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My poor mom! She has a cold. She has Lymphoma. And if that isn’t enough, her doctors “floxed” her.
A week ago, she was running a low-grade fever, so I placed a weekend call to her oncologist. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he immediately prescribed her Avelox, without ever seeing her, without determining whether she had a bacterial infection. This is on top of 2 months of prescribed Prednisone, a corticosteroid drug that she was prescribed to help control the side effects from her cancer treatment.
Avelox is a fluoroquionolone. I read the “black box” that accompanied her medication. In the very first sentence it warns that the risk for tendon rupture and central nervous system (CNS) problems is further increased in individuals over 60 years of age (mom is 89), or in BOLD PRINT and CAPITALIZED, those “taking corticosteroid drugs”. The label continues with the statement that Avelox should not be taken unless there is significant evidence of bacterial infection. I quickly called the doctor back (in case he really didn’t remember that my mom was taking Prednisone) and told him that I was concerned. I also explained how I personally was “floxed” (more on that below). He assured me that given her Lymphoma, this drug was necessary (something he determined without even seeing her), and that she would be fine. He dismissed my personal experience being “floxed” as rare.
Well, my sample just doubled from 1 to 2, and I can now say that 100 percent of my sample exhibits adverse reactions to these fluoroquinolone drugs!
In just two days on Avelox, my mom went from being a vibrant, self-aware and easy-going 89-yr-old (despite Lymphoma) to a confused, scared and anxious patient. She became very dizzy, and I could see her confusion and anxiety were getting worse. She continued to have cold symptoms, but it was the CNS symptoms that were alarming. She was falling and very disoriented. I panicked and called the doctor, thinking that maybe her Lymphoma was advancing, taking over. After a 10 minute discussion, it hit me. Mom was “floxed”. Her doctor could only manage “sometimes the elderly have trouble with this class of drugs”.
How could I let this happen!? Why didn’t I insist that she be prescribed another antibiotic? Why didn’t I let my instincts prevail? Why did I let the doctor convince me not to listen to the Black Box warning? Why did I allow him to ignore the warning? Why would I need to fight for a doctor to heed such a warning? Why didn’t I listen to my own hard earned wisdom?
Eleven years ago, I was “floxed”. For those that have not had the pleasure of this experience, “floxed” is an adjective used to describe an adverse drug reaction to the group of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. My particular brand of fluoroquionolone was Levaquin, which was prescribed to me after developing a post-operative infection from my prophylatic oopherectomy. Days after my surgery, I was not feeling well and noticed that my incision was looking red and angry. I visited my doctor, who assured me the incision looked normal and attempted to reassure me with “don’t doctors always know best?” (the question now makes me shudder). I was SO “fine” that I ended up with an abscess on my colon that could not be drained, was put on intravenous antibiotics, and spent 3 days in the hospital recovering.
Levaquin made me feel very weird - NOT just your average antibiotic reaction. I felt really confused, so much so that I could barely speak coherently. I later learned that this adverse drug reaction stemming from fluoroquinolones is known as “brain fog”. I was dizzy, nauseous, confused, anxious, agitated and felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. On my first day home from the hospital, I went to get up from bed and felt sharp pains in my Achilles tendons. They were swollen to twice their size, and I could barely walk. I called my infectious disease doctor and his response
