Recovery Story By Alex Franqui

My story: I have always been a very active person. The type that always has to be doing something. I have been married to a beautiful woman for 24 years and have two terrific children. My life was adventurous in my younger years with playing a little football, skateboarding, rollerblading, racing motorcycles, and fixing up cars. I made my way through college washing peoples cars. I always wanted to be a Chiropractic doctor. I became a massage therapist so I could work in a Chiropractic office. This training was very good for me and taught me the holistic side of healing. As life progressed and going to school for an additional 5 years became difficult to reach, I settled into my job as a massage therapist at one of the top destination spas in the US. The location was exceptional. There were waterfalls everywhere. It made me want to learn how to build them myself so that I could have one in my own yard. I learned everything I could and became the specialist for my region. I own a small business building Japanese Koi ponds that make peoples backyard dreams come true. The past 20 years has been terrific. I take a blank backyard space and bring it to life similar to what you watch on HGTV. To say my life is blessed would be an understatement! I am and have always been extremely fortunate. Even negative things that have happened to me in my life have turned out to be positive. In late December of 2019 I caught a spell of walking pneumonia and was prescribed Cipro and Prednisone. My doctor (who was also a client) was the one who prescribed it to me. He said “it would knock it right out!” He was right it did. I even texted him to say thank you for taking care of me. Unfortunately within the week I had a soreness in my feet and shoulder that I couldn’t explain. The soreness turned to discomfort and spread to other areas including my knees, hips, wrist, and neck. I felt as if I had aged 5 years in two weeks. I went back to my doctor and was told I over did it and I needed to get some rest. I took a few extra days of and felt like I needed to get back to work even though I still felt the same. January 10th 2020 I was walking around at a job site and slightly missed my step. Something that would never bother me, only this time it did. I can still remember what the rock and the ground around it looked like. I knew there was something really wrong. After a few days it wasn’t healing, the rest of my body was tightening, my shoulder started to freeze up. I went for some injections that felt better each time for a couple of hours but the pain returned quickly. The only good thing that was going at this time is I was losing weight or so I thought was a good thing. Since my late 20’s I’ve had that annoying 15 pounds that we all want to get rid of. I thought losing weight would be a good thing till I realized it was from the wrong areas. It appeared I was losing muscle mass instead. This was scaring the hell out of me and made me depressed. I started lessening my hours at work as I was unable to stand and walk more than an hour a day. My soreness turned to a constant limp. I couldn’t walk without shoes on. I found myself wearing my winter boots in the house to give my ankles enough support to get around and could no longer go upstairs and tuck my kids in for bed. I had to kiss them goodnight at the bottom of the stairs and send them up without me.

On January 28th 2020 one of my clients who knew me well had noticed this change in me and asked me if I had taken a antibiotic called Cipro and shared an experience that his brother in Texas had been dealing with for 9 years with no improvement. Needless to say the panicking started setting in immediately. As soon as I got home I started researching FQ toxicity. The more I read, the more I realized I checked all the boxes. I googled the “best doctor to treat FQ Toxicity” and came up with 3 practices In the US that had true experience with this treatment. One was Dr. Mark Ghallili on Los Angeles, CA. I called his practice the next morning and spoke to Lori who was very kind and answered all my questions. I felt a little bit of hope but was still skeptical. Later that afternoon a call came through with a California ID. When I answered and realized it was Dr. G himself calling me back to see if I had additional questions, I was extremely surprised and greatfull. He then told me his story on how he was floxed and the progression that he experienced. The hairs on my arm were standing up as it was like I was listening to my own story. He also put me in contact with a past patient Jason Sousa. Jason was very helpful and gave me the confidence in the treatment and made me want to go to LA.

I will then next admit that I am really afraid of flying and at that point in my life I had not been further west than Nashville, TN. So of course I procrastinated and kept having what I thought were good excuses of not making the trip west until March 6th, 2020. I came to a point where I realized the doctors I was seeing here were not helping and I felt like I was going to break. I decided to make the trip and called the office to let them know I was coming. I arrived at the airport at 5:45 am that day and headed toward my plane. I did not have enough strength in my legs to be able to pull my carry on up the ramp to the plane. A gentleman about 20 years older than me gave me a hand. When I got to my seat it took all the energy I had to keep from crying. I flew out from NC and arrived in CA at 10 am. I remember getting to the office door and being scared. After maybe procrastinating for 10-15 minutes I finally went in. Shortly after I met Dr. G in person. He was honest and up front with me. I remember him telling me “ in medicine there are no guarantees, but I believe I can help you.” I chose to move forward with treatment. I was treated with IV’s, peptides, red light therapy, and supplements over a 9 day period and saw small improvements each day. The improvements kept coming even after I returned home on the 17th. I rested for the next two days after getting use to the time change again and on the third day I woke up feeling like I wanted to go to work. To my surprise I worked a half each day for the rest of that week. The following week I was able to work full time and have been doing so without fail for the last 2 years now. I can do almost all that I could before the FQ damage. Not only can I go up stairs again, I can run up them!!! Thanks to Dr. Mark Ghallili I was able to move forward and continue enjoying my life and providing for my family. I have kept up with eating healthy and taking my supplements and enjoying the benefits from it. I want to say a special thank you to Dr. Mark Ghallili, Lori Lynn, and Jason Sousa for all their help and continued support!!! You guys are life savers!!! Sincerely, Alex F.