Floxed Timeline - The First Month

It's my hope that publishing my notes from my time recovering from Cipro Toxicity may help others who have been floxed, or medical professionals learning about it. These are my experiences, which I wrote - offline - as they happened. Everyone's experiences are different though.

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(See my last post for what happened in The First 24 Hours.)

3/21/2020

Was unable to support any weight on my left foot at all until late in the evening. Saw enough improvement to be able to hobble around a little.

3/23/2020

Slight improvement on left foot.

3/24/2020

Was able to go grocery shopping with a boot on, but it was all I could do - definitely felt taxed to the limit.

3/26/2020

Phone consult with my family doctor. He was upbeat about this, thinks it’ll be months to recover but that I SHOULD.

3/29/2020

My foot is getting a bit better, but I’m still getting weird sensations in my arm and feet. Heat flashes, pins and needles, and like splashes of cold water. It’s unnerving.

4/4/2020

My foot injury / the acute tendon issue from the cipro poisoning is coming along well. My achilles tendons have both been kind of stiff and achy, which is freaking me out a bit.

4/8/2020

The neuropathy is getting worse. Bigger patches, new feelings, and lasting longer. Outside of right leg feels like a mild chemical burn, large patch. Inside of left elbow feels like I rubbed Deep Cold on it.

4/9/2020

Woke up with neuropathy, but didn’t have any during the day! Went for a walk in the morning, probably a km or two.

My foot was acting fine, no pain at all, no limp. It really felt normal, for the first time in 3 weeks!

Went fine til the end, when the back of my right ankle (achilles?) Started popping with every step.

No sharp pain, just an ache. We’re assuming I just overdid it after resting for so long.

4/10/2020

Second day with no neuropathy!

Ankle is still clicking, just not as bad, foot is otherwise acting normally.

The pain in my shoulders is getting a bit better. I just realized that I haven’t mentioned the shoulder before now.

I’d assumed I’d slept on it weird, a couple weeks ago - but I’m pretty sure it’s another Cipro issue at this point.

It’s mostly in my right rotator cuff and collarbone, with a bit on the left side as well.

4/12/2020

Woke up with the marble feeling again.

Rolled up off my left foot, going down the front steps, and things got really bad - it’s felt like the original injury every since.

It got a lot worse in the evening, and excrutiating before bed.

Couldn’t put any weight on the front of the right foot at all today. Feels like the initial, pre-Cipro injury, except that the two middle toes are acting weird. Was barely able to move my toes all day.

4/13/2020

Still no neuropathy since the 9th, so this is the 5th day without it.

My left foot doesn’t hurt/feel tight across the top of it, but those two middle toes are still acting very weird.

Woke up with my left knee feeling very weird- maybe slightly dislocated, and missing some sensation?

And it stayed that way all day. I’m assuming it’s tendon / cipro.

Fuck.

4/14/2020

Foot is in rough shape. It’s gone from just the “marble” swelling, to more widespread pain in that foot.

The front of the arch feels inflamed, and the ankle is very stiff.

I MAY have had some mild neuropathy in my left hand today, but it was mild and vague enough that I’m not 100% on that.

It almost felt like the blood was cut off, slightly pins and needles, with just a small “chemical burn” heat sensation on the underside of the thumb. Started around 7:30 pm.

The left knee is still acting weird today, but I’ve been even LESS able to stand, so I haven’t been aggravating that. I do seem to have a bit more feeling back in the knee, though.

Spoke to (Podiatrist) this evening.

Has recommended custom orthotics and a shoe upgrade, but between COVID and the Cipro issues, we’ve decided to let things wait for a month, to see what happens.

We’ve ordered a new walking boot (the other one won’t hold air) and a smaller brace for sleeping in.

4/15/2020

I can move my toes a little more this morning than I could yesterday, but can’t support any weight on my foot at all.

All of the pain is on my ANKLE for some reason - front of the leg, towards the inside of it, right at the joint / bend. It hurts to just lift my foot off the couch. It feels just like a really bad ankle sprain, but there was nothing to cause that, and there is no swelling.

To date, I have had none of the mental issues that many other Cipro victims report: No brain fog, confusion, etc. The only anxiety I feel is situational, not chemical.

This morning, someone in a Flox group posted about how she was right where I was almost a week ago, taking a walk, everything finally feeling good... but then took an NSAID and was right back to square one.

I did the math - the last 4 days of issues came after I took a max dose of Ibuprofen for a migraine in the middle of the night.

I also took some yesterday.

Obviously I’ll stop it at this point - I’d completely forgotten that was an issue for people with Cipro poisoning - but I have no idea how long this is supposed to be the case.

Am I off NSAIDs for life now?

Had to walk a fair amount - in the boot - today, as I had a CT at the hospital.

4/16/2020

Slept in the lighter brace last night, for the first time.

Woke up with a lot of pain in the OUTSIDE of my left foot, it very much felt like a *broken* ankle.

This is getting ridiculous.

4/18/2020

No real changes in the past 2 days.

Left foot is less painful now, more just dysfunctional.

Was able to walk up the stairs - shakily - for the first time in a while.

It’s been a matter of having to crawl up, lately, so that’s an improvement.

Pain remained in outside of left foot, for the most part.

4/19/2020

Walking almost normally, if braced.

Seem to have almost full range of movement for the left toes, but the middle ones still have a weird lag when curling all toes.

Having a weird, vague cool sensation on top of left wrist, not sure if the neuropathy is returning?

This is a new location, and not as blatant as the previous sensations.

I wondered earlier of the “chemical burn” sensation was returning up the outside of my right shin, but again, it felt more vague this time.

4/20/2020

Slept with no braces last night, as the ankles were feeling stiff and sore after being braced all day.

Am leaving the braces off for now, just resting the feet today.

Foot issues seem to be almost completely just the original front of foot injury, aside from stiffness in the achilles.

Did some reading, am starting to wonder if I won’t have the systemic issues, if my case was more of an acute attack on the tendons.

Looks like tendons will take about 3 months to heal. I think the cipro basically gave me tendonosis.

Interesting: Looks like anti-inflammatories and steroids are contraindicated for tendonosis, same as for cipro poisoning.

Interestingly, they’re recommended for tendonITIS. I’m going to start following protocol for tendonosis and see how that goes.

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