One Year Update after Being Floxed; There is Hope

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.

Tendon Pain Better Since Chemo..... Weird, huh?

So is it a coincidence that my tendon pain has subsided dramatically since the chemo or what? I find that I have had much less tendon pain and no light sensitivity since I have been home from the hospital. My toes are bending freely now and are no longer frozen. I can almost squat again and can bend at my hips. All of these things created major pain from the Cipro.

I did recently have two shots of Neuprogen due to extremely low white blood cells and that has caused a fair amount of bone pain. I guess that bone pain is often associated with leukemia and is to be expected. The Neuprogen shots kind of kick start your bone marrow into making more white blood cells and also causes bone pain.

I was amazed at the amount of nurses that had never heard of floroquinolone poisoning and how devastating that it can be. The confirmed that they give it "all of the time." Scary, huh? 'Bout all for now, this body wears out quickly these days. Hope you are all feeling better.

Cipro/Leukemia Update

Well, it has been almost a month since I was diagnosed with CML, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, and other than being "tired", I am doing pretty well. My white cells are in the normal range which is a great thing, but my platelets and red cells are down at the bottom of the barrel. Will be testing blood again tomorrow. Guess this is now a weekly routine.

Looking back at my initial side effects to Cipro it almost seems impossible to comprehend that they were by far worse than anything that this CML has thrown at me! Crazy, huh? Leukemia is life threatening and Cipro Poisoning makes you feels as though you want to die. The pain and suffering that I experienced with Cipro almost made me not want to live, leukemia has made me want to fight to live.

I must say that my Cipro symptoms have subsided drastically during the past  11 months. The only real issues that I still have are in the balls of my feet and the joints in my toes. I tough one for a dancer! Somehow I have managed to dance through the cipro poisoning and now I shall be dancing through leukemia. I truly believe that my stubborn tenacious nature  has helped me to endure and thrive despite all of these roadblocks.

Hard to believe that the guy upstairs didn't think that I already had enough to yadda, yadda about. For those of you interested in following my CML story I have started another blog: Dancing My Way Through Leukemia. Thanks for listening and all of your support. Hope all of you are gaining in your own personal battle against Floroquinilone Poisoning!

Not Anemia, But Leukemia!

The saga continues: Unfortunately my Cipro/Anemia theory didn’t pan out, although I was on the right track. There was something definitely wrong with my blood. Terribly wrong in fact! I saw my doctor on Tuesday February 8, 2011. We discussed my Cipro side effects and I told him that my muscles, joints and tendons were very much improved, but I was told by my eye doctor that I had blood in my eyes. He agreed that this was a bit of concern, as was the thickening under my left rib cage. He asked how long it had been there and I said that I had kind of noticed it maybe about a month ago. He ordered blood work and a CAT scan and I went home.

I called for a CAT scan appointment in the morning and called his office to inform him that I had an appointment for 2 pm that afternoon. He promptly told me that he was just going to call me and told me to cancel the appointment and to go directly to the hospital as my white blood cells were astronomically elevated and that I had leukemia. The bleeding in my eyes was from the white blood cells blocking the capillaries and the capillaries bursting. They were concerned that I might have a brain bleed. Lovely, huh?

Of course I reminded him who he was talking to just to make sure that he really meant me! I was stunned, not what I expected and not on my list of things to do. I had a bone marrow biopsy to confirm the diagnosis, don’t let anyone tell you that it does not hurt, because it was excruciating!

Leukapheresis and chemo for three days and my blood count went from 372,000 to 98,000. I am a very lucky girl! Now to begin the medication that cost more than $8,000 per month, they tell me that there is help as my insurance won’t pay for it. Ugh! The goal is to get my white count to 10,000 and maintain it.

The type of leukemia that I have is Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia otherwise known as CML. Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers!

Is it the Cipro?: New dilemma, new theory.

Two weeks ago I went to the optometrist for my overdue eye exam. Prior to seeing him I have been experiencing extreme light sensitivity in the mornings. No light for several hours in my world! I sit in dimly lit rooms and do not open the curtains or blinds. I just chalked this up to yet another Cipro side effect. Along with the light sensitivity I get headaches.

So, as I sit in the Doc's chair, I am pleased to learn that my prescription has only increased by .25 during the past year. Good news for a change......or so I thought. Then the questions began: "Do you have high blood pressure?", " No, last time I checked it was 90/60.". "Are you anemic?", "Not that I know of, why?", "Are you diabetic?", once again, "Not that I know of, why?" Well, you have blood in your eyes, a significant amount." "Great!" Just what I need.

So, I begin to tell him about my Cipro poisoning and burst into tears. Poor guy, didn't know what he was getting into examining me! He of course was shocked and never heard of anyone having side effects from the drug. He claims that they use it all of the time in his profession. Of course, they do, I said. The use is rampant and devastating. He referred me to a retina specialist. I will see him next week.

After leaving the eye doctor, I went directly to the pharmacist and told her my story. Her reply was that it could definitely be caused by the Cipro, as Cipro also effects your vascular system.

After seeing, discussing and pondering over this new revelation with my chiropractor our "theory" and prayer is that I am anemic. In addition to the eye pain and headaches I am bruising incredibly easily. I have noticed that I am short of breath when dancing and I have been chewing ice! All odd symptoms, but all symptoms of anemia. I figure that if I am bleeding inside my eyeballs, that there is a good chance that I am bleeding elsewhere as well. Oh, happy joy! My brain? My Liver? My kidneys? Who knows, I am seeing an internist on Tuesday.

Our thought is that other internal bleeding could be causing anemia. While I am hoping that this is the case, I am terrified that the Cipro is "causing" the bleeding and that they won't be able to stop it.

In addition to the vicious cycle I must add this bit of information. In the beginning the pain in my muscles, joint and tendons was so extreme that I was taking 600 mg of Ibuprofen every 6 hours. I did this for about a month before I tapered it down to 400mg. My intake of ibuprofen has decreased as the months have gone by and my pain is more tolerable, but up until my eye exam I probably still was taking 200 - 400 mg per day. So, when I add this into the mix of a compromised vascular system, maybe internal bleeding is going on. I will keep you posted as my theory unravels. Ibuprofen so helped the pain, so I am often not sleeping nights and just having to white knuckle through it!