I still am frustrated that this happened to me, and mad about the Levaquin connection.  I make sure to tell everyone I meet that the ER doctors said it most likely wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t taking Levaquin at the time.  Have you had a similar experience, or are you currently taking Levaquin?  If you are taking it, I am telling you do not exercise while you are on it!  I wish someone had told me that!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Scar Is Healing Well

I saw the doctor this morning and I am now cleared to get out of the boot and actually put a shoe on my left foot!  I’m really excited and can’t believe I have made it this far.  Two days ago, when taking out the trash, I put on my sandals just to run the trash can to the curb and it felt really good to have a sandal on my left foot.  Even though I have been going barefoot around the house without the boot, it was different to be in a shoe.  Mentally it felt like progress and it seemed to make walking a bit easier and better.  The doctor told me I am cleared to wear shoes when walking around and at work (sitting in front of a computer isn’t too strenuous!), but if I do anything even a little active like yard work or playing with the kids, he wants me back in the boot.  The scar is healing well and the hair is growing back on my leg.  I have been going to physical therapy three times a week and that is going well too.  We haven’t done anything too aggressive, but just moving the foot around and having the joint and scar area manipulated by the therapist is great.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Wonderful boot on my left leg

I am making progress in my recovery from my ruptured Achilles tendon.  Yesterday I went back to the doctor and he adjusted the boot so it was in a neutral or 90 degree position.  Previously, the boot was angled down at a 30 degree droop in order to keep tension off of the tendon.  I am happy to be making forward progress, but going from the drooped and relaxed angle to a completely flat angle has been hard.  My tendon is really tight and has shrunk up so it is very uncomfortable to be stretched even into this neutral position.  The flat position is much easier to move around and more comfortable for things like sitting in the car, so overall it is good.  I still hate the crutches and I think that is the worst part of this whole ordeal.  Getting around on crutches just sucks.  My wrists are messed up and sore, and my armpits are getting sore and chaffed even though I mostly keep the weight off of the armpits like you are supposed to.  The hardest thing to get used to with crutches is that I can’t really carry anything.  I have been making great use of my back pockets and will stick food, bottles of water, whatever in my back pocket and hobble back and forth to the couch.  It is a real pain and I can’t wait to get off of the crutches.  More updates to come as I progress through this slow recovery.

This is the adjustable dial part of the boot

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

After Surgery To Reconnect Achilles Tendon

I’m writing this while laying on my couch with my left leg in a splint after I had surgery yesterday to reconnect a torn achilles tendon in my left leg.  As a healthy active 37 year old, should I really be going through this painful ordeal, and what is the connection with the antibiotic Levaquin? 

Background

Two weeks ago on a Thursday, I had a terrible sinus infection that knocked me out.  I deteriorated quickly in the afternoon and by 7:00 at night I had to crawl into bed and stayed there.  I spent the entire day Friday in bed except for a trip to my Dr. to get checked out.  He confirmed it was an upper respiratory infection and prescribed Levaquin.  I had been on Levaquin before and I knew it was one of the more powerful antibiotics.  It had worked quickly in the past to clear up previous sinus infections.  After getting the prescription filled on Friday I got progressively better.  Fast-forward a week to the next Friday.  While at my chiropractor’s office for an adjustment, I mentioned the sinus infection and Levaquin.  She asked if I had heard about the spontaneous tendon ruptures caused by it.  Hell no, I hadn’t heard!  I immediately researched this on the web and confirmed that Levaquin causes a weakening and deterioration of the tendons.  This is even confirmed right on the Levaquin.com website:

• Fluoroquinolones, including LEVAQUIN^®, are associated with an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture in all ages. This risk is further increased in older patients usually over 60 years of age, in patients taking corticosteroid drugs, and in patients with kidney, heart, or lung transplants. Call your healthcare professional right away at the first sign of tendon pain, swelling, or inflammation. You should stop taking LEVAQUIN^® until tendinitis or tendon rupture have been ruled out, and avoid exercise and using the affected area.

