CIPRO

Thanks Steb - I am glad you recovered from it. That is a good idea to have it put in my medical records too. In fact, I will just add Cipro as a drug to which I am allergic and then it will never be administered. Hope all is well with you. Howard

Hi Howard - do what Stebrunner did and add ALL fluoroquinolones to your records. They all behave in the same way more or less, so you could easily be given Levofloxacin (Levaquin ) or one of the many other names in the future that will finish off the job of poisoning you that was started by Cipro.

Good morning all

It is very good to have everything writing down. It is also good to know and to give the doctors a list of medication if you end up in the emergency department. They need to know if you are allergic to anything. I up date the file every time I get new medicine.

I carry this file with me at all time. It has all the information that they will need. I have it in my car. It also has what size catheter I can have because of my stricture per my urologist. You know how the emergency department can get. They keep asking questions. When I would go in with a A-Fib attack. They tell you to calm down but they keep asking question. To me that is not relaxing.

My list has all my doctors names phone numbers and the medication that each one is giving me also anything that I'm allergic to. It also has a list of the any surgery's I have had by dates. This helps and you can relax more because they are not asking you more questions.

I have be very lucky the only thing I'm allergic to is Plavix. I get a rash all over my body.

When taking anything you have to be aware of any side effects. If you do start a new pill read up on it be for you take it because this way you will be ready if anything comes up

Good luck all.....Ken

Good Evening All

I have taking Ciprofloxacin for many year and never had a problem with it.

It is not for everyone...If any medications give you a problem stop and tell your doctor.

All the best......Ken

If you are already taking Cipro by three weeks it could have caused problems. Damage does not always happen right away it can delay and be triggered by other medications.

Hey Derek

Yes that is true. Other med's can and will cause problems .

How you doing my friend....Ken

At the moment we are under a cloud with more than a months rain in a day and this is supposed to be Summer.

That must be going around.

Still in the 80's but we have had storms for the last 5 days

I wish it would stop already.

Take it easy...Ken

Which other medications cause issues with Cipro? Is it documented anywhere?

I had seen some remarks on the NCBI web site suggesting it might be a factor ... but they have been removed.

In my case it was Bisoprolol and Clarithromycin at separate times. What is your foot problem from Cipro ?

If you search on Floxie Hope you will come to a group for people affected by Cipro of Fluoroquinolones.

The European Medicines Agency and the FDA have issued warnings about such drugs.

Many medications cause issues once you have been affected by Cipro or the other fluoroquinolones (FQs), I don't think there is a list as it varies from person to person (each individual is different!).

If the NCBI web site is the only place you've seen remarks about Cipro, try searching for 'problems with fluoroquinolones' or 'fluoroquinolone toxicity'. Also, take a look at the fluoroquinolone discussions on this site - there are plenty.

They cause such a wide array of problems because they affect the way your cells work, they interrupt your metabolism by affecting and damaging your mitochondria (where your 'energy' is produced in all your cells) plus the way each cell goes about its particular business (be it liver, heart, tendon or whatever). The only cells that don't have mitochondria are your red blood cells so, as you can imagine, problems can occur in several systems at once - and they do.

The feet and ankles are most commonly affected (and about the only bits that doctors know about) because the tendons here have to work so hard. Gut problems are common (FQs wipe out the friendly bacteria) and also Central Nervous System problems e.g. anxiety, depression and panic attacks through to hallucinations. This is because the brain cells have a lot (thousands) of mitochondria along with the rest of you. Doctors are not told about all this but you can read up about it for yourself. Floxie Hope is a good place to start as it also gives links to recent FDA and EMA decisions.

Once your cells and mitochondria have been disrupted and damaged they, especially your liver cells, are unable to process other pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol and many foods but this is dependent on how badly you've been affected and several other personal factors such as genetics and lifestyle.

Hope this helps.

Miriam,

Last year (Feb 2018) I took Cipro for 10 days after getting a UTI from a cystoscope. I felt dizzy on day 10. A few weeks later I felt sick (thought it was food poisoning, but no fever?), then a few weeks after that my energy levels began to drop and my normal workouts fell off by 15-20%. I was also jittery, especially in the morning. Since then, the jittery symptoms have gone away, but my workouts are still down - my heart rate is up and exercise pace is down during any type of exercise - elliptical training, fast walking, yard work, anything. Not possible that I can pin this down to the Cipro, but it's odd that this all started 2 months after taking my last pill. I have been exercising my entire life and am very well aware of how I should be feeling during physical activity. The doctors can't seem to figure out what has happened to me - ran every test in the book. Nothing shows up as "off". My exercise session yesterday was still slower by 10% compared to my pre Cipro sessions - this is better than the 15-20% drop last year, so there has been some improvement.

