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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Body Pain While On Levaquin?

I was prescribed Levaquin 10 years ago for a staph infection. 6 days after taking Levaquin I had a severe reaction and was in excruciating pain for over a week. It was a very sharp pens and needles pain on any part of my body that was touched. So even trying to lay in the bed was extremely painful. The only relief was while soaking in hot water. At it's peak I was unable to sleep for 6 straight days due to the pain. Since that incident I have had a pretty serious cough and constant (at least once every hour or so) pains in my feet, hands, head, chest, legs, shoulders, left side and knees. Most pains are moderate aches or short lasting (30 seconds to 5 minutes) sharp pains. But my feet have a burning sensation and my left side feels like a lot of pressure, similar a fist pushing from the inside out just above my hip.

I recently found out that the FDA has added a warning to Levaquin for causing permanant nerve damage. Could these pains I'm feeling today really be from something I took 10 years ago?
Sat, 19 May 2018
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Addiction Medicine Specialist 's  Response
Several features of pain can be helpful in clarifying what is going on and the next steps for diagnosis and treatment.

Type of pain. Burning mostly means a nerve is having problems. This can be either a sick nerve or a nerve that has had an injury. Electrical, shooting would be others implying nerve source for pain.

Location of pain. There is a lot to this. First, if something goes in the pathway of a nerve, then that is the nerve involved. Nerves are long and the pain is in a belt-like long pathway. Smaller areas are smaller nerves. This also tends to say what might be going on. Obviously if there was an injury to the area and then there was pain outward from it "hit a nerve" would be a possibility. Sick nerves are MULTIPLE areas and tends to be the TIPS of the nerve not the whole nerve

What hurts. Moving a particular way that triggers the pain tells what is hurting. Specifically it can distinguish outward structures like skin, muscles, tendons, joints from deep structures like organs and nerves.

This is not a usual case and a coincedence is not impossible. The underlying infection is at least as likely to cause an unexpected widespread inflammation of nerves as the levaquin.
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What Causes Body Pain While On Levaquin?

Several features of pain can be helpful in clarifying what is going on and the next steps for diagnosis and treatment. Type of pain. Burning mostly means a nerve is having problems. This can be either a sick nerve or a nerve that has had an injury. Electrical, shooting would be others implying nerve source for pain. Location of pain. There is a lot to this. First, if something goes in the pathway of a nerve, then that is the nerve involved. Nerves are long and the pain is in a belt-like long pathway. Smaller areas are smaller nerves. This also tends to say what might be going on. Obviously if there was an injury to the area and then there was pain outward from it hit a nerve would be a possibility. Sick nerves are MULTIPLE areas and tends to be the TIPS of the nerve not the whole nerve What hurts. Moving a particular way that triggers the pain tells what is hurting. Specifically it can distinguish outward structures like skin, muscles, tendons, joints from deep structures like organs and nerves. This is not a usual case and a coincedence is not impossible. The underlying infection is at least as likely to cause an unexpected widespread inflammation of nerves as the levaquin.