Why I Ordered that Second Dose of Levaquin from Mexico without a Prescription
I said this some hours ago on this site and it's sticking in my craw and I really want to say more about it:
Getting the diagnosis was WONDERFUL. The doctor clearly felt he was delivering bad news and was trying to find some way to be upbeat and positive and convince me to look on the bright side and I was like "Are you KIDDING? This is GREAT NEWS. I've always been sickly. NOW we know WHY."
I had always been treated like a hypochondriac and whiner by family and medical professionals. It had been extremely frustrating.
I had a diagnosis of this genetic disorder but it's not really the genetic disorder that kills you. Instead, the genetic disorder makes you extremely vulnerable to infection and what you die from is infection.
So I knew I had an antibiotic resistant infection but doctors had not identified it. I did have the word of my physician friend who felt that my hypothesis that it was a parasitic infection made sense, but this was not in my medical records.
Having it in my records that I had atypical CF is WHY I was able to just ASK for Zithromax in September and ACTUALLY GET IT without an argument. (In fact, to my shock, they gave me a longer-than-normal course -- two weeks instead of ten days -- AND wrote it with a REFILL which I had NEVER HEARD OF with Zithromax, and this is how I had enough Zithromax to take it HALF the time for the next TWO MONTHS, thereby stabilizing my condition and starting me on the road back to health.)
For years and years, I would go to the ER and they would write me a prescription and I would ask them to give me something stronger or a higher dose or a longer course and they would tell me NO. They would tell me there was lots of research etc and THIS WAS THE CORRECT DOSE and blow me off.
And then it didn't fix my problem and I would soon be BACK in the ER. Rinse and repeat and on my third or fourth trip to the ER for the SAME infection, some DOCTOR would have the BRILLIANT idea that I needed something STRONGER or a higher dose or a longer course.
(Like, GEE, why didn't I think of that???? -- Oh, wait, I DID and you fuckers just didn't LISTEN.)
Giving NOT ENOUGH antibiotic like that REPEATEDLY is HOW you BREED drug resistant infections. So they were ACTUALLY making my health WORSE by doing this to me.
I was a military wife, so MOST of my medical care was FREE. When my kids were little and I lived in Germany, I could go once a month to the clinic, fill out a form without seeing a doctor and get FREE OTC drugs, such as children's liquid tylenol.
If I was sick, I didn't wonder if I was sick enough to justify paying a medical bill for seeing a doctor. I just WENT to the doctor -- or took my kid to the doctor -- and let the doctor decide if drugs, etc. were in order or if I was overreacting.
There were rare exceptions. If I needed to see a civilian doctor for some reason, there were small co-pays. This MOSTLY applied when my husband was on recruiting duty stationed someplace where there was no military base, though I also had to pay co-pays after my diagnosis to pick up a few things from a civilian pharmacy because the military pharmacy simply didn't carry some of the specialty items I needed.
If I was traveling or visiting relatives and needed to see a doctor, I could go to ANY military medical facility for FREE. It didn't even need to be an ARMY medical facility. I went to a Navy facility once for some reason and it was the same procedure: Show my military ID, get FREE medical care.
So why would I PAY for Levaquin illegally when I could theoretically GET IT FOR FREE completely legally?
The doctor who gave me the Levaquin two or three months earlier had called repeatedly to try to verify his plan with someone and couldn't get them. I don't think I had ever been given Levaquin before in my life. I don't think I had ever heard of it before.
I later learned that Levaquin is considered to be "a real CF drug." I was on various email lists, where some people openly mocked the idea that I had CF and one bitchy woman told me that the ONE time I had Levaquin was the ONLY time I had a "real CF drug" and I must not REALLY have CF.
Yeah, I have a MILD variation of it -- also something people on CF lists did not wish to hear. People would have a cow about me saying I had MILD CF because CF is so horrible and people are fighting for their lives and it just was NOT okay to use that phrasing. People with baggage from fighting with doctors their entire lives just wanted my head on a platter at all times for one thing or another.
Zithromax is a "real CF drug" but it's often used as a MAINTENANCE drug, not what they give you in the ER because you are SICK. It's given DAILY in some cases to try to prevent problems. So for CF, Zithromax is taken "like candy" so to speak. It's NOT a strong drug for the CF community.
So when I began to feel bad, I decided I didn't want to try to convince someone to give me more Levaquin right away, BEFORE I was obviously ill. I didn't think they would take me seriously. I had too much experience with doctors acting like I was crazy and didn't need anything really strong.
And I didn't want to wait until I was OBVIOUSLY sick again. I felt like that would undo a lot of my progress.
I was living in California. I figured it wouldn't take very long for drugs from Mexico to get shipped to me and I felt like they would arrive sooner than I would get OBVIOUSLY sick where doctors MIGHT take me seriously and be willing to give me another round of Levaquin for the asking.
So I ordered the Levaquin. The pills arrived before I felt sick enough to go to the ER and get taken seriously and I took the Levaquin before I got really bad again and I think that's part of why that dose STOPPED the antibiotic treadmill I had been on.
I took it soon enough, before everything could hatch out and start breeding the NEXT generation of trypanosomes in my body.
My ex husband was career military. Exposure to military tactics helped me sort out how to defeat what I came to think of like an invading army.
