*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. 

Following is Lynn’s story, written by Lynn:

At the of beginning of March, My daughter had contracted 5 th disease and I began displaying symptoms and had swollen lymph nodes. My doctor put me on Arithromycin. The whole month was nothing but bowel issues that led to painful swollen pain where I was unable to have a bowel movement. The doctor had then prescribed Ciprofloxin 500 mg. I took this pill for 2 days. 4 pills total. After the 4th pill I awoke at about midnight shaking, tremors, heart pounding, chest tightness, tingling arms and legs and an extreme sense of doom. My husband took me to the ER with our kids and I kept breathing deep as to not pass out or die (as I thought). He dropped me off at the front door as I was losing feeling in my hands and mouth. I ran in and had the pills in hand and told them I needed assistance. They gave me a shot for a panic attack and sent me home even though my heart was still pounding and my skin was still sore and shaking.. Something was extremely wrong.

The next couple of days/weeks, I was in the ER 7 times with Palpitation’s, burning skin, tremors, metallic taste in mouth, EXTREME dry eyes and mouth/skin,weakness, heightened senses, felt like everything I was seeing and doing was just overload. I could not follow a movie or a conversation. I would break down while shopping because the lights and people would overwhelm me. Trying to pick out food was a joke. I would come home from shopping crying and hyperventilating. This was not me. I am normally very laid back and this all seemed to stem from this antibiotic. My kids became extremely overwhelming to me as there constant need for their mommy was just more than I can take. I can tell you that this was the worst part of this whole experience is when a mom realizes she is no longer sane/strong enough to handle her kids. I nearly dropped my then 6 mo old down the stairs due to extreme muscle weakness in my arms and could not bend over to pick her up due to my extreme back pain.

I wanted to die and thought of ways to end it. Not having the guts to do it myself, I would think of doing stupid things in the hope it would lead to death like running in front of a car. I became extremely paranoid and if our family pet would look at me I would think it could sense my time was running slim and I was going to die. I always felt like something was out to get me and had so much energy from my adrenaline rushes that I just wanted to pull my hair out. I ran away in the woods several times and just wanted to stay there to die. I hated my family seeing me this way and no one knowing what was happening. I was obsessed with the computer after the 7th unsuccessful ER visit that I started seeing if I was alone with this reaction. To my surprise, MANY were experiencing almost the same textbook reaction. I was angry but relieved that I did not probably have a new deadly disease. How was anyone going to help me if these people had no help? I had bouts of extreme anxiety followed hours later by crying, depressive episodes. Everything seemed hopeless. Life itself seemed pointless. The thoughts that went through my mind were so scary and disturbing but none the less, they stayed for a long time. I worried about all diseases, could not read the paper or watch the news as any sad story would set me into deeper depression and anxiety.

I had vertigo an horrible muscle aches, A pain in my upper abdomen almost like butterflies but worse.. just a spinning nauseous feeling kind of like I was being chased and running feeling. The ER kept saying it was IBS, fibromyalgia  and dismissed it. I suffered for months with severe diarrhea which had a horrible deadly smell even though I barely ate. I also had this horrible phlegmy cough develop and had black specks coming out of my stools and my phlegm. My urine smelled like ammonium. I had a horrible pressure behind my left side of my neck and cranium. I startled very easily from loud noises and had horrible hallucinations.

Bottom line. Here are some of the symptoms I had and on a scale from 1-5 how bad they were and how long about they lasted.

Symptom/ADR

How bad ( 5 being worst)

How long it lasted

What I did

What I felt really helped

Pain now

Notes

 

Anxiety/Panic

5

Worst was about 6 mo

Inositol, valerian root, melatonin lemon balm, kava, catnip, passionflower, Vit B 5, Gaba, buspirone,

*Inositol, Kava, valerian root/ passionflower, melatonin , B5, buspirone

1 sometimes

Tried many prescription anxiety meds and it only made things worse. Buspirone by far was the best prescription for me but took as needed at beginning.

 

Depression

5

Worst about 6-8 mo.

St Johns Wort, DHEA, Sam E

St Johns , DHEA

1 sometimes

Sam E gave me more anxiety, Dhea I only used on really bad days but helped tremendously, St johns wort I took for about a year and noticed if I didn’t take it, in a couple days my severe depression would surface.

