After getting “floxed,” I lost a lot of faith in the medical system.
I used to think that the medical system, as a whole, was trustworthy. I knew that the system was imperfect, but I thought that most of the problems had to do with cost and insurance, and that drugs generally were well understood and regulated, and that they did more good than harm.
Getting hurt by a prescription drug, an antibiotic no less, shook my faith in the medical system. Researching fluoroquinolones and other drugs made me realize how little anyone knows about how drugs work, and why they sometimes don’t work, and I further lost faith in the system.
As I witnessed a prescription drug causing people to be chronically ill, I started to wonder if many of the chronic illnesses (autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, mysterious diseases like ME/CFS and fibromyalgia, diabetes, etc.) were due to the cellular destruction inflicted by prescription drugs. Many prescription drugs, not just fluoroquinolones, wreak havoc on the microbiome, mitochondria, neurotransmitters, and more–and problems with those systems have been linked to many of the chronic diseases of modernity.
I saw that the only thing that the FDA is inclined to do about adverse drug reactions is to increase the size of the warning labels–as if anyone reads the warning labels and as if this is actually a solution. I noted that thousands of people are killed by prescription drugs each year, and I lost faith in the FDA’s ability to regulate the pharmaceutical industry.
The 21st Century Cures Act, a piece of legislation that is going through Congress right now, is a thinly-veiled give-away to the pharmaceutical industry that decreases drug regulation at a time when it needs to be increased. Congress is not only failing to recognize the problem of prescription drugs hurting and killing people, it is actively encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to do more of the same. I didn’t have a lot of faith in the U.S. Congress before I got “floxed,” but I have even less faith in them now. (If you want to read my take on the 21st Century Cures Act, I wrote about it in the post, “The 21st Century Cures Act” Is On Its Way – Here’s Why You Haven’t Heard About It that was published on Collective Evolution on 7/7/15.)
I wonder how many other people there are like me–who no longer trust the medical system after being hurt by it. I suspect that most (but certainly not all) people who get hurt by prescription drugs no longer view the system as a whole as trustworthy or credible.
Once a system loses credibility, many people opt out of it and seek alternatives. If the healthcare system loses credibility in the minds of most people, and most people opt out of it, it will, eventually, collapse. I have no idea when this will happen, or even if there are enough people who think like me that it will happen. We shall see.
Unfortunately, a lot of people are currently being hurt by adverse drug reactions, and more people will have to get hurt for a crash to happen. I don’t hope for a crash. I hope that the regulators (the FDA) start doing their jobs and that the pharmaceutical companies start upholding their credos and start having morals. I wish I saw that happening, but I don’t. Maybe we will reach a tipping point where it will happen–to be determined.
The healthcare industry is immense, and it is much more complicated than the sub-prime housing market that crashed in 2007-2008. However, I see some similarities between the sub-prime housing market crash and my assertion that the healthcare industry is going to crash (at some point–maybe). Those similarities are described in the post, The Healthcare System Collapse: Lessons from the Housing Market Crash and “The Big Short” that was published on Hormones Matter yesterday – 2/4/16. (This post started as an intro to the Hormones Matter post, and it just morphed into its own post. Please read and share The Healthcare System Collapse: Lessons from the Housing Market Crash and “The Big Short” – Thanks!)
I foresee a crash in the medical system because I’ve lost faith in it. Maybe I’m wrong and other people will respond differently from how I have after getting hurt by the medical system. Maybe I really am “rare” and other people won’t get hurt by the medical system. Or, maybe drugs will get more and more dangerous because of lack of regulation, and more and more people will get hurt by pharmaceuticals and they will lose faith in the system just like I did, and the demise of the system as we know it will arrive. To be determined, and we shall see. Hopefully I’m just being too pessimistic and the FDA will start doing a better job at protecting people from dangerous drugs. I really do hope that occurs.
I agree with you Lisa. It’s hard to trust when there I are so much conflicting information. I do know other I absolutely needed the strong antibiotic that I was prescribed because my infection was severe and complicated. I did not appreciate being blown off when the side effects happened and I needed help. My doctor is good friend and so she did listen and now she does not prescribe fluoroquinolone drugs as quickly as before.
