Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Victim Community - Never Heard of Fluoroquinolones? Read This!

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Dec 7, 2009, 11:33pm

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Topic: Never Heard of Fluoroquinolones? Read This! (Read 2,080 times)

Levarel
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Never Heard of Fluoroquinolones? Read This!
« Thread Started on Jan 30, 2008, 4:52am »

What are Fluoroquinolones?

Fluoroquinolones are a class of antibiotics that include Levaquin, Cipro, Avelox, Tequin, Factive, Floxin and others. A more complete list can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroquinolone.

Why should I care?

Fluoroquinolones were originally designed and approved for serious infections which do not respond to traditional antibiotic therapy. However, they are increasingly being prescribed for routine infections that do not warrant such powerful and dangerous antibacterials.

The end result of this is a large (and continuously growing) number of people who have been needlessly afflicted with severe, non-abating adverse reactions to this class of drugs.

All Drugs Have Side Effects, What Makes Fluoroquinolones Special?

Conventional wisdom states that once a patient stops taking a medication, any side effects experienced will likewise stop. This is not true for fluoroquinolones. In fact, the opposite is often the case; new side effects can continue to appear and worsen for months (in some cases even years) after the drug has been discontinued. Oftentimes, this can lead to a situation where the patient does not recognize the cause of their newfound symptoms. The potential for serious harm is then greatly magnified as the patient runs the risk of being prescribed another fluoroquinolone antibiotic in the future.

Further, there is a very real potential for permanent damage which can leave the patient severely disabled for the rest of his/her life.

I think I might have taken one of the drugs in that list above in the past, what should I do now?

There is very little that can be done once the drug has already been ingested. However, there is no need to panic; many people can take these drugs without suffering any noticeable ill effects. Please check the following list of the side effects most commonly reported by members of the forums devoted to reactions to these drugs and see if you experienced any of them either during or after fluoroquinolone therapy:

Fatigue, tendonitis/tendinopathy (especially tendonitis without any specific known cause), tendon rupture, joint pain (arthralgia), muscle weakness/soreness, peripheral neuropathy, muscle spasms (fasciculations), popping/cracking joints, endurance problems, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), heart palpitations, anxiety attacks, brain fog, depersonalization, memory loss, difficulty finding the right word at times, seizures, buzzing/tingling/vibratory sensations, dry eyes/mouth/sinuses, numbness (especially at night), floaters/blank spots in field of vision.

There are, of course, less common and significantly more severe side-effects as well, such as cardiac arrest, torsades de pointes (elongation of the QT rhythm), kidney/liver failure, and rhabdomyolysis.

If, while reading that list, you found yourself nodding in agreement an inordinate amount of the time, you may be suffering from adverse reactions to a fluoroquinolone antibiotic.

What can I do?

If you've read this far, you have already educated yourself as to the potential risks associated with fluoroquinolone antibiotics. Whether or not you are ever prescribed one of these drugs and whether or not you decide to ever take them, you at least know what to look out for and have been granted a level of informed consent that was never given to the majority of those who are now suffering their ill effects.

The next step is to educate your friends and your family about this issue. Odds are that someone you know, possibly someone you care about, has already been prescribed and has taken one of these drugs.

If you wish to go further, please join this site and post; we can always use some caring individuals who are willing to donate their time and effort to raise awareness about this issue (or even just hang around and share ideas). Like any other important cause in the world, there is strength in numbers.

Our goal here is not to get these drugs banned from clinical use. It is merely to educate patients and doctors about the potential for serious and potentially permanent reactions and to limit the use of these drugs to their original purpose, which is to combat infections that are resistant to other forms of antibacterial therapy.

Thank you.

« Last Edit: Jan 31, 2008, 7:33pm by Levarel »

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Just think, in a million years, none of this will matter.

tendonbashed
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Re: Never Heard of Fluoroquinolones? Read This!
« Reply #1 on Feb 1, 2008, 7:41pm »

I like this a LOT. Wish it was attached to the bottle I was given. I'd still have a life. Package Insert... send this to every pharmacy.
I wonder if we should do contact with pharmacists... pharmacy schools. hum;mmmm..... you know, the list is endless. Or, if everyone printed this out, and gave it to their local pharmacists.... heck, i give my CVS so much business, they oughgt to post anything I ask them to by the pharmacy. paul

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