Did I get Floxxed by Antibiotics? Achilles Tendonitis Pain!

The past few months have found me shuffling out of bed in the morning with stiff, painful achilles tendons. I've never experience anything like it, even when I was lindy hopping a couple of nights a week for twelve years. 

I also started getting muscle strain last spring after doing normal chores around the house and yard--so much so that I added a chiropractor's YouTube channel to my feed on this site. I have muscle pain in my lower back and sternum that have improved but haven't gone away despite going to a chiropractor IRL. 

Be careful of medicines, even if they're topical. Photo from Pexels.

All of this happened after taking Cipro antibiotic drops for an eye infection. Cipro is a fluoroquinolone (a type of antibiotic) with a black box warning about tendonitis and tendon rupture, and another warning about "mental health side effects and serious blood sugar disturbances," according to the FDA. The side effects involving tendons, muscles, joints, nerves and the central nervous system can be "permanent," the FDA adds.

At the time of my infection, I was worried about losing the vision in my right eye. I'd also had Cipro before with no apparent side effects, so I wasn't as concerned as I should have been. 

What to do? This oddly specific video on achilles tendon pain and stiffness in the morning says it's tendonitis (some damage to part of the tendon), fluid accumulates in it, and your nerve endings become more sensitive overnight. Once you get up and get moving, it goes away for some people (including me). The pain level doesn't indicate a severe injury, just something to pay attention to. The physiotherapist in the video recommends decreasing intense exercises or activities that really irritate your tendons. So for a while, I'm going to quit the jumping exercises and the weightlifting, and even the one-mile walks I take sometimes at lunch. It should give my tendons a chance to calm down, and then I can work on strengthening them again.

This video by the same physiotherapist says antibiotic-induced tendonitis is a lot more painful than regular overuse tendonitis and that older people, diabetics and people with hypothyroid are more prone to it. She recommends certain rehab exercises and vitamin C (a study mentioned in another video used only 48mg before training sessions). I'll keep using collagen powder (since Cipro decreases collagen turnover in your body) and taking B. coagulans, which helps with muscle recovery. There might not be much left in my SIBO yogurt, so I'm taking some as a powder in a glass of water every night. Antibiotic damage can inflame your tendons, too, so I'm going to be better about taking fish oil.