Sorry for the many typos in my post. I was hurrying between classes. Thanks for your comments as well.
Thank you for writing this very important article, Lisa! Pharmaceutical drugs and allopathic medicine has single-handedly destroyed my family. Not only fluoroquinolones and other antibiotics, but also benzodiazepines, antidepressants, amphetamines, antipsychotics, statins, NSAIDs, steroids,….I wish I had known earlier.
Thanks for this excellent piece, Lisa! I am right there with you in not trusting the health care system at all! Not only did I have a horrific adverse reaction to a prescription drug, but I also learned that there is pretty much no help from the medical community once they harm you. They don’t have the answers, and sadly, they are not even looking for answers!
I, too, now believe that many of today’s modern ailments have been caused by prescription medications.
I am now caring for my elderly parents and finding that if you or someone who loves you isn’t there to advocate for your own health, your health can be quickly stolen by doctors who are too busy and/or arrogant to listen and learn.
It is absolutely appalling to me to see how little doctors know about the drugs they prescribe, and to watch the FDA doing nothing about the dangerous drugs that are out there. Years ago, doctors seemed to have been more knowledgeable about drugs…perhaps because there were fewer drugs out there. And, the FDA was more trustworthy. Now, money talks and corruption and ignorance are everywhere.
A couple of additions:
People further lose faith in the system when they go to doctors asking for help with their complex condition, and the doctors can’t help them. It’s sad and disheartening when it is realized that they know how to break you, but they don’t know how to fix you.
Also, I didn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater when I first got sick. Getting sick didn’t fully make me lose faith in the system. RESEARCHING made me fully lose faith in the system. I came to the horrifying realization, through reading a lot of journal articles, that no one really knows how these drugs work, why they sometimes don’t work, or what the long-term consequences of them are.
The whole thing is sad, it really is.
You are NOT being pessimistic—you are being realistic. My faith in the medical care (and I use that term loosely system is close to zero. My faith in congress is almost as low. I have now written to at least a half dozen about the whole FLQ problem, the lack of knowledge of the doctors, the fraud at the FDA…and not ONE response. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said, Lisa—except I do wish for a collapse of the system. I think that is the only way the decades of fraud, corruption and abuse will be exposed.
Without question the health care system is corrupt; thank you for presenting it as it is, Lisa. And . . . I’d like to say that you write beautifully.
When we understand that even medical schools are standardized to train docs to depend on drugs for nearly all of our physical and mental issues, with the cooperation of insurance companies that only pay for traditional docs and drugs, then it seems inevitable that gov’t (corp) health care/insurance will result in even more damaging drugs being prescribed to unknowing victims. There will be fewer and fewer choices and I can even see more “required” drugs same as required vaccinations.
Your story is my story… my sentiments exactly.. very very well spoken thank you for all you do Lisa
I had very little faith in the system before being flowed, now I have none.
I live in Spain half an hour inland from Alicante in a spanish town. It’s very difficult for me as my spanish is not up to scratch. I was told I was the first one to be floxed, if I was how did they know what happened to me in the rheumatology department. After being diagnosed I was just left to my own devices. Loose faith? I will NEVER trust these so called doctor’s EVER again. It’s been 16months now and although I am much better through healing myself through the protocol in “The Levaquin toxicity solution” I still have problems with really heavy legs and breathlessness.
I have been treated like I am an idiot by so called specialists who have the nerve to call themselves Doctors . There is an arrogance here that “they are God” and wo betide you if you dare question their competance. If I was in my own country ( England ) I would be screaming from the rooftops to all and sundry. As it is I can’t even get a scan here to access the damage to my tendons etc. I am 72 years and this has completely ruined my retirement.
It seems reading everyone’s story that this programme of Arrogance from so called health professionals is world wide. Maybe there are good Doctors out there but I am yet to meet one here.
I am more angry because of the way I have been treated with so much disrespect than I am about me being floxed.
In spite of everthing I consider myself fortunate that it wasn’t worse compared to some people.
I wish all my fellow floxies a speedy recovery and I want to say a HUGE THANKYOU to you Lisa for everything that you do. I truly believe if there were not people like you that take the time and energy to help other’s in this situation, we would all be completely lost.
