Hi Larissa-
Thank you for responding. Since I emailed last I talked with my GYN Doc who
did the Hysterectomy and he said the only time I was on an antibiotic was via IV
during surgery.I think it might have been Keflex, I will have to look back
through my notes. I am being told now that I have "Conversion Disorder" which is
brought on by stress. The next step is to see a Psychiatrist to see if I have
the disorder.
Thank you-
Christina

larissalle <larissa4@...> wrote:
Hi, Christina,

Sorry, I've been out of circulation. I had an experience in
February of this year where I believe I had a reaction to an
antibiotic, Cephalexin, brand name Keflex. I had been having some
infrequent, bad headaches of a different type before the
antibiotic. Since the antibiotic, I have more light sensitivity
than before, and I now have frequent, low-grade headaches, which
came on gradually after stopping the antibiotic. I am also fatigued
a lot. I also have had quite frequent, dry, burning eyes. I
figured it was just allergies. I'm also getting into that pre-
menopausal time when hormones start to do weird things.

In case it helps you think about your chain of events, let me tell
you some of my chain of events. The night of the afternoon I
started taking the Cephalexin for an ear infection, I was trying to
help my husband with some math problems (we're going back to school
late in life). I'm ahead of him in the math classes, and, although
not an expert, I knew how to solve the problem he was working on but
I was unable to get the information out to him verbally or even
point him in the right direction, kind of like is described for
Parkinson's -- mentally cognizant but frozen and unable to
communicate. I was still able to talk, but I couldn't say anything
but very simple things, and I couldn't seem to hold on to
information for very long -- a kind of strange forgetfulness. I
thought I was just really tired. Over the next few days of taking
the antibiotic, I became increasingly fatigued, had headaches, and I
found that, overall, I was losing muscle control. I had to remind
myself to inhale. I was stumbling, and my fiance says that my
voice, which is normally too soft, was incredibly loud. I had
trouble making sense of written material. It didn't really swim on
the page, but somehow my brain couldn't put it all together. I
called my doctor and was taken off of the antibiotic. Nothing was
found with an MRI and other tests. They did a "literature search"
on Cephalexin and didn't find any cases such as mine, and they
concluded that my symptoms were due to stress that caused migraines
that caused all of my symptoms. However, as my semester continued,
the stress increased, yet my symptoms decreased. Gradually, over
seven months, I have regained most of my muscle functions including
brain function, with some lingering effects such as the headaches,
light sensitivity and some slowness in my ability to comprehend and
speak. I also developed a ringing in the ear that had had the
infection, which has been checked out to no avail.

Something definitely happened when I took the antibiotic. During
the week after I stopped the antibiotic, I found that I was almost
unable to write an email to a friend in German, and I had been
speaking, writing, and reading German as a second language since I
was a kid. I even had to relearn some of my alphabet. For some
reason, "e" was a hard one for me. I had to slow down my writing so
that I could relearn how to form words. At one point while still in
recovery mode, I had a physics exam. My teachers were all very
accomodating in giving me extra time for exams. I sat there looking
at a very simple formula for magnification: m=-i/p, where I had
already figured out the values for i and p. I couldn't get myself
to plug the numbers in. I even tried taking one finger and pointing
to the number on the page, and even then it was a struggle to get
myself to use my other hand to plug the value into the formula.
I've had four semesters of calculus. There's no way I don't know
how to plug a number into a variable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was
scary.

The only reports I've found where this particular antibiotic causes
muscle atrophy is in dogs, especially dogs that are on glucosamine
chondroitin for joint pain. I was taking glucosamine at the time.
I'm not saying that your doctor will ever tell you that the
antibiotics caused the symtpoms you're having, but it's worth
thinking about and looking into. It does take awhile to recover
from surgery, though, so maybe your body just needs time to heal,
but it is awfully coincidental that you have many of my symptoms.
I'm sorry that they sound worse than mine in terms of the light
sensitivity and burning eyes.

I was told to stay away from certain food items, like chocolate and
red wine, as they exacerbate migraine symptoms. Even if it was a
reaction to an antibiotic or an interaction with a supplement like
glucosamine, do you eat chocolate and drink red wine? I have tried
white wine one night and then red a week later. I do have more
headaches and light sensitivity with the red wine.

It would be interesting to know what antibiotic you took. Maybe it
is related to cephalexin. It sure would be good to get some
answers, I know.

Regards,
Larissa

--- In glimmercoloredfilterglasses@yahoogroups.com, christina newfer
<photos_by_chris@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Larissa-
> Why do you ask? I had a Hysterectomy on 11/28/05 my symptoms
started on 2/9/06 I had just my uterus removed, ovaries are intact.I
am not sure if I was on an antibiotics or not, I will check with Doc
tomorrow.What do you know about the relationship of antibiotics and
the symptoms that I have been having? Dry eye, photophobia, and
chronic mibgraines. I do know that after I had my Hysterectoy I felt
so run down and fatigued for quite some time. I still do feel tired
all the time, but not as much. Would love to hear what you know.
> Thank you-
> Christina
>
> larissalle <larissa4@...> wrote:
> Did you happen to take an antibiotic recently, before
the symptoms
> appeared?
>
> Larissa
>
> --- In glimmercoloredfilterglasses@yahoogroups.com, christina
newfer
> <photos_by_chris@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi-
> > I am new to the group. I have been having Light Sensitivity
> problems for 3 months now, with no relief and no other diagnosis.
My
> Doctor has referred me to an Othamologist and all he could come up
> with was "Dry Eyes", Then it was on to a Neurologist who suspected
I
> might have viral meningitis, so I had a Spinal Tap. Before all
this
> I had a Cat scan and Stress Test, Blood test etcs. all test shows
> that I am as healthy as a horse, but all of the results came
> back "Negative" Which meant that I had to keep going for tests. No
I
> am at a stand still. My Doctor has my on Amytriptylin and Tompama,
> which I am weaning off of because it has only made my symptoms
> worse. Now all of my symptoms are worse, My eyes burn constantly,
I
> never have any relief at all. If I am in direct sunlight or
> flourescent light for too long I get very intense migraine
> headaches, so I wear two pairs of sunglasses out side and one pair
> inside. I am still working part-time. I don't know how much longer
I
> will
> > beable to work. I also feel very disoriented, very forgetful (as
> in I will say something and before I get it out of my mouth I have
> already forgotten what I have said) My equilibrium is thrown off,
I
> have trouble walking straight sometimes, and my speech is also
> affected. I have had all of these sysmptoms from the begining they
> are just more exagerated then they were. I can't think straight at
> all. Please email a message if you are experieincing the same as
me.
> If so, have you gotten any results as far as a diagnosis and a
> treatment? Anything would be greatly appreaciated at this point,
> because now I have nothing to go on.
> > Thank you for you time.
> > Christina
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Love cheap thrills? Enjoy PC-to-Phone calls to 30+ countries for
> just 2¢/min with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>






---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]