Cipro tendonitis and joint pain.

After developing a fever in Darwin, Australia, I was admitted into hospital for 4 days. Initial assumption was that I may have contracted Ross River Virus or something akin, but two days later the blood cultures came back negative. That caused the doctors to look for another reason for the extreme fever and blood work, I was admitted with a crp count of 266. My initial urine test came back clear, but a second one came back with White blood cells so despite my having no symptoms of a bladder infection they decided to treat it that way. I was released from hospital with a ten day dosage of Ciprofloxin, 500mg twice a day.

I was warned that it may make me vomit and that I was to stay out of the sun and avoid all dairy products. I went to a GP that had been forwarded my notes from hospital a week later for him to check on my final blood/urine cultures. He asked how I was and I commented on joint pain and sore tendons. He immediately took me off the Ciprofloxin and put me on a different drug and told me not to work for three weeks. As it turned out, my final cultures did not show any trace of a UTI and final diagnosis was Pyrexia of unknown origin.

I am a chef on a yacht currently sailing around the world. What hadn't occurred to me was that once back on the boat I would have to deal with stairs, we have three flights of stairs from the galley to the walk-in fridge/freezer. This did my tendons and knees no favours at all.

I have since moved off the boat and have been seeing a physio three times a day for almost two weeks now. The tendons have improved, although are still sore, but what is causing us a lot of confusion is my on/off joint pain. The physio has checked the location of all my joint pain, shoulders, elbows, wrists and knees bc at first he thought it was tendon related bc of the Ciprofloxin. However, the pain I am feeling seems to be in joint related areas only.

Everyone seems to have tons of information on how damaging Cipro is, but we are struggling to find any information on how best to treat it, especially the joints, and how long I should safely remain off the boat so as not to have the tendons flare up again.

In fact the physio raised the " is the damage permanent?" question this morning that has me more than a little worried because as a chef my job has me on my feet from morning to night. Something that I am completely unable to do at this stage.

Any information you could pass on would be most helpful!

Many thanks,
Catriona Munro.