a year ago. I would say I had a significant improvement in several months. It is not the total answer but it kept me working.
The people at eng3 are wonderful to work with. If you call you will probably talk to Rowena at some point. In the interest of full disclosure If you bought one of these machines I would get a credit (I am still making payments). That is not why I sharing this info. I know how bad some of you are suffering and this may help. With all the damage these drugs have caused I can’t believe any doctor would prescribe them or that the FDA would allow them unless it were life or death. Clearly our health and our lives mean nothing next to the profits realized by these drugs. Does the FDA have any credibility left? I hope all of you that are suffering can be healed. I believe that we all can be if we hold to the vision of a healed body. It’s the mental struggle that’s so hard. There’s no magic cure but the body itself. The body knows how to heal if its supported by your attitude, your emotions and nutrition. The first 2 I believe are the most important. Be stronger than the pain and hold to your vision of good health. God bless you all.
Bob, thank you so much for taking the time to come back and share your progress with all of us. I love, love, love this comment you made:
“There’s no magic cure but the body itself. The body knows how to heal if its supported by your attitude, your emotions and nutrition.”
I wholeheartedly agree with it. It’s so worth cultivating a healing mindset.
I feel nutrition is equally important, not because it is the “magic bullet” but because we can feel so much better eating real, whole foods and steering clear of the brownie fudge sundaes and other processed foods. I think that the world would be a happier place if we ate nutritiously.
My goal is not to heal to 100% but to heal to the “new me” as the “pre-Levaquin me” wasn’t enjoying her health nearly as much, and she may have been hurting herself with lack of exercise and a poor diet. I thought I was “doing my best” but I’ve learned a lot!
All my hopes for your continued health and healing!
I will look forward to that.
Bob,
I am glad to hear you are hanging in there. You have a great attitude which will carry you through. I hope you reach 100% healing eventually, but I know that even if you do not you will cope and help others to learn to do so.
Ruth
Janea,
You don’t need steroids. In fact, you should not take them. You were harmed by Cipro and the packaging that comes with Cipro says that people harmed by Cipro should not take steroids as it will worsen their reaction.
Polymyalgia just means “many pains” and the Rheumatica part seems to suggest that they think the cause of your many pains is an autoimmune disease. Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome, which is what you have, mimics many autoimmune diseases, but that does not necessarily mean it is one.
Doctors very poorly understand autoimmune diseases. It looks to them that a person’s own immune system is attacking their tissues. But Lisa has published some very fine articles on this site that show that that is propbably not even what is happening.
It is more likely that autoimmune diseases are really diseases of the mitochondria. When your mitochondria don’t function, your entire body has trouble functioning. Mitochondria are like the power house of every cell. When there is not enough power crazy things can happen. But it is all from the same cause– not enough energy for the cells.
Quite frequently Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome is a disease of the mitochondria. Those drugs are shown to harm mitochondria. But doctors don’t want to admit that FQ’s do the harm they do so they throw out diagnoses. But these diagnoses often are just fancy ways of saying they don’t know. They are saying you have many pains and that maybe your immune system is not working right. But they don’t know.
I had mitochondrial dysfunction too after I was floxed and it healed. My body got on top of it and fixed the damage. I no longer have a lot of my earlier symptoms that are quite similar to those experienced by people with autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.
You could look into PQQ. It stimulates the formation of new mitochondria in aging cells. I tried it for awhile and had good results. I also take a micronized purple rice product that is highly nutritious and milled very small so even damaged cells can take in the nutrition. These were ideas I tried because I wanted to support my body and give it what it needed to heal itself.
I just don’t think a doctor who will make any diagnosis but the logical one is going to really help you. He might hurt you. Did you have these problems before you took the Cipro? Are other people reporting similar issues after taking Cipro? Are your symptoms listed in the package insert for Cipro as possible side effects? Is there available medical research that shows Cipro can harm mitochondria?
If the answer to the first question is no, then look at the next ones. Obviously a lot of people are having problems with FQ’s. It is even making the news. Every symptom you have is probably on the warning page for Cipro. And the research showing that FQ’s harm mitochondria is posted on this site. Lisa did her research and it’s all here. Peer reviewed, some of it, from respected medical journals.
If your doctor is not looking at this logically, as I am, then why not? What is his vested interest in ignoring this one possibility over all others– that you were harmed by Cipro?
Steroids will make you worse. A lot worse. That is not just my opinion, it’s a published contraindication for Cipro. Why does your doctor not want to know this fact?
You are a floxie, but that is not bad. Most floxies heal! You know why you have this mystery illness and you know that for most people it goes away with time. You’ll be ok. No thanks to your doctor, but you will be ok. Just give your body what it needs to heal, find a doctor who will work with you,and who will research with you the best next course of action for you, a person harmed by fluoroquinolone antibiotic.
When he got stumped Dr. Whitcomb, the doctor who helped me post flox, got out his computer and looked things up. He was not embarrassed to say he did not know, but he did his best to find the answers, leaving no stone unturned. Yes, he tested for non-FQ related explanations, but he remained open minded to the fact that Cipro had seriously harmed me. He was there as a sounding board for every new idea I wanted to try. He did not have all the answers, but he kept me safe (steering me away from contraindicated drugs like benzodiazepines) and guiding me toward some natural remedies and meditation techniques that I continue to use even as I am mostly healed.
Ruth