Sunday, July 11, 2010

Symptoms from Another

> I'm a 32yr old guy who has generally been very healthy, fit and active. I was 'floxed' at the beginning of April this year. 5 days of 250mg twice daily of Cipro for non-existent prostatitis (I took half of a ten day course). The first day I took it I got terrible brain fog and blurred vision, it's like my IQ has been halved and I struggle to think straight, my short term memory is terrible. I feel constantly spaced out and unable to multi-task. An optician confirmed that my vision has indeed got worse. 1-2 weeks after stopping the Cipro I started getting tendinitis in my right Achilles and left knee. The tendinitis isn't particularly noticeable at rest, but as soon as I become active my right Achilles in particular becomes very sore - this limits my ability to walk and drive. I also began to get a tingling feeling in the sole of my right foot whenever I exerted pressure on it. I now have tendon pain in my left hip, and transient tendon pain elsewhere.
>
> A week ago I started to get spasms in my left thumb, it sort of locks up and spasms towards my forefinger whilst twitching when I try to use it, when it does that I almost feel like I am having a fit for a fraction of a second - really weird. I am also having tendon pain around my left wrist and forearm.
>
> Prior to me taking Cipro in April I had NEVER had any of these symptoms.There are 2 things I would like to know, if possible:
>
> 1) I HATE the brain fog, I am finding it a real struggle and very depressing, will I recover my cognitive abilities at some point?
>
> 2) The spasms/cramps in my left thumb are worrying me. I start to think "oh no, it must be ALS/MS" etc etc. Logically I know that it must be the Cipro, I have too many other quinolone ADRs for it not to be, but I'm looking of some reassurance that others have had similar spasms/cramps to this...
>

22 comments:

  1. I took 7 days of cipro (500mg 2x a day) following a general anaesthetic cystoscopy. They cleared underlying, and prevented further, infection - but have left me with disabling side effects. The muscles in my legs have lost their elasticity and it hurts just to stand. Stairs are impossible and I live in a fourth floor apartment with no lift!

    I finished the course two weeks ago. My doc says just rest and take painkillers and it will pass in time. Are you guys better now? How long did it take you?

    xxx

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  2. i too am curious how long it took for the symptoms to subside. I am in some ridiculous pain and also unable to maneuver stairs. Will it pass? This is scary.

    m

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  3. I have been floxed many times following c-sections, surgeries and for diverticulitis issues. I have been battling joint weakness/pain/failure for years and have had surgery on my neck, hip and ankle. My last floxing was 10/09 and five months ago brain fog, short-term memory loss, vertigo, ringing in ears, vision issues, rippling nerve sensations, night sweats etc. started and overwhelmed me (and led me to figure out it was Cipro). My joint pain and weight have always cycled and I am in a good cycle right now - weight is a little up, joints are delicate but not too painful. These terrible brain and central nervous system symptoms have also settled down some and I am hoping they do not return, but they probably will. Everyone is different. No one can tell you how long things will last. Mine has lasted 10+ years, but then again I have been floxed several times.

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  4. Unknowingly, 8 years ago I was floxed and did not associate it with the antibiotic.

    I was recently floxed again in June of 2010. I was on the medicine for 2 days before all hell broke loose. I stopped the medicine. Still not making the association I went back the doctor and he put me on another antibiotic and a anti-inflammatory which I found out later is the worse thing you can do.

    Its been three month since my last pill and I can't even tell you the number of symptoms I have had. With the exception of tendon ruptures I have had everything else.

    I am currently taking 1500 mg of vitamin C a day along with a multi-vitamin. I am also taking Glucosamine and Chondroitin to help prevent further damage in joints.

    I wish you all well, please share what you are doing and any successes you have had with any remedies.

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  5. I am actually up to 2000mg plus of vitamin C these days, plus Magnesium Malate (833mgMalic Acid, the glucosamine and chondrioten, Vitamin E, D and Calcium, oh, wait let's not forget the Fish Oil and probiotics!! Seems as all I do is eat and drink supplements!

    I have noticed an improvement after about 3 weeks of the high doses of Vitamin C.

    You never know what really helps and I do have frequent setbacks, fortunately they seem shorter lived as time goes on!

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  6. Heavy B complex supplementation may help brain fog e.g. B50 or B100 complex 2-4 times per day, plus even more calcium pantothenate, maybe 500-1000 mg, and methylcobalamin, 500 - 2500 mcg.

    Liver support formulas with herbs, selenium, lipoic acid, N-acetylcysteine and silymarin/milk thistle. Also pancreatin, betaine hydrochloride for digestive support.

    CoQ10, vitamin K, gamma linolenic acid or GLA from evening primrose. Extra minerals too.