 

Horrible Vision changes

5

Very bad for about 8 mo but getting better. It has been a process as I lost my field of vision and peripheral which is coming back just with time

Vision supporting supplements that they use for Macular degeneration. Any brand, vision therapy with eye doctor

TIME..

2 but getting better

The vision therapy helped a bit but my vision would get slightly better for a couple days, only to get horrible the next couple days.. So I do not believe anything really worked as it just came and went

 

Depersonalization

12-13 months

5

Gingko, Dhea, Ginseng

 

Tremors/burning skin

3-4 mo

5

Chinese acupuncture, magnesium

Chinese acupuncture worked great to rid of the tremors

This also I believe would have left with time although acupuncture helped it faster. Took about 9 sessions and they diminished to the point I didn’t notice them

 

Chest tightness

5 mo

5

Grapeseed extract, any heart supporting herbs, supplements

Nothing.. time

This went away after a couple months but was scary.. especially with the thick mucous

 

Stomach issues

14 mo

Fluctuating from 2-5

Siberian Pine nut oil, probiotics, glutamine, stomach supporting herbs, supplements, aloe vera, colonics, coffee enemas, fiber, silver, low sugar diet, wild oregano oil, Manuka honey, Manula tea from online, digestive enzymes, acv, lemon, ph balancing, eliminating offensive foods.

*SiberianPine Nut Oil, digestive enzymes, colonics, coffee enemas, fiber from chia seeds found at natural health store, oil of wild oregano, low to no sugar diet, colloidal silver

1 sometimes

During this ordeal, it was diagnosed with H Pylori bacteria. I refused antibiotics for treatment and went the natural way. I believe at this point it is gone mainly from the Siberian pine nut oil which is a godsend for stomach problems but would have to confirm with another test. I also take a bunch of digestive enzymes a day.

 

Back Pain

Came on strong at about 3 mo lasted till about 12 mo

Some days 0.. others a 5

Msm sup with all the joint supporting supplements, fish oils, borage oils, flax oil, magnesium( calm you mix in water), topical ointment, Epsom salt baths, stretching, chiropractor care, stretching, meditation, hypnosis, tapping, whey shakes, vit d, warm, cold compresses

Magnesium, vit d ( liquid), topical ointment, warm/ cold compresses, *chiropractor care, tapping, meditation and stretching

1 sometimes

This pain felt like kidney pain or some organ pain in my left side. I could not walk very long or stand as the pain was unbearable. It is gone now

 

Dry Eyes/ Skin/Mouth

5

4 mo

Preservative free eye drops, eye vitamins, dry mouth toothpaste, rinse, gum, plugs put into my tear ducts

Some of the stuff helped however I believe the plugs worked great for my eyes but really it was just time. One day I felt the waterworks turn on in my mouth and I was producing saliva again, I remember the exact moment. My eyes came back as one day I cried and actually produced tears.

I developed periodontal disease since this happened I believe due to the extreme dry mouth. It has gotten better with treatment from my dentist.

 

Extreme Fatigue

5

12 mo

Rest, Ginsing, Green Tea

Time and Rest

These episodes usually followed detox or an anxious episode so took it as my bodies way of dealing with repairs.

 

Tendon swelling

4

4 mo

Resting, Epsom baths, accupuncture

Resting, Epsom baths, accupuncture

Totally gone

 

Extreme Headaches

5

4-5 mo

1 Excedrin Tension headache

Excedrin

These were horrible along with scalp tingling, visible veins on eyes, felt like eyes would pop out.. I called them vascular headaches.

Vibrating sensation in body

5

Starting getting less and less after about 4 mo. Gone after 8 mo

Acupuncture

Acupuncture helped minimize these a lot but still took about 8 months for them to completely disappear

 

Cough with Phlegm

5

Still ongoing but less severe

NAC, Histablock, Nettle, any respiratory herbs, supplements, irrigation, digestive enzymes for acid reflux as can contribute to phlegm

Irrigation helped a lot and sinus meds, digestive enzymes so think Cipro increased my sinus problems, acid reflux.

2

Getting better but not gone. May

 

Insomnia

5

1-2 mo were the worst

Anything sedating. Melatonin, valerian, Kava.. all that I used for anxiety plus ..

Melatonin would give me at least a couple hours a night until I would jolt up

Sleep like a baby now.

 

Crazy muscle jerks

5

4 mo

Nothing.. scary

Nothing.

