My name is Kelly B. I was floxed on February 3, 2013. I used to walk my dog everyday, go hiking, rock out at concerts, travel for work and fun – the usual stuff a healthy 29 year old would do. I just celebrated my 29th birthday in late January. I started feeling sick shortly after, so I went to the doctor for a sinus and ear infection. She prescribed me 250mg of Levofloxacin to be taken for 10 days. After a few days, I didn’t feel better, so she increased my dosage to 500mg for 10 days with 5mg of a corticosteroids. I read on the prescription warning pamphlet that taking the two together could lead to an increased risk of tendon damage or rupture. Worried about these warnings, I asked the doctor and she told me “not to worry” and that it was “extremely rare” and that I am “young” and it “doesn’t happen to young people”. After 2 days, my body was poisoned. Everything inside and outside hurt and I could barely walk. It felt like I had painful rods in my legs and I couldn’t flex my ankles. For weeks, I was in excruciating pain and going through the many “stages of grief”, by reading about others who had been “floxed” with no recovery time frame in sight. In the months following, I went to many specialists and no one could figure out what was wrong with me, and no one wanted to admit it was from the fluoroquinolone antibiotic. I went to a rheumatologist, acupuncturist, physical therapy, chiropractor and a neurologist. The neurologist concluded that I have small fiber nerve neuropathy, after taking a painful EMG and Nerve Conduction Study. I’ve been battling for years and I still battle every day with this toxicity I was poisoned with. I recently found out my ears are now ototoxic as well and I am losing my hearing at a drastic rate and developed bad tinnitus. I never know when I wake up how I’m going to feel the rest of the day. Some days are better than others, but most days are painful. The symptoms I experience in both of my legs/feet are bee stings/spider bites, stabbing pains, burning, itching, tingling, numbness, soreness, muscle tightness, cramping, charlie horses, pins and needles, “sprained ankle” feeling, and twitching. All I want, is to be a normal young person again, to walk my dog, take a nice hike, travel the world, and rock my heart out again. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics stole the youth right out of me.