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  7. Same story here! 25 year old... 63 days of prostate and cipro issues...

    ciprovictim.blogspot.com

    Christopher King
    TopherEmail@gmail.com
    Boston Massachusetts

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  8. Similar story - 39, previously exceptionally athletic.

    Involuntary finger movements, twitching, spasms, electric tingling/shocks/buzzing, muscle pain, vision blurring, horrible head sensations (feel as if going to pass out/die), panic attacks, heart palipations/tachycardia blah blah blah - my life has been fundamentally damaged by Cipro 8x500mg (2x a day).

    I had probably had the drug (dr's cant confirm as dont have records) twice before in prior 10 years. I combined the drug with training and took an NSAID (for first time in my life) 3 days after completing the course of Cipro - the urologist who prescribed the medication told me take it WITH the Cipro.

    Since I had no evidence of infection in blood or urine I ask myself why I took this medication.

    Geoff Robinson
    geoffreyjohnrobinson@gmail.com
    Brighton, UK

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  9. Hello,

    I relate to your story because I have found that there IS hope long term.

    The difference between our stories is I am a very healthy/active 25 yr old male. I was floxed 25 months ago with Cipro for Prostatitis. I took 250mgx3 daily for 5 days. My initial side effects included almost all of the reactions to some mild/moderate/severe extent. For me the worst time peaked at about 8-13 months.

    It has gotten better slowly and surely each month. But, being 25 now I still feel waaay to old when I go to the gym. I am still concerned of achilles and knee injuries from basic physical activities.

    Maybe I'm lucky b/c of my age and ability to regenerate, but I would not wish this on anyone.

    I did find multivitamins, glucosomine, fish oils, and alcohol very helpful in my recovery. Two years on and I'm 70-80% of what I would've normally been. Not terrible, and a hellofa lot better than the darker days earlier. (I still have the knee & ankle braces as reminders)

    GodSpeed to those who suffer,

    May the industry burn in hell for using us as guinea pigs in their for-profit drugs.

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  10. Makes sense...I did take very high doses of Vitamin C orally, and I too am much improved!
    Thanks for sharing,
    Michele

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  11. A lot of muscles all over my body do the spasm thing. I'm pretty sure it's an adverse reaction to the fluoroquinolones.

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    1. Yip_ I've had muscle spasms too. Tight and then I have to hold very still or goes into full spasm, especially arms and feet

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    2. I thought I should add some important connections we made concerning stiffness, tightness, spasm, etc. Magnesium helps, but you can't get enough orally (it's laxative, among other things). You know the drill - these are not recommendations. It's just what we thought was helpful.

      My mother was floxed twice, so it lead me to doing a lot of research. She was already pretty low on magnesium before. These antibiotics are well known for leaching a LOT of magnesium from the body.

      So along with the supplements, we used transdermal magnesium every time she had tightens, spasm, or what she called restless leg syndrome (when she was just squirmy and couldn't sleep). I'd use magnesium oil (usually home made magnesium oil - from ancient minerals bath flakes that we just kept adding to water till no more would dissolve - and that's a lot more than you would imagine). I'd add a little clean organic body lotion to it - less than 10% - just enough to keep it smoother to apply to her arms, legs, front, back several times a day if necessary, otherwise just at night before bed. I'd apply it liberally all over as she sat on the bed, and then when she wanted to sleep, we'd wipe the excess off. Other times, she'd just let it soak into her skin if it didn't bother her, as it made a big difference. The magnesium was amazing. Symptoms, including tightness, spasms, some pains and tachycardia improved often as soon as 5 to 10 minutes, other times a little longer. But I know the magnesium helped a lot.

      Another thing we did usually daily is soak her feet in a dishpan of water with a hand full of the same magnesium chloride flakes - maybe half a cup - dissolved in just enough warm water to cover her feet. She'd do that for 25 to 45 minutes most every day. Amazingly, from watching the symptoms, a lot of magnesium was taken up that way, similar amounts as using it all over her.

      I really hope this helps others, as it was almost unbearable for us WITH the things we found to help her symptoms...

      We did a lot more that helped - many vitamins, especially C, fish oil, turmeric, ubiquinol, herbal teas, and bentonite clay packs on her arms and legs when she had itching and pains that wouldn't go away any other way (the messy clay was preferable to suffering and more effective than every other alternative that we had - it probably helped the detox too - but it was a last resort because if the time it took and mess that resulted).

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  12. More than likely, Two years out and mine still spasm on occasion!

