My name is Salim, I’m french, 45 years old, married and we have a son.

One year ago, in September 2017, I got a gallbladder infection and ER doctors gave me a 14 days ofloxacin course.

This was not the first time I had to take a fluoroquinolone, two years ago after a suspicion of bladder infection (which was not) I was given ofloxacin for a week without any issue.

No one at the ER asked me if I already had this medication before or informed me about possible side effects.

After the second day, I started to have a light pain to my right knee, as no one warned me about side effects, I just continued the treatment.

The next day, the pain increased and my left knee was also painful, I felt something was wrong,, 2 painful knees is just weird, I called my doctor.

He told me to stop ofloxacin and to come ASAP, he had some tests to do.

He changed the medication for the infection and told me to avoid any kind of sport for the next weeks.

I can say today that he saved my life.

The third day, it was like a nuclear bomb exploded in my body, every joint, every tendon of my body was very painful.

I couldn’t walk alone anymore, the pain was severe and worse, pain killers were not working.

I called my doctor again, he told me I had to stay in bed for at least a week.

The following week, the pain increased and was unbearable and new symptoms appeared: severe anxiety, depression and parasthesia.

The anxiety and depression was so severe, I had to ask my wife to stay home to watch me as I was thinking committing suicide.

This peak period lasted 3 weeks and then stabilized, pain was horrible, depression was awful, I think I cried at least 3h per day.

I understood doctors were unable to help me, and if I wanted to recover I’ll have to find a way by myself.

In my bed I googled 10h a day searching for similar cases, floxiehope helped me (and scared me) a lot and I decided to try magnesium after reading some success stories.

After a week of chelated magnesium, symptoms lowered a bit, but I was still unable to walk, to work and was still heavily depressed.

Then I changed my diet, banned all kind of meat, only raw vegetables, it helped a bit, but to be honest I was still depressed and crippled.

Then, I have read an article on floxiehope about a study on “The mitochondria targeted antioxidant MitoQ protects against fluoroquinolone-induced oxidative stress and mitochondrial membrane damage in human Achilles tendon cells.”

I had nothing to loose to try it as nothing really worked for me to recover my previous life.

I started MitoQ about 5 weeks after first symptoms, of course I was still taking high doses of magnesium and vege diet.

After a week of MitoQ, symptoms lowered enough I could walk like a 60 years old man..

After 2 weeks, anxiety lowered a bit, I could walk slowly but still with pain.

After a month, anxiety was gone as well as parasthesia, I could walk normaly with heel cushions

After 2 months, I was able to work again (I work on a computer) pain was almost gone.

After 3 months, I was able to run, yes run!, small distances, but yeah run!

I stopped magnesium at this stage and switched to a normal diet, nothing bad happened.

After 6 months, I decided to stop MitoQ to see if I still need it.

After a week without MitoQ, light achilles tendon pain came back mainly in the morning, so I decided to continue MitoQ

After 9 months, I tried again to stop MitoQ, nothing bad happened.

I’m now over a year, I have almost fully recovered, some mornings I still have a light pain on Achille tendon, heel cushions helps a lot.

For me, MitoQ was the life saver, I know this is very personal and it does not work on everyone.

This is to give hope to everyone floxed .. Things ARE better than you think, remember that anxiety and depression are very common symptoms.

I wish you all a fast recovery.

** 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.