When an Antibiotic Changed My Life: My Experience With Ciprofloxacin Toxicity

Have you ever been in such a rush that you simply don’t have time to be sick? It sounds absurd (there’s never a convenient time to be sick), but I think you know what I mean.

In March 2024, I was blindsided by a UTI. If you’ve ever had one, you know how unbearable that urgent need to pee can be. Usually, an over-the-counter medication like AZO is enough. But when the pain turns into burning fire with every trip to the bathroom, you know it’s time for professional help. I’ve dealt with chronic UTIs for years. Despite every natural attempt to prevent them, they still find me from time to time.

At the time, our family was visiting from out of state, work was hectic, and life with an active toddler was already busy enough. I went to urgent care and was prescribed a “gentle” five-day antibiotic. When my symptoms didn’t improve, I returned expecting another short course. Instead, I was prescribed ciprofloxacin (part of the Fluoroquinolone family) described to me as a “slightly stronger antibiotic.” The only warning I was given was to stop taking it if I experienced tendon pain, which I was assured was very rare and typically only an issue for elderly patients.

On March 9th, I started ciprofloxacin. By March 12th, I was covered in hot, itchy hives from head to toe and immediately stopped taking the medication. I assumed that as more days passed without the drug, my body would improve. Shockingly, the opposite happened. Instead of improving, my symptoms worsened as time went on.

By early April, I was experiencing new and worsening symptoms almost daily - tendon pain in my legs and hands, tremors, dizziness so severe I could barely walk 15 feet without nearly passing out, random fainting, chest pain, and alarming heart palpitations. The Mayo Clinic lists these as possible ciprofloxacin side effects, highlighted below are all the symptoms I was already experiencing by the beginning of April.

The days were unpredictable. Some mornings I thought I’d turned a corner - diet tweaks, supplements, and electrolytes seemed to help, but then I’d crash again. I kept telling myself my body just needed time to flush out the drug and heal. On March 26th, I visited a naturopath in Salem who had helped me years earlier during an autoimmune breakdown. His testing suggested adrenal poisoning, and he prescribed natural adrenal support and detox protocols. I clung to the hope that these would be enough.

Between March 26th and April 12th, I fought every day physically, mentally, and emotionally. My skin showed the inner war through painful, distracting flare-ups across my body. (Shown below some of these flare ups on my face, these were all over my whole body).

But more difficult than the physical symptoms was the mental darkness that settled in. I struggle to even write this part, but I think it’s necessary. It felt like my thoughts weren’t my own. It was once explained to me that thoughts are like waves - you can’t always choose how fast / slow they come crashing in, or how large or small they are, but you can chose which waves you ride. During this time I wasn’t “choosing which waves to ride”- instead, I was being dragged under by intrusive, hopeless ones. I battled daily against the belief that I didn’t want to be here anymore, that I was bringing my whole family down, that I was just going to be a life long burden, etc. The fight to remind myself of truth and logic with what little mental strength I had left was exhausting. Thankfully, I had close community who I could reach out to in the darkest moments, and they carried that weight with me and lifted me up.

Still, the combination of nerve pain, brain fog, tremors, and sheer fatigue left me barely holding things together at work before collapsing at home. On April 12th, everything escalated. Driving back from a job site, I began to lose consciousness behind the wheel while in a tunnel with nowhere to pull over. In a panic, I called my husband, forced myself to keep talking, and shoved food and water into my mouth to fight off the blackness closing in on my vision. Somehow, I made it to urgent care, where I explained I believed I was suffering from ciprofloxacin toxicity. The doctor dismissed the idea, insisting ciprofloxacin could not cause my symptoms…

With no answers from conventional medicine, my husband and I turned to research. We came down to two clinics, one in Idaho and one in LA where the doctor had actually gone through this same issue himself. As we have family in Idaho, we decided to take the research, lab recommendations and resources we had gathered from online sources and go to the clinic in Idaho for treatment while we stay with family. Leaving Oregon to Idaho, my husband and mother-in-law wheeled me through the airport on a wheelchair in order to make it through the travels. I arrived in Idaho at 30% total body / brain function. For me this meant it was difficult to walk due to both tendon pain and energy, difficult to form sentences / speak and think, nerve pain, tremors, heart palpitations and more. (Basically the list of symptoms highlighted above was in full force).

The doctor in Idaho confirmed that I have a unique genetic disposition that has extreme reaction to fluoridated medications such as ciprofloxacin where it essentially attacks/poisons the body at a cellular level. I went through extensive treatment 6 days a week for 5 weeks. These treatments helped with system detox, cellular turn over, cellular healing, moving my cells out of fight or flight mode, bringing down brain swelling, nerve pain, tremors, brain fog, balance / movement, and energy. I left Idaho with a miraculous improvement to about 70%. I had started to feel more like myself. The biggest improvements that meant the most to me and my family in particular was the massive improvement in brain fog and mental clarity. I felt more like myself than I had since this health issue had started.

Coming home and getting back into the grove of things we initially thought 3 things: 1- With the supplement regimen I was put on + with coming back to Idaho for IV’s this would be what eventually get’s me to 100%. 2- The nerve pain / brain swelling were symptoms that were gone permanently 3- It was only onwards and upwards in general from here!

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. My body has difficulty methylating vitamins and minerals, and I began reacting poorly to certain supplements. Financially, we couldn’t keep up with the recommended treatments as insurance covers almost nothing, and supplements add up quickly. Despite all efforts, my progress began slipping. As we tried balancing treatment with medical debt, I slowly regressed.

Almost two years later I realize I cannot balance this pendulum swing on my own. Although my husband and I work extremely hard, we’ve swung back and forth from working as much as we can to pay off the medical debt we’ve accrued and pausing treatments… to me going too long without treatment and needing to get treatment in order to re-stabilize and keep going. The main symptoms I’m still dealing with are:

• Brain fog
• Exhaustion / fatigue
• Nerve pain / tremors
• Heart palpitations
• Tendon pain
• Skin itchiness / blister flair ups

For me to fully heal, I still need further testing and care. This includes additional labs, a nervous system specialist, updated brain imaging, targeted injections for tendon damage, and potential regenerative spinal and cellular treatments, alongside IV therapy and supplement support. Right now, my family is trapped in a painful loop of trying to pay off past medical debt while still needing ongoing care to keep me functioning. We simply cannot carry both at once anymore. We need help to break this pendulum cycle so I can finally rebuild my health instead of constantly fighting to hold onto what little progress I have.

If you feel called to support, whether by sharing my story, donating even a single dollar, or spreading my GoFundMe, it would mean more than I can say. Truly, every share and every contribution helps. It would be an unimaginable gift for 2026 to be the year I finally get my health back and regain the life I’ve been so desperately fighting to return to - not just for me, but for my family, too.

For those who have been through something similar - I want you to know you’re not alone. I’m of course not a health care professional but I created a whole post around things I’ve learned regarding treatments that have helped me here. This is still in progress and I will be adding more information as I can, especially as I continue to heal and different things help I will update it!

If you’d like to explore these topics further, I’ve included resources below:

• Fluoroquinolone Toxicity (PMC)
• Case Study: Levofloxacin Toxicity
• Cipro Toxicity Treatment — Dr. in LA