The Yuck is a gift that keeps on giving

So…

Yesterday morning at 4:30 I woke up, jittery, shaking and anxious for no observable reading. I lay there a minute, taking stock. That list of Levaquin side effects was on a playback loop in my brain. Yeah, all of those was on there.

I got up, took care of some other business, and got out my iPad and looked the list back up. Nothing that was going on was on the “GO TO THE ER!” list, but they were all on the “Discontinue use and call your doctor” list. OK, not much I could do then, so I crawled back into bed and did my best to get some more rest. I was less than fully successful.

As soon as the doc-in-a-box was open, I was on the phone. I gave them a description of what was going on. I could hear the nice lady on the other end eyebrows raise. She took a lot of notes and confirmed my phone number and said she was going to take this to one of the providers.

About 45-60 minutes later, I got a call back. It had been bucked up the line to the facility’s MD. He said that since I didn’t have pneumonia that I needed to stop taking that stuff right the eff now. I didn’t need it for bronchitis. Use the cough syrup as needed and check in with my primary care provider. If the weird symptoms got any worse, present myself to the local ED.

Somehow, I think I’ve worn my welcome out at the doc-in-a-box for now. Or I got over-medicated and they really don’t want me figuring that out. Reading up on Levoquin in my medical texts, it seems that using it as an initial drug for pneumonia or bronchitis, even with my allergies to amoxicillin and doxycycline, may have been a step or two too far. Of course, medical judgment is needed, and since I’m mostly self-taught in that area, I rely on the professionals. After the Wuflu, you’d think I’d have learned better…

The upside is I now have a 5-day course of Levaquin tucked away in the tray labeled “Antibiotics” in the Armageddon Refrigerator. According to the prescribing guidelines I read, that’s enough for most needs.