Tuesday, April 3, 2012

One Year Ago Floxed!


It has been one year and one month since I was poisoned by the drug named Ciprofloxacin. It is in a class of drugs known as floroquinolones and while it may be a miracle drug for some; it can be a devastating, debilitating drug for other. It is my continued belief that the side effects of these drugs are highly under reported thus allowing them to continue to be distributed freely.

Three days after taking my first dose of Cipro, I was crippled. I walked as if I was an 85 year old woman that had been hit by a train. My feet felt as though I was walking on razor blades or shards of glass; my toes would not bend. My knees were swollen and felt as though they would explode if I bent them. I could not bend at the hip without excruciating pain. Sitting down and getting back up was nearly impossible. Even just the plain air on my feet hurt. I have never experienced such pain before; or since. I also could not stand bright light; it hurt my eyes and it was often noon before I could open my drapes.

You can search my blog to follow my progress and all of the remedies that I experimented with.  I am elated with the progress that I have made with my physical issues. I can now dance with little pain, bend my toes, bend my knees and bend my hips. While my toes are much improved, they still do not bend like they used to, but I am actually able to send myself from one foot to another, instead of having to lift my leg and put it on the floor. I walk like a normal person again. I am able to bend my knees and squat down about half way to the floor. I still cannot put them completely under myself in order to stand from a sitting position; such as getting out of the bathtub but the overall improvement is grand.

My hips are pretty much back to normal. My ankles and Achilles still give me just a little trouble when I dance. Sometimes after dancing for an hour or so I will have to revert back to my ankle braces for some additional support, just to be on the safe side. The light sensitivity is 80% improved and the overall achiness, muscle joint and tendon pain is relatively gone.

The latest development in my health has been my diagnoses of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. I was diagnosed in February 2011. Seems as though someone thought that since I had survived my Cipro poisoning so well, that I needed another challenge! So forgive me for not keeping you all informed and updated on the poisoning from Cipro, but I have been busy fighting cancer; Go Figure!

Anyway, I know that we are all different and we all deal with pain and illness in different manners; but for me, I pushed myself every day since I was floxed.  After the first three to four weeks, when I literally was bound to my bed or sofa, I pushed myself more and more every day. I started dancing again; knees, ankles and feet braced and taped. I took too much Ibuprofen in order to be able to do what I loved; even if it was just one or two dances at a time. Dancing fed my soul and helped me climb the very large mountain of tackling a poisoning from a drug called Cipro. My best wishes to all of you out there suffering from the side effects of these drugs. I really never thought that the day would come that I would walk normally again and not be in constant pain. I wished the last year of my life away in hopes of feeling better a year down the road. Don’t give up; there is hope for you too.

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