Summary
Name: Megan
State or Country of residence: California
Sex: Female
Age: 23
Quinolone taken: Cipro
Reason for the Quinolone: Kidney infection
Was a safer antibiotic tried first? : No
How long did you take the Quinolone for? : Two weeks
How much have you recovered as of now?: 50%
How often do you relapse or cycle?: A few times a month
Does your doctor agree the Quinolone is the cause of your problems?: No
Do you have a history of seizures or neurological problems?: No
Please list anything your doctor did that helped in your recovery: The doctors would not admit my side effects were in anyway related to CIPRO
What has helped you in your recovery?: Nothing
Megan's Story
My sophomore year in college I was diagnosed
with a kidney infection. The doctor gave me a very strong dosage of CIPRO to
take for two weeks. After about a week I ended up in the hospital with a severe panic attack. I felt as though my heart was skipping beats, I could not breath, like my throat was swelling, and me entire body ached with an unimaginable pain. The doctors in the hospital told me I must be anxious about school. Never in my life prior to this had I ever had an incident of any mental health problems. I was never anxious, never panicked, was extremely together and level-headed. I went home and several hours later had to be taken back to the hospital with my symptoms ten times worse. My father, across the country, was worried and called his cousin who is a doctor. He fortunately asked what medications I was taking, did his own research, and discovered my symptoms were likely due to the strong dosage of CIPRO. My father contacted the ER doctor, who told my father that this was impossible. My father's cousin, in turn, called the ER and insisted that I be taken off of the CIPRO. Ever since this incident I have had sever anxiety problems. I experience terrible panic attacks. No doctor would ever tell me that CIPRO could possibly have anything to do with this. To this day, I lie to doctors when i get UTI's, and tell them I get hives when I take CIPRO, because this seems to be the only way to get them to stop trying to make me take it. I was convinced to try again a year ago, and two hours after the first dose I again thought I was having a heart attack. My mother recently read an article about the adverse effects of this drug, which lead me to do my own research. I believe that drug companies are pushing this unsafe drug to doctors. I was given free samples of CIPRO!!!!! My life has been changed by this experience. I was studying archaeology, and had dreams to live and study in the Middle East. My anxiety has kept me from doing this, because I fear being away from good medical care if my symptoms were to return. |
Last Updated 10/05/05