My story starts back in the 1990’s. I had a severe case of pneumonia and was prescribed cipro antibiotics and prednisone. I took the med’s even though they made me feel worse because I really could not tell whether it was my illness or the medication causing me to feel so awful. A few weeks into the course of treatment I started to feel better. At around the third or fourth week I began to get very paranoid and anxious and made a distressing call to my father. I was ranting and incoherent through most of it. My father became alarmed and asked what drugs I was taking. I told him and he immediately insisted I stop taking them. I called my doctor and informed him about what was happening and he directed me to stop. No weaning off or replacement meds. A few weeks after I had been drug free I woke up in the middle of the night in excruciating body pain. It felt very much like the pain of a very bad flu but worse. I was afraid I was getting sick again because I had not finished the course of treatment. A week later and my symptoms still remained. I went back to my doctor but he could give me no explanation for my agony. My pain never stopped. A few years on I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was attending physiotherapy and trying to adapt to the constant pain, fatigue and brain fog. I was unable to work and was forced to apply for disability. I was a 30 something single mother with one child, struggling to cope with my physical limitations and my responsibilities as a mother. Fast forward to June of 2013. I contracted a virulent skin infection. I was planning a long camping trip so I felt it best that I go see my doctor before leaving. He diagnosed me with a nasty case of folliculitis and prescribed Cipro, warning me to take the full course because of the risk of it turning worse. I was scared and in my panic I filled out the script without ever reading the label. I just wanted to get healed up for my trip. I took two days worth and became deathly ill from the med’s. I called and requested a change of medication which took a week to fill. The day before I left for my trip I lifted my leg over my bicycle and torn my meniscus. Later in my camping trip I pulled my rotator cuff, my left wrist and the thumb of my right hand. I came home feeling like I truly was falling to pieces. Since then till today, after a year on the wait list I’ve had surgery on my left knee , numerous sprains and tears in my heels, biceps, hands and feet, peripheral neuropathy, cognitive issues, intractable pain throughout my body that never ceases. I suffer from depression from living and struggling daily with this torment. I’m now looking forward to surgery on my compensating knee which I just recently tore. Does this nightmare ever end…