<p>As far as sinus infections go - I swear for facial sauna…</p>
<p>cartera45, Patient First is a good one. I would usually have just taken her to our regular pediatrician, but this was one of those situations that seemed darned straightforward (kid had had a bad cold for a week and it hurt to press on her upper cheekbones and eyebrows) and I figured we would be in and out with a script for Zithromax. 
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<p>To top the whole thing off, my D developed a really severe case of chemical gastritis from the Levaquin, which necessitated seeing a pediatric GI person and being put on a series of other meds before finally settling on Nexium and carafate, which she is still on and will remain on for another month or so. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the support. PT begins on Monday and she doesn’t start at the arts high school as a ballet major until early September, so I hope she will recover by then. The ballet teacher (head of dance at the arts high school) assured me that ballerinas get injured and taking care of it now will go a long way toward making sure it doesn’t become chronic. Let’s hope so!</p>
<p>Levaquin is a completely different drug than Cipro. They both come in IV formulations.</p>
<p>In cases of severe respiratory infections, Levaquin is the preferred drug. You can use Zithromax, but you’ll have to potentially add a second drug to the treatment. With Levaquin, you can just take that. You can’t use Cipro for respiratory infections because it does not absorb into the lungs.</p>
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<p>They’re both second generation fluoroquinolones. How much closer can you get?</p>
<p>Also, it’s worth noting that Levaquin is not FDA approved for pediatric use. If it is prescribed to children, it is purely off-label and against FDA recommendations (due to numerous studies listing side effects)</p>
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Levaquin absorbs into the lungs and Cipro does not. That means you can use Levaquin for different infections than Cipro. You rarely see Levaquin used in UTIs, but Cipro is a very common drug for it.</p>
<p>Levaquin is approved for one pediatric use, and that is for anthrax.</p>
<p>I was prescribed Cipro for a suspected urinary tract infection. A few days later, it turned out I actually had a kidney stone.</p>
<p>My urologist took me off Cipro immediately. After only 4 days on Cipro I had a stunning array of side effects–including hurting joints, severe bloating with a distended stomach, dizziness, and more.</p>
<p>The kidney stone (which I have suffered from before) was the easy part of my recovery.
It’s now on my files that I’m “allergic” to Cipro. And based on what I’ve since read about it, many others have suffered ridiculous side effects as well. I suffered from those side effects for WEEKS after taking only 4 days worth of medication.</p>
<p>I will always make it a point to avoid that class of drugs if I can (quinolones). H, who used to work on National Emergency Response for the CDC, used to talk about the inordinate side effects for Cipro which is the drug of choice for anthrax, unless the patient is a child (per nova10 above).</p>
<p>A scary drug for some people. Definitely for me.</p>
<p>As a mom of a once very serious ballet dancer, you have my empathy. It’s all the more difficult when you truly believe she would have been so much healthier had they just prescribed a more appropriate drug from the beginning. Luckily, she’s got some time before her program starts. Please keep us posted on how she’s doing.</p>
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<p>You’re missing the point. Yes, they have slight differences. But Levaquin and Cipro have broad similarities in their action, target bacteria, and side effects. They are most certainly not “completely different”</p>
<p>And if you have a child with inhalation anthrax, you don’t care about side effects anymore - your focus is 100% on preserving life.</p>
<p>But I am willing to bet that anyone on this thread (and the vast majority of people and children in general) who were prescribed levaquin never had inhalation anthrax. </p>
<p>It is overkill to the point of negligence. In many cases amoxicillin or azithromycin would work just as well - why on earth place people (especially children, against FDA recommendation) at such risk for side effect?</p>
<p>In the long run, there was no reason I can think of that my D should not have been prescribed Zithromax to begin with. She has not had repeated sinus infections: she has only had one previous sinus infection in her entire life! The nurse practitioner basically looked into her nose and ears and listened to her chest and said that she agreed with me, that the kid had a sinus infection caused by having a longstanding cold. There seemed to me no reason on Earth to <em>start</em> with Levaquin. Add to that that I mentioned, several times, that the teen is a SERIOUS ballet dancer, and I cannot think of any good reason to use a drug with a black box warning on it for a minor sinus infection.</p>
<p>Add Tequin to the list. First day H was on it he developed severe pain in his wrist and all he was doing was using the remote. He was diagnosed with a severe upper respiratory infection and possibly pneumonia on a Sunday at an afterhours clinic. Took it for 3 days, continued to have the pain, and I googled it and saw that tender ruptures were a side effect. This was back in 2005 before there was the big warning!!! He asked the doctor on day 3 when he was supposed to go for a check-up and he said it wasn’t the drug. I went a little crazy and made him go to our regular doctor. They changed to a z-pak and he was fine.
Took one Avelox this year from a different doctor and wrist was hurting again–it was a sample and when I read the paperwork I let him know he can’t take quinolones!! He had not checked or let the doctor know about what happened in the past. With Tequin it says it can happen immediately or as late as 6 months later. He continues to have problems with that wrist with certain activities–do not let your daughter take quinolones again! I hope she recovers fully. Supposedly what I’ve read about the Tequin is that you may not have a rupture, but it makes your tendons brittle. That explains why my husband has the problems with his wrist 4 years later!</p>