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Cipro and Tendinitis

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Posted 12/20/2019 7:25 PM (GMT -5)
I'm on the Dr. J protocol and have developed tendinitis during the first off week after introducing Cipro, mostly in my heels. There's also been some in my shoulders. It improves with rest and worsens with activity.

I can't get an answer from the doctor's office on whether I should stop. Tendinitis is part of the bartonella herx, I know I've heard of it happening with rifampin, which doesn't cause tendinopathy. I'm also having a flare of wrist and knee pain, anxiety, neuropathy, shin pain, and insomnia, it feels like a herx.

I don't want to derail my treatment or risk a tendon injury... what would you do?
Posted 12/20/2019 10:30 PM (GMT -5)
If you leave a message on the triage nurse line - they should get back to you - usually within 24 hours - if not then 48 hours.

Because tendon rupture is a black box warning for Cipro - I think I’d stop taking it - but it’s up to you... of course.

I decided I would not take any of the fluoroquinolones - but others’ have taken it with no issues.

...the fluoros are the most effective for bart - making it a difficult decision for us.
Posted 12/20/2019 10:59 PM (GMT -5)
I have had significant improvements in the two weeks (6 doses) I took it. The nurse said it was up to me, I wish I could make a more informed decision, I just don't know what the cost-benefit is to continuing.
Posted 12/20/2019 11:55 PM (GMT -5)
I had discussed the fluoroquinolone with my regular Dr. (not lyme literate) and my concern about tendon rupture - even though I knew I wasn't going to take them...
She said she has only seen one in her practice. (tendon rupture) and the fellow had surgery to repair it and he was fine. (not sure if "fine" means completely good...or so-so....lol)

Having said that - many years ago my mother-in-law had a tendon in her upper right arm detach and curl up...making her arm weak.
When it happened....no one really questioned it...she worshipped her Dr. at the time...and wouldn't really question it.

Fast forward many years later...and I'm reading about tendon rupture and the fluoroquinolones...and then I remember that my MIL had many UTI's - and the antibiotic of choice was one of the fluoro's (I think Cipro).
I wonder if that's what caused her arm tendon to rupture.
She probably could have had it repaired....had we known....and if she let us look into it. (She wasn't elderly at the time...so was in charge of her health care)
Posted 12/21/2019 8:46 AM (GMT -5)
i think tendon ruptures happen with floroquinolones but they are much less frequent than ppl think. in eastern europe where i am from, cipro is often over prescribed and widely taken without proper regulation in place. it is one of the reason abx resistance in east europe is much worse than in other parts of the world.

nevertheless i do not see crippled ppl walking on sticks in the streets, with ruptured tendons.

this is just an attempt to try to look objectively at this issue.

i took 3months of cipro and one of levo part of my lyme treatment. dosage was very hi. 3x500mg cipro, 2x500mg levo a day. this was back in 2015.

end of 2019. i have no tendon issues. i did have some tendon pain back at some point. but who doesn't, after exercise....
Posted 12/22/2019 12:45 AM (GMT -5)
I would stay away from any type of quinolones, not just Cipro but any abx whish has the word flox on it.

It is toxic to the nervous system and body as a whole. There are alternatives, many of them. Its still a mystery to me why doctors keep prescribing it despite the warnings and so many alternatives. The FDA warnings were not invented out of the blue...

Post Edited (isitlyme) : 12/21/2019 10:48:25 PM (GMT-7)

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