Tom

I suspect I have impaired Cauda Equina and Lumbar Nerves which control my foot, bladder and bowel. I tend to get a lot of UTIs and testicle infections, so I have to take Cipro quite often. About three years ago, I started to keep a log of incidents where my foot would go weak or I would fall over. Or I might have some sort of odd failure to do with my bladder or bowel.(I will spare you the details.)

When I analysed the log, I found if I was taking Cipro or Nitrofurantoin, I would see an incident every 10 days. If not taking them, every 140 days. Quite a big difference.

I also found every time an incident occured, it was usually at the exact moment my heel touched the ground while walking.

I yellow carded both antibiotics.

I think Lanzaprazole may have been involved, not sure.

I don't like to say this. I felt it weakened me too.

I suspect Cipro can cause neuropathic symptoms and the reason for it is unclear. I think I partially recover but never fully.

There seem to be a few scientific papers suggesting Cipro does cause neuropathic symptoms. I am not sure how they came to these conclusions.

Thanks for the information. How did you come by it?

My left foot suddenly became weak. It gets diagnosed as neuropathy but I know better. The change of gait has affected my lower back.

Hi Tom, delayed reactions to Cipro and the other fluoroquinolones (FQs) are the norm and a reaction 2 months after taking the last pill isn't at all unusual (nor is 6 months!).

FQs affect the nervous system which would explain the 'jitters' - others experience severe anxiety, panic attacks, long lasting depression or hallucinations.

Your work out rates are down because your mitochondria have been affected and they're struggling to produce enough energy for you. Do them a favour and don't expect them to work so hard - they need to recover and build up numbers again which can take months (or, in some people, never).

Be wary of the exercise and if you feel any unusual pains, especially in your tendons, back off. Tendon ruptures are very common with FQs and can happen spontaneously up to around a year after stopping the tablets (I'm not joking!).

It's normal for every test to come back as ok. The problem is deep within your cells so serum tests will show nothing. Your metabolism has been disrupted - take it easy! Don't take any steroids or NSAIDs (e.g. Ibuprofen) - these can bring symptoms on.

Research and more research over the last 4 years. There's masses of information out there - and on this site (did you look at the fluoroquinolone thread yet?).

Regular health advice pages usually just give general details such as those listed on the packet leaflets (which do actually say a lot). Looking for sites using 'problems with Cipro' brings up more about the full long-term horror that these antibiotics can cause to many people.

I've been involved with support groups and trying to raise awareness since my husband was in agony from his third course of Cipro. The first two courses cleared up his persistent UTIs while the third nearly killed him.

Miriam,

Thank you for your reply. It explains a LOT. I forgot to mention in my previous post that I also had anxiety last year and my sleep has been very disturbed. I thought this was from urine retention, but a couple of months ago I had a bipolar TURP and I am able to clear my bladder now, but still can't seem to sleep more than about an hour to hour and a half at a stretch, leaving me tired all day. It's been a year and four months since my last Cipro tablet and I am feeling a bit better - workouts slightly improved, not jittery anymore, anxiety levels going down, blood pressure back to normal levels, but the sleep is still a bit issue. Anyway, thank you very much for your information.

Tom

Hi Tom, glad the info helped to explain things.

Many people use supplements like inositol or melatonin (e.g. " Inositol can really help people who have trouble falling asleep, this is because Inositol helps promote a feeling of calmness and peacefulness, which are the main factors in helping someone get a good night of sleep". I can't give the link but this is an idea of what is said about it.).

Others find CBD oil (from health food shops) helps with calming and relaxing and promotes sleep.

I don't think I warned you to never, ever take any fluoroquinolone ever again. If you're ever offered an antibiotic check that it's not one of the fluoroquinolone class before taking it - it will say on the leaflet in the packet if no one will actually tell you for sure (some doctors have no idea!). Apart from Ciprofloxacin there is Levofloxacin, Moxifloxacin and Ofloxacin although there are too many generic names to list so always check.

It sounds like you had fairly mild effects but the toxins remain in your body for a long time, possibly many years (doctors say they're gone after 3 weeks - that's not so!). If you take another dose you will most likely have severe to permanent adverse reactions. Many people don't ever realise they've had a reaction to their first course or maybe their second or third course but the toxic effects are accumulating. Some people can take many courses (like Ken above) but you have had obvious side effects already so please be warned.

Good Morning

Men have to start watching what they take and ask question about any side effects. If you are aware of the problem you can tell if you get them . Doctor do not know everything. They really don't know everything about the side effects of all the medication that they give out. Which they should

Have not taking Ciprofloxacin since last year. It did not help me with the infection I had. Got it from a catheter.I have been deal with a infection for 4 months. This infection has a built in re-start. I'm on one now which is the third of 3 antibiotic I was given.

Nitrofurantoin 100 mg I have about 25 days left of the 90 that I have to take. Already told my doctor I will not take it after the 90 days. If you are on it for to long it can cause problem with heart and lungs. My doctor told me he was aware of the side effects. Will be doing blood test after it done

Boy it is sure a lot of fun when you get old.