Infections are living things. Timing and life cycles matter in the ability to defeat them -- they matter A LOT at times.
when I could feel myself getting worse in maybe February or something, not wanting to deal with asshole doctors treating me like a hypochondriac, I ORDERED more Levaquin from Mexico without a prescription. And that finally broke the cycle of constant antibiotic use.It was something like late January or sometime in February. I had been diagnosed with Atypical Cystic Fibrosis in May of the previous year, so I had this diagnosis less than a full year.
Getting the diagnosis was WONDERFUL. The doctor clearly felt he was delivering bad news and was trying to find some way to be upbeat and positive and convince me to look on the bright side and I was like "Are you KIDDING? This is GREAT NEWS. I've always been sickly. NOW we know WHY."
I had always been treated like a hypochondriac and whiner by family and medical professionals. It had been extremely frustrating.
I had a diagnosis of this genetic disorder but it's not really the genetic disorder that kills you. Instead, the genetic disorder makes you extremely vulnerable to infection and what you die from is infection.
So I knew I had an antibiotic resistant infection but doctors had not identified it. I did have the word of my physician friend who felt that my hypothesis that it was a parasitic infection made sense, but this was not in my medical records.
Having it in my records that I had atypical CF is WHY I was able to just ASK for Zithromax in September and ACTUALLY GET IT without an argument. (In fact, to my shock, they gave me a longer-than-normal course -- two weeks instead of ten days -- AND wrote it with a REFILL which I had NEVER HEARD OF with Zithromax, and this is how I had enough Zithromax to take it HALF the time for the next TWO MONTHS, thereby stabilizing my condition and starting me on the road back to health.)
For years and years, I would go to the ER and they would write me a prescription and I would ask them to give me something stronger or a higher dose or a longer course and they would tell me NO. They would tell me there was lots of research etc and THIS WAS THE CORRECT DOSE and blow me off.
And then it didn't fix my problem and I would soon be BACK in the ER. Rinse and repeat and on my third or fourth trip to the ER for the SAME infection, some DOCTOR would have the BRILLIANT idea that I needed something STRONGER or a higher dose or a longer course.
(Like, GEE, why didn't I think of that???? -- Oh, wait, I DID and you fuckers just didn't LISTEN.)
Giving NOT ENOUGH antibiotic like that REPEATEDLY is HOW you BREED drug resistant infections. So they were ACTUALLY making my health WORSE by doing this to me.
I was a military wife, so MOST of my medical care was FREE. When my kids were little and I lived in Germany, I could go once a month to the clinic, fill out a form without seeing a doctor and get FREE OTC drugs, such as children's liquid tylenol.
If I was sick, I didn't wonder if I was sick enough to justify paying a medical bill for seeing a doctor. I just WENT to the doctor -- or took my kid to the doctor -- and let the doctor decide if drugs, etc. were in order or if I was overreacting.
There were rare exceptions. If I needed to see a civilian doctor for some reason, there were small co-pays. This MOSTLY applied when my husband was on recruiting duty stationed someplace where there was no military base, though I also had to pay co-pays after my diagnosis to pick up a few things from a civilian pharmacy because the military pharmacy simply didn't carry some of the specialty items I needed.
If I was traveling or visiting relatives and needed to see a doctor, I could go to ANY military medical facility for FREE. It didn't even need to be an ARMY medical facility. I went to a Navy facility once for some reason and it was the same procedure: Show my military ID, get FREE medical care.
So why would I PAY for Levaquin illegally when I could theoretically GET IT FOR FREE completely legally?
The doctor who gave me the Levaquin two or three months earlier had called repeatedly to try to verify his plan with someone and couldn't get them. I don't think I had ever been given Levaquin before in my life. I don't think I had ever heard of it before.
I later learned that Levaquin is considered to be "a real CF drug." I was on various email lists, where some people openly mocked the idea that I had CF and one bitchy woman told me that the ONE time I had Levaquin was the ONLY time I had a "real CF drug" and I must not REALLY have CF.
Yeah, I have a MILD variation of it -- also something people on CF lists did not wish to hear. People would have a cow about me saying I had MILD CF because CF is so horrible and people are fighting for their lives and it just was NOT okay to use that phrasing. People with baggage from fighting with doctors their entire lives just wanted my head on a platter at all times for one thing or another.
Zithromax is a "real CF drug" but it's often used as a MAINTENANCE drug, not what they give you in the ER because you are SICK. It's given DAILY in some cases to try to prevent problems. So for CF, Zithromax is taken "like candy" so to speak. It's NOT a strong drug for the CF community.
So when I began to feel bad, I decided I didn't want to try to convince someone to give me more Levaquin right away, BEFORE I was obviously ill. I didn't think they would take me seriously. I had too much experience with doctors acting like I was crazy and didn't need anything really strong.
And I didn't want to wait until I was OBVIOUSLY sick again. I felt like that would undo a lot of my progress.
I was living in California. I figured it wouldn't take very long for drugs from Mexico to get shipped to me and I felt like they would arrive sooner than I would get OBVIOUSLY sick where doctors MIGHT take me seriously and be willing to give me another round of Levaquin for the asking.
So I ordered the Levaquin. The pills arrived before I felt sick enough to go to the ER and get taken seriously and I took the Levaquin before I got really bad again and I think that's part of why that dose STOPPED the antibiotic treadmill I had been on.
I took it soon enough, before everything could hatch out and start breeding the NEXT generation of trypanosomes in my body.
My ex husband was career military. Exposure to military tactics helped me sort out how to defeat what I came to think of like an invading army.
Infections are living things. Timing and life cycles matter in the ability to defeat them -- they matter A LOT at times.
