
A.Kamenetsky of Evanston , IL on Oct. 14, 2011
Satisfaction Rating5/5
In 2001, I was prescribed 500 mg of Cipro. A few days later, after taking it, the skin on my hands, feet, and face started peeling. On the seventh day, an excruciating pain (as if a molten metal belt) surrounded my whole pelvic area and hips. The next night, my right hip loudly snapped with a blinding pain. After that, an unbearable pain settled in my lower back and the hip area; I could not get from bed, walk more than 50 feet, put on my shoes, get up from the sofa, and sleep well without constantly turning and tossing for four months.
None of the doctors could offer any help or explanation; however, they all defended Cipro and refused to admit that Cipro was the culprit of my intense suffering. They would not report this in my medical files either despite my insistence. One dared to say that I am a worrying type female, and another said that I am imagining it.
Since I could not function normally, I started to retrain myself to walk, to get up, to pick up, to sit for longer than 15 minutes, and to stand for longer than five minutes. I did it through daily and nightly unceasing pain. It really put a lot of strain on my heart. Eventually, I adapted to live with pain and to function with pain. It got milder with time, and the range of my daily functions increased. I started taking only herbal medicines and ate organically, mostly as vegetarian, to limit the input of harmful chemicals on my body.
Yet I have lived in pain since then - for 10 years. Now, my hip again started causing me an increasing pain and more problems. Somehow, the increase in hip and lower back pain corresponds with the decrease in eyesight and heart palpitations, too.
The family doctor's diagnosis is an intense case of of arthritis. I refuse to take any drugs he offers, as I am afraid to trust doctors to prescribe me any pharmaceuticals since the original problem was caused by their prescriptions of pharmaceuticals. And many pharmaceuticals have either underresearched or hidden side effects (I did a serious research on pharmaceutical industry practices that made me very disenchanted with it).
As pain became more unbearable, endangering my walking and limiting my normal daily functions, I went to an orthopaedic doctor. A protruding bone spur and a fracture on the hip were found so far.
I used to be a very happy and a very healthy, active person - working, gardening, running, dancing; now, I cannot even put on my socks properly or buckle my shoes. Every step, every turn is a pain. From outside, some might not notice the full extent of my daily suffering as I learned to live with it, but it is demoralizing on the inside. I wish that evil has never happened to me; I wish to be undamaged and healthy as I used to be to live a normal life, but Bayer produced Cipro.