FLOXED – I am a collateral damage from fluoroquinolone antibiotics
My husband’s name is Gerald and he is a collateral damage victim of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. In short: he is “floxed”!
Until a few weeks ago, we had neither heard of the term “floxed” nor did we know what it means, as in to be affected by severe side effects after taking the aforementioned fluoroquinolone antibiotics and to therefore become very ill. An almost unbelievable total of 39 side effects affected Gerald or are still affecting him, and based on his experiences and subsequent research into his condition, this book is intended to offer both: guidance and assistance for similarly affected people, their relatives, and friends.
A word of caution: please therefore take these antibiotics only after very careful consideration.
My name is Gerald and I am a collateral damage victim of fluoroquinolone antibiotics – in short: I am floxed!
Until a few weeks ago, I had neither heard of the term, ‚floxed’, nor did I know what it means, to be affected by severe side effects from fluoroquinolone antibiotics. The term 'floxed' has become a synonym for people affected by serious side effects after taking fluoroquinolone antibiotics and who therefor become very ill.
Based on my own experiences, I went through and then summarised the information I discovered about this subject with-in this book, which is intended for both: assistance and guidance for similarly affected people, their relatives and friends. Furthermore, it is also meant as a word of caution: please take the abovementioned antibiotics only after very careful consideration, because the side effects can be very severe and even life-threatening, which indeed is exactly what happened to me.
Please inform your doctor or pharmacist if you suffer from any of the listed side effects or if you also notice any side effects not listed in the leaflet. A pamphlet listing possible side effects like this you will always find included in any medication package. Well, unfortunately though, such references are apparently not taken very seriously, nor does any advice or assistance from the medical side exist as there is no treatment option available. Some say, the side effects last for between 14 months and 9 years – but that after 9 years, damaging effects are likely to remain (source: FDA www.fda.gov ). This is something that I as a victim am not prepared to accept, and I, therefore, have no other option than to help myself and to share whatever information I have gleaned in this regard with others who may hopefully benefit thereby.
However, I am not a doctor, so this book, of course, cannot and must not replace a doctor’s consultation, nor should it replace a professional medical diagnosis! I’m simply going to describe my own experiences I went through and explain my different methods, nutritional supplements (vitamins, minerals, enzymes and bacteria), medication and other alternatives I have tried, in order to become a human being again. I am also going to include all the various things I now have to keep my hands off for the rest of my life as a ‘floxed’ individual.
If in this book I express my state of health candidly and at times brutally, please note that it is merely an honest and true reflection of my situation. It is not intended to horrify you or to stir drama - it is only about portraying and describing the facts as best as I can.
Three cheers to the World Wide Web with all the many options it provides with which to gain information about this and whatever other subject you can imagine. Yet having said that, research is unfortunately very time- and energy-consuming and you have to be economical with your remaining strengths, especially if you are sick as I have been. As an act of necessity for assisting myself, the idea to write this book was born. I hope it may be of benefit to you too.
In May 2016 I suffered from an infection of my eardrum and ear canal. My general practitioner prescribed penicillin (Celestamine) and my ear canal eventually felt better. Nonetheless, I still could not hear and on top of that, there was now a huge pressure on my ear. The result was that my ear was in immense pain, my condition was unpleasant, to put it mildly, and I, therefore returned to my GP who prescribed another antibiotic (Tavaloxx 750mg). However, this didn’t help either and the ear pain remained unchanged, the ear became clogged up, it now felt as if there was a tennis ball stuffed up in my ear. To make matters worse, I now had to cope with a sinusitis infection over and above all of this. As you might have guessed already, this lead to being given the next antibiotic (Mofloxx 400mg). In addition to that, I was treated with cortisone in the form of pills, injections, droplets and nasal spray – the standard therapy to ease swellings. At that time I was not aware, that the combination of fluoroquinolone antibiotics plus plenty cortisone increases the chances of being hit by serious side effects, having not been informed about this by my doctor or pharmacist.
June went by, July arrived and meanwhile I am getting a bit impatient and annoyed. All of a sudden I developed muscle cramps and I thought that perhaps, I had a potassium deficiency. This is very unusual but I gave it a try and started with a one-week intake of 500mg a day of potassium supplement – the normal daily dose is 2 grams. Unfortunately, though, there was no improvement and I stopped the intake. While I was waiting for an appointment to see an ear-, nose-, and throat specialist, I took the antibiotic Moxifloxacin 400mg in mid-July 2016. At that point, I did not realise how foolish my impatience was going to turn out to be. The price I now have to pay because of this is enormous, as you will soon learn. Why I was so stupid and careless, why my instincts and common sense didn’t warn me against taking such quantities of antibiotics – I honestly don’t know. Suffice to say I did, and I’m now paying a very heavy price for doing so.
I haven’t mentioned yet that I am living in South Africa? However, it doesn’t matter – I bring it up only because there are significant differences here compared to other countries in terms of availability and quality of food supplements (more about this in the chapter ‘Food Supplements’).
Doctors, however, are good and highly trained in South Africa. After all, the first heart transplantation by Christiaan Barnard took place in Cape Town at the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1967. Furthermore, my experiences notwithstanding, my trust, both of modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry and their successes for humankind was unbroken till recently, and I continue to pay my fullest respects to all the many medics and scientists around the world, who achieve great things in order to cure, or at least alleviate, illness, suffering, and pain!
First of all, what does fluoroquinolone means? You might recognise fluorine as an ingredient of your toothpaste; quinolone means: bound. Thus, fluoroquinolone antibiotics have a fluorine compound that is bound to them, which enables them to get in every corner of your body to fight bacteria, whether it be organs, muscles, tendons, cartilage etc.
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are very popular since they are capable of fighting a broad spectrum of bacteria, and their benefits are inarguable when they are used correctly in life-threatening situations!
Unfortunately though, they are also prescribed for simple infections such as those of the ears, sinuses or bladder. Critics may compare this to shooting sparrows with cannons, though others consider the ‘collateral damage’ to be acceptable.
To get an idea of the number of intakes of this particular medication, consider that in the US alone about 26 million Americans take fluoroquinolone antibiotics each year. With an official 10% rate of side effects, this means that approximately 2.6 million Americans are affected and fall sick every year due to this one antibiotic alone!
Source: FDA, top American Food and Drug Administration www.fda.gov
The Antibiotic Report of ‘DAK Gesundheit’ (the German employee’s health insurance) informs about doctors prescribing an impressive 3.5 million packages of antibiotics in 2013 alone. A quarter of these comprise fluoroquinolones – which adds up to 875,000 packages of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in Germany in 2013. The report furthermore provides that 62% of all antibiotics are prescribed by general practitioners, followed by paediatricians with 6% and ear-, nose-, and throat doctors and urologists with 5% each.
(Source: www.dak.de/antibiotics )
Medical insiders told me off the record that GPs in particular are under enormous pressure from the pharmaceutical industry to sell their products. Considering the effects these have on the patients who are often unwittingly prescribed them, this is beyond indefensible – and that’s putting it euphemistically.
If you would like to find out more about this, read the article in the database of the “Spiegel” magazine dated 14.07.2016 ‘How much money does my doctor receive’ http://www.spiegel.de/gesundheit/diagnose/euros-fuer-aerzte-datenbank-wie-viel-hat-mein-arzt-bekommen-a-1102819.html .
www.egms.de