Have a great day.....Ken

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the reply, did your doctor ever tell you what the bug is that's causing this infection? When you say it has a built-in restart it makes me think it might be something like e.coli which creates a bio-film over its colonies that antibiotics really don't touch. You get a clear test result as any bugs swimming around are knocked out but then the millions of them who are protected by the bio-film can just get up and start going about their business again! I haven't heard of 90 days of nitrofurantoin getting rid of it (but I don't know everything!). If it is e.coli then the usual approach is to take D.Mannose for maybe 3 months. This slowly erodes the bio-film (high acid I believe) and exposes the bugs which a regular antibiotic can then shift. Some people also take cranberry juice as well as this stops any bugs sticking to the bladder wall and re-establishing the colony.

I can't remember if your cath is indwelling, if it is you will always get colonies build up round the tip - the 'gunge' that's visible when you remove the catheter. My husband is resigned to taking a daily trimethoprim as a prophylactic but hasn't had a full scale uti for maybe 5 years now. After sepsis nearly killed him we try hard not to get another! He takes cranberry juice every day and about 2000mg vit C every day (for high acidity).

Good luck with your persistent bugs. I find getting older isn't much fun but you have to keep ahead of the game!

Miriam

My bladder has been hyper sensitive for over a year, especially after I took Cipro last Feb 2018, and my frequency/urgency/nocturia issues have been severe. I just started drinking a dilute concentration of cranberry juice, vitamin c powder, and a little d-mannose. It's bitter so I have to add a little sweetener. Seems to calm down my bladder and I am sleeping a bit better now (still getting up 6-10x per night). However, my urine test strip results still show the presence of leukocytes in the + range. Previous urine analysis tests did not show any bacteria in my urine, but my experience with these tests is that they seem to miss the low level infections. Do you think the leukocytes are telling me something that I need to be concerned about? I am still recovering from a bipolar TURP on 4/5 of this year. Helped a bit, flow slightly stronger, but still going to the bathroom 20-30x per 24hrs and IPSS score is 29.

Thanks,

Tom

Hi Tom,

You don't say whether the leucocytes are at the low or high end of positive. I use the 10-test strips from Amazon (any make) to check my husband's urine daily. Of the five colour-boxes on the bottle label he rarely shows anything darker than the second one. Our doc has advised us that white blood cells are often present in the urine for one reason or another (especially with a permanent catheter) and to ignore it unless it goes to the final (deepest) purple. Do you make sure to read the leukocyte colour after 2 minutes? All the other tests are after one minute so this is important. Also, don't read it AFTER 2 minutes as it continues to go darker (I got in a right panic once after seeing the colour of one in the bin!).

I'm pleased you think the combination drink might be helping a little. Have you ever been advised about other drinks? For example, my husband was told to try giving up caffeine to see if it helped bladder spasms. He started to self-cath but after 6 weeks he had so much by-passing he had to go back to the indwelling and the continence nurse said it was probably bladder spasms forcing the urine out. If you usually have caffeine you could try cutting down gradually to see if it helps. Good luck!

Miriam,

The leukocytes are in the + range, not the ++. I am using the Chemstrip 10 with SG made by Roche. Bought on eBay. Very high quality but more expensive than what is available on Amazon. This has been consistent since my bipolar TURP. I wasn't measuring with test strips before that so I don't have any baseline for comparison.

I don't drink anything with caffeine, so that's not a factor.

My urologist thinks that what I am going through is a result of the radiation I had for prostate cancer five years ago, but I am skeptical of this and continue to research the issue. Does this mean I will have these issues forever or will there be improvement? Looking for answers.

Tom

Hi Tom, sadly I have no idea. I have no experience of radiation treatment although I can imagine it would make the bladder a bit sensitive. There must be others on here who have gone through that treatment so perhaps trawl through some of the earlier posts to see what they say. Or maybe start a new post asking about it?

I think it might be ok to say not to worry about the leukocytes unless they suddenly shoot up to the ++ range (we panic at +++!). Also, if the nitrites start showing pink of course. It could be that the radiation has done something to the bladder lining and the leukocytes are showing that your body is dealing with it. So, not an infection per se but some repair is still happening. However, I'm not a doctor nor an expert (my specialist interest is Cipro and the other fluoroquinolones) so take care.

Miriam,

Your comments have been very helpful, thank you.

"It could be that the radiation has done something to the bladder lining and the leukocytes are showing that your body is dealing with it."

That explains a lot. Your posts about Cipro have also been very helpful, as I continue to recover from my Cipro "poisoning" last Spring.

Tom

I'm not sure it explains a lot but it might suggest there are other possible causes than leukocytes = infection. Too much Cipro and other fluoroquinolones - and other antibiotics - are too freely handed out when they haven't been proved to be necessary. Antibiotic resistance is a massive problem for the world while fluoroquinolone toxicity is a massive problem to all those who have been affected by it.

Thanks for your kind words and I wish you all the best.