The problem is that I don't have chronic sinusitis - I have acute sinusitis on a more frequent than normal basis. There are two month long periods during which I'm entirely asymptomatic, and prior to this year, I only got sick once or twice a year. I'm responding to the antibiotics, just far more slowly than most people would.
Obviously, that alone isn't proof I don't have chronic sinusitis. Thus, it was initially considered that I have a FES, as you said. However, several CTs showed no sign of polyps or other obstruction, so it was ruled that it would be of little benefit (although, I have been trying to convince them to do a sinus aspiration for the purpose of getting an empirical specimen, and possibly a biopsy to rule out something like wegener's - to no avail). They couldn't even see any signs of inflammation, either with imaging or with the scope, except when I was actively ill.
Well, I have never had any negative side effects to any fluoroquinolones, and the side effects you mentioned are actually fairly rare, and primarily predominant in young children whose bones and tendons are still developing. What you say is true though - rarity doesn't equate to safety, so I don't want anyone to read what I just typed and think they can be complacent about the side effects. Levaquin can also have some psychological impact as well, especially when it's "getting on board" for the first time. Fortunately for me, I recently had a bone density and stress test done due to how sedentary I am when these episodes occur (why they didn't use this as a good excuse to justify checking my ACE, I don't know - they seem dead set against doing it), and all was well.
The muscular symptoms I described have occurred since these episodes began when I was 12 years old, before I ever popped my first antibiotic. It wouldn't account for the dependent-like (yet not dependent) edema either.
That's the baffling thing about all of this: repeated chest x-rays, CTs, and sinus CTs, have revealed no obstructions, inflammation, etc. consistent with anything other than acute (and mild, at that!) maxillary sinusitis. Specimens have never shown anything drug resistant, yet I have never recovered in less than 21-30 days of broad spectrum treatment.
Pretty much the only thing we haven't looked into yet is autoimmune disease (apart from Lupus - no ANAs). I somehow doubt that will yield the answers either, though. Both I and my mother suffer from strange systemic inflammatory issues, and these infections are just yet another complication of whatever that is. I still find it interesting that I recover more quickly taking simple erythromycin than anything else, given that my infections can produce such severe symptoms and appear to be so intractable at times.
Given my family's history of CF and other similar disorders, and the purulence of my secretions (well beyond the norm for sinusitis), the mucoregulatory effect macrolides can have could have a greater impact on me than the antibiotic itself. I'm speculating, of course. It stems from being desperate for answers, though. I can't work, and I've been trying to restart high school since I was 17 because of these health issues, and my doctor's unwillingness to investigate it further is very frustrating to me.
All that said, I still need antibiotics when I have these episodes. The two times (and the only times) I ever forwent them, I ended up hospitalized with pneumonia caused by a strain of mycoplasma. All this from "sinusitis and allergies." I know there are people with far worse problems, and I'm thankful for the health I have. I just want to live my life again, though.
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