Clearly, there are enough reasons to do so for many disease issues are still affecting people’s health. In terms of current healthcare system, it should focus on the primary healthcare reform, in order to avoid the inequitable and inefficient situation. However, we should still believe more effective technologies will be used to change the situation.
I got closer 2-2-16. I’ve been following treatment with my NP. Bowen therapy and Glucosamine&chondroitin by Thorne and Thiocid-300 by Thorne, foot bath am and PM with Epson salt then coat feet in caster oil wear old socks. Treatment has helped alot with the pain. The pain returns if I am on my feet for more than a couple hours. I will never go to a medical Doctor again my trust is zero just like it is for the government. Pay for Insurance because it’s the law receive poor medical treatment for all.
Closed sorry
I’m trying to type F L O X E D but it keeps coming up some other word wtf?
I normally check out every drug before taking it, I didn’t for this one because it was an antibiotic and I never thought of an antibiotic as being poison. I am almost 60 retired now I’m damaged. The only thing that I know is I will not go to a medical doctor again ever. I’m not giving the medical industry another dime. The insurance only gets money because Obama forces us to pay for our own demiss with a healthcare plan we don’t want that isnt worth shit.
patient beware! I couldn’t agree with you more on what used to be healthcare. I too am a victim of Levaquin and Avelox but after some time my body finally recovered. 10 minutes after swallowing one Avelox, I had a full-scale panic attack and never had one previously in my life! I knew as soon as I swallowed that pill that something was wrong, but my doctor insisted that the upper respiratory infection I had causes panic attacks and it wasn’t the Avelox that caused it. I insisted he put that antibiotic on my records as an allergen so no one ever gives it to me again! I knew the pill was what caused my panic attacks. Those attacks lasted for nearly 5 months from ONE dose of Avelox!! The hospital put me on Levaquin after having kidney stones removed and 21 days later my knee was ruptured. If you react to one fluoroquinolone, you’ll have reactions to all of them and the hospital should have known that. I wish I’d known that at the time, but I learned the hard way with crippling side effects and horrible reactions to both of them.
There is no safe healthcare in this country anymore – it’s having your doctor try to prescribe one drug after another, or give you this vaccine or that shot – and I’ll see you in 4 months so I can suck more medicare money from you even if you feel fine. The whole system is corrupt and there are no signs of any improvement when your elected officials are in it just for themselves, Greed rules in this country today unfortunately. I never allow any doctor to inject me with anything, and as long as I eat right, I feel fine. Should I ever need an antibiotic in the future, it will be penicillin or nothing.
I agree with you 100%. I was given Cipro in the hospital through an IV without even being given a paper with the side effects of this toxic drug. I later began taking it at home after being released and had severe reactions and hallucinations from it. I learned of the side affects after reading the literature from the pharmacy. Thankfully I stopped taking it after 4 days and after about 3 weeks I seem to be ok. Although sometimes the drug can cause adverse affects many months later. I wonder how many people are given it in the hospital and never have the opportunity to know what it might do to them. So many people are disabled by this and other drugs. The system is failing us. Thank you for your story and I pray that you might get completely well again.
I’m 83 and when I was 27 I acquired a simple urinary tract infection that was treated in a “VERY” inappropriate way and it became chronic. Over the next 25+ years I was given every applicable antibiotic on the market. Then Cipro was coming to market. I was a participant in the clinical trials of Cipro for treating the chronic urinary tract infection. Since then I have taken probably 1,000 or more Cipro pills. I learned that there are bacteria that are called “persistents”. They can mutate, hibernate and wait for their next opportunity. This has been my life for the past 50+ years.
Obviously I experienced side effects but after many visits and ‘discounted and ignored” complaints to doctors over the past 30+ years it appears I have found the underlying cause of my various problems. Since I decided to stop relying on the “???wisdom??? of doctors and began my Internet search I have found that I must be a “Floxie”.
Until recently I had never heard about the “serious” dangers of Flouroquinolones.
I must be considered one of the VERY fortunate ones because I do not require a walker or a wheel chair and can still think fairly well. YET!!!
At this point in my life (now that I have found the underlying reason for my problems) I am starting to try to mitigate the effects of the drugs and go forward with hope that I can arrest the effects at their present level. I appreciate all the web information that is now available.