These were crazy as they were sporadic and especially happened in the middle of what little sleep I was getting although it happened while awake too

These are some of the ones I can say were MAJOR to me.. although I had many weird things happening to my body..

  • Neck swelling
  • Furry tongue
  • Breathlessness
  • Breakouts
  • Intolerance to many meds previously taken with no problems
  • Tingling in all weird spots on body
  • Easy bruising
  • Ext Naseau
  • Anorexia/weight loss ( lost 50 lbs in 2 mo)
  • Feeling faint/dizzy all the time
  • Heavy legs
  • Halo’s/ squiggles in my vision- gotten so much better. Was really bad the whole time
  • Ear pressure
  • Loss of movement in Toes
  • Loss of feeling in scalp
  • Leg giving out while walking
  • Fingers swelling in middle of night where could not get rings off/cut off circulation
  • Extreme sensitive skin ( blood pressure machine left line for an hour on my skin.. thought was going to die while it was closing on my skin)
  • Constant urination
  • Shaking hands for hours after weekwacking
  • Swollen on back of knees
  • Sore temples
  • Memory loss
  • Night sweats
  • Arms would fall asleep sporadically like I was resting them on something.
  • Deja vou
  • Yawning a lot
  • Urine leakage
  • Hand pain
  • Blurry vision
  • Nightmares

All of these symptoms have gone but were very scary!!

I began seeing a natural doctor who practices muscle testing and confirmed that my adrenals were hit. From what I believe, it damages your sympathetic nervous system which controls your sensory receptors. Everything was amplified almost like I was taking in too much info all day long. She worked on adrenal support to keep my adrenals up which helped a lot and I believe got me on recovery from the anxiety/ palpitations. She also has me on iodine to support my thyroid and I have always been on magnesium and vit d which were low after the floxing. Every time I go off these, my levels plummit . We are now working on my stomach issues which are so much better. My stomach actually feels better than before this happens and most days my mind feels better than before this happened. It is going on 15 mo and overall I feel fantastic.. Quite a miracle from where I was.. I limited sugar and tried various diets in healing ( low carb, no wheat, no milk).. i did not notice that this helped much with the exception of the low sugar. I only eat antibiotic free meat now and eat as organic as possible which i did before this all happened. I continue to detox little by little with some benonite clay, milk thistle, chloraphyll internally .. i have to watch this as if i try to do too much detox, i get a reaction of a flare of some symptoms.. Little by little is best and is pulling any remaining crap out.. Through this whole thing, i had “episodes”.. days of symptoms increasing to days symptoms minimized. I never know how long or where the episodes would hit in my body. I still do the coffee enemas if i feel sluggish and still take magnesium, vit d, iodine, the benonite clay once a mo and only 1/4 tsp with lots of water that day and my stomach supplements.. but that is it..I also did a heavy metal detox and use Cilantro daily like salt to pull metals from the body.

Desperate things i tried that did nothing:

  • Neurofeedback
  • A natural healing from the church
  • I smoked a ton of cigarettes through this reaction although i was only 2 days into quitting when this happened. I am sure this was horrible for recovery but did not care as i was out of my mind.. since then i am able to cut back and on the road to quitting again. I learned you cant be too hard on yourself with this whole reaction. I indulged once in a while.. some alcohol, some ” bad foods” but it made me feel normal if just for a moment.

This is to give hope to everyone effected by these drugs that there is hope.. Things may be better than you obviously can imagine right now.. You have to hang on and listen to your body. Keep busy if you can. Work with the symptoms as they will pass and beat this thing.. It is very possible but if you would have told me last year the same thing.. I would have laughed in your face. I still talk to many that have recovered too!!. Stay positive. i now eat regular meat when traveling and at restaurants and have not reacted.. i still eat chocolate as i am a huge chocolate lover..

I promised myself a trip to Jamaica if i made it through the year.. It was a great relaxing time and everything for the most part is back to normal.. better than normal because i cherish life so much more.. and i think all that detox and supplements did work to get rid of years of toxins.

Wish you all a fast recovery.. this too shall pass!. God Bless.

Ps.. sorry for spelling and grammar errors.. just trying to get this out in a hurry help you all out and give hope..i may have forgotten a lot of little details but was trying to get to the big stuff. Trust me it was severe and by far the worst thing i have experienced and i will hopefully ever experience. When death looks good, you know its bad. I was you a year ago and am SO glad i held on because life is better than i ever expected!

** 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.