I started Floxie Hope back in 2013, about 18-months after the start of my fluoroquinolone toxicity journey. At 18-months post-flox, I had largely recovered and wanted a place to share my recovery story. Though I had recovered physically, I still had a lot of anger and emotional energy around the experience of getting poisoned by ciprofloxacin. I wanted (needed) something productive to do with those emotions, so I poured them (and my heart) into Floxie Hope. Writing about my experiences, my anger, and my hope, helped me to process the emotions I was experiencing. Helping people through fluoroquinolone toxicity, advocating, investigating, writing, testifying, and speaking about fluoroquinolone toxicity became a huge part of my life. This site, and the floxie community, became my purpose and my passion. I loved advocating, I loved helping, and, even though it’s an arduous process for me, I loved writing about fluoroquinolone toxicity. It was good–at times it was great–and I am grateful for all that this site has brought me (I’m not grateful for the fluoroquinolone toxicity, but I am grateful for the purpose, joy, community, passion, etc. that this site has brought). 

As they say, all good things come to an end, and I have decided that this is the end of my journey as a fluoroquinolone toxicity fighter. I have decided to move on, and to hand Floxie Hope on to someone else (more on that later). It’s bittersweet. I am sure that I’ll miss everything about Floxie Hope–especially the people it connected me to.

Getting to a place where I was fully recovered from fluoroquinolone toxicity was always my goal. I was physically recovered many years ago. It took a lot longer to recover emotionally, and it took even longer to recover from the anger. That time has come though. I am fully recovered on every level. Even the anger is gone.

But with subsiding anger, there has been subsiding passion and connection. Many of you have noticed my lack of passion and connection, and have commented on it. I’m sorry for not giving this community the energy that I used to give it. You (the floxie community) deserve passionate people fighting for the cause. I am no longer one of those people, and it is time for me to step aside.

I am retiring, and handing Floxie Hope over to someone else. Though Floxie Hope has “Lisa” all over it–it started with my story, most of the posts are written by me in my voice, and it’s in a style that I like–it is bigger than me. Floxie Hope is more than just a website too. It is a community, a resource, and a tool. I don’t want those things to go away just because I’m going away. I don’t want the site to fade just because I no longer have the emotional energy to maintain it. So, I am handing it over to a fellow “floxie.” I’ll introduce him in my next post.

This post is to announce my retirement. Sometime between now and the end of 2020 I will transition away from Floxie Hope. I anticipate that the change will be difficult for some people–change is always difficult for some people (myself included)–but I hope that Floxie Hope comes through the transition as a stronger, more resilient, energized tool and resource. I suspect that the person that will take the transition hardest is me. Letting go is going to be hard. But I think that letting go, and handing Floxie Hope over to someone that has the energy to nurture it, is better than letting it languish. I think it’s the right thing to do.

So…. this is the beginning of my goodbye. The transition will be gradual, and I’ll put up a few more posts, but I will be leaving soon.

It’s been great being a part of the floxie community. It’s a community full of wonderful, generous, thoughtful people. I will miss you, friends! Thank you to each and every one of you who has contributed to this site and this community. Hundreds of people have generously spent so much of their time and energy supporting each other with their stories of hope and healing, comments that have helped others through the horrors of fluoroquinolone toxicity, emails, phone calls, and so much more. It’s a community, and I will miss it generally, and many of you specifically. I will continue to be available via Facebook for those who want to reach me personally.

Please be good to each other. Be kind, be generous, and be hopeful–these are my wishes for my floxie friends and the floxie community.

xoxo,

Lisa

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