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  13. I was was ciprofloxed with cipro 500 x3 a day for 3 days in 1995 in the military which set off physical and mental concentration issues which devolved into depression at not being able to function mentally as I once had. That depression caused the military medical system to prescribe fluoride based psych drugs Paxil , and when that made me worse, Zoloft. While Zoloft made things worse also, the psychiatric community's response was to keep taking it until it has the desired effect. Then I was given an even longer dose of Cipro 500 x 3 a day for 3 weeks. I have been ruined ever since with symptoms getting worse after going to the military dentist who would have me rinse with fluoride. To top it off I would get even more mental confusion and fog when operating in the field with the radio equipment always on. I didn't connect the dots until years later after I was struck down by a misapplied Colgate fluorofoam treatment at a dentists office. ( she put so much in the tray that it spilled out and filled my whole mouth with 12000 ppm fluoride foam)That was 4 years ago and much research and epiphanies ago. I now know that I was damaged by the Cipro, the fluoride based psych drugs, fluoride treatments , and I am Electromagnetically sensitive, back then to the military radio equipment and now to all cellphones, cell towers, cordless home phones, and wifi. It sucks and no one believes it, especially the doctors. For those of you who have been floxed and cannot figure out why you are more sick in some settings than in others I suggest you go to ELECTROSMOG21 and EMFWATCH on youtube and see some examples that are documented as being problem EMF situations for me.

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  14. Wow! I am not a bit surprised, and it is so frustrating when others look at you like you are nuts!
    Floroquinolones are dangerous and can be life altering. It astounds me that they are so freely prescribed.
    Have you heard of any correlation to the continual use of Cipro during the Gulf war, and "Gulf War Syndrome"?

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  15. I posted on your site in March i think and you asked me a follow up question but i hadn't answered it. I haven't looked into the association but I'm sure it is there as the whole anthrax issue was alive and well and they were giving everyone pills left and right and vaccinations for who knows what filled with thimerisol...it's just sad. If postal workers can get smacked down from it , a bunch of guys inoculated from every known disease and breathing in chenmical biological and radiolioogical wates surely would have problems. I wasn't there myself but really empathize with them.


    I wanted to let you know about what I have found over the past few years as something that makes everything worse with my condition. It is wireless radiation. Just like it took me many years to make the connection with cipro it took me a couple of years to make this one ( I doubt everything, even when I experience myself over and over again, until it is too obvious to ignore )


    In my search for answers and examples I put together a youtube ( EMFWATCH) site to show people what I have found and to show in the Liked Videos what professional Doctors, Scientists , and journalists have discovered. Detection and avoidance of wireless EMF sources has helped me greatly. I hope you look into it.

    It's amazing what the corporations can do to perfectly healthy and fit people like ourselves and not even bat an eye. I guess loossing our health and quality of life is just the cost that comes along with making billions of dollars for them.

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  16. I was on Cipro & Levoquin for 14 months 500 mg twice a day starting in 1995. I had a tumor in my sinus that required 2 surgeries to remove, once the tumor was removed they found a sinus infection that had gone into my bone. I had many side effects while I was being floxed and begged the doc to take me off...even asking to go on IV antibiotics over the oral floxins but he insisted I stay on cipro. Now 20 years later I just keep getting worse I have severe osteo arthritis in both kness, my back and both shoulders. I recently had a total should replacement on my L and will be needing one on my R. I also need total knee replacements. I have severe muscle spasms all over my back which my pain management MD treats with trigger point injections. In the past I have had tendonitis of a few different tendons, I have fibromyalgia, raynaund's and I have had surgery on both hands for carpel tunnel syndrome, also my legs and feet ache most of the time. I have trouble sleeping and I forget words all the time. I am a RN and used to have very active, highly responsible jobs but have been unable to work for the last 2 years. The reason I was able to work as long as I did was because towards the end I had very supportive staff. It's been almost 20 years since I stopped taking the drug but my suffering just keeps getting worse!

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    Replies
    1. I am SO sorry to hear this; what a waste of a life.....to have to live in such pain just SUCKS!

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  17. Hi! on 25 September 2015 I was prescribed Cipro 500mg for 5days; I started feeling unsteady, nausea; dizziness brain fog, anxiety issues and head and neck pressure. I was on a detox; took activated charcoal and blood cleansing tea; and seemed somewhat improved for a few days at a time. I started having issues focusing my eyes as well as twitching eyelid/s. I am currently on a ten day ozone therapy, on lecithin and flaxseed oil, the brain fog is no more! infact the only thing that remains is the neck and head pressure which is frightening! will it ever go away??? I need to be active for my kids!!!

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  18. Hey!!

    The best answer to that is Hopefully!! But who know for sure!lol

    If I were you, I would never take these drugs again!

    I pray you get back to normal, ASAP!

    Blessings,
    Michele

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  19. There are commonly a few noteworthy reasons for shoulder injury.causes of shoulder instability

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