Seriously, WTF!  Why was I taking something for a sinus infection that was deteriorating the tendons in my whole body!

My Story

The next day, Saturday evening, I was playing basketball at our local community center with my boys.  Nothing big and strenuous.  We had been playing for about 45 minutes when I missed a shot and shoved off with my left foot to go after the loose ball.  *bang!* I collapsed on the floor.  I looked around and asked “what was that – what hit me?”  It felt like a stray basketball had slammed into the back of my leg and I was in agony.  Someone gave me a hand and I stood up, but I knew something was terribly wrong.  My foot felt “floppy” and walking was a terribly odd sensation of not being able to push off on my toes.  I could stand fine, and could shuffle a walk, but right away I thought about the Levaquin and ruptured tendons.  It had happened to me.  In an instance, I realized that this “side effect” had happened to me and that the next few weeks, months, or longer of my life had just changed.  I sat back down and someone brought me a bag of ice.  I examined the back of my heal, and sure enough – instead of a taught band of tendon on the back of my left heal it was completely soft.

After icing it down for a few minutes, I hobbled out to the car with my boys and dropped them off at home before continuing on to the ER.  After about an hour, I had the official diagnosis of Ruptured Left Achilles Tendon and a fiberglass splint to go with it.  The pain from this is really severe.  It was a constant pulsing of pain, and then if I stepped on it wrong it would be a sharp stabbing pain.  The pain medicine from the hospital helped, but couldn’t fully mask the pain.

More than the physical pain, I keep thinking that this never should have happened.  I exercise regularly and eat healthy.  I am at a good weight and generally fit.  I have been mountain biking for years and hardly ever miss a week.  I even have an Excel spreadsheet tracking the dates and mileage of all my riding going back 4 years.  Why should a healthy, active 37 year old be faced with a torn tendon like this?

When searching the web for info on the Levaquin/tendon connection, the most prevalent links are for lawyers pursuing class action lawsuits against the makers of Levaquin.  It is really a shame that this horrible side-effect has been known about for years and they haven’t done more to promote awareness or get Levaquin off the market.

I am very interested in your feedback – have you had an issue with Levaquin and tendons rupturing or do you know anyone who has?  I am also interested in my legal options and if it would be worthwhile pursuing one of these class action lawsuits.  More than just the medical bills, I think it is lame and unethical to keep a drug on the market where the side-effect is so much worse than the fix.  The lost time is a huge deal to me.  My kids have spring break coming up soon, and I will be on crutches and less mobile.  I was considering planning a trip and any hopes of that are now dashed.

Further Reading

The best site I found for info on the Levaquin connection to ruptured tendons is this page at the Tendinitis Expert website.  From there, you can explore his website for other tendon information.  For general information on ruptured achilles tendons, the Wiki entry is a great place to start.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Sherwood Forest Faire - Paolo Garbonzo Performing

For Austinites wanting to do the renaissance festival thing, our choices so far have been a long drive out to the Texas Renaissance Festival towards Houston in the Fall, or a long drive to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival up near Dallas in the late Spring.  Well starting now (Spring of 2010), we have a new option in the Sherwood Forest Faire which is a mere 35 miles east of Austin, Texas on U.S. Highway 290.  It opened for the first time this past weekend, and my family and I went yesterday on the festival’s second day of existance.  This is my review – with an eye for the vegetarian aspect as well as the family fun.  They are open from 10:00 a.m. until dusk and we got there around 11:00.  The drive is so much better and easier than the hike out to TexRenFest.  It was short enough that the kids hardly had time to get restless.

First Impression

The last bit of the drive there was a pain – over a stretch of rough pavement and then an even rougher stretch of dirt road.  Once at the festival, the faire grounds were impressively large and everything seemed well constructed.  I was surprised at the number of large permanent buildings already built.  It is evident that they have really committed to this project with the sheer size and scale of what they have built for a newly-opened facility.  Much of the construction of things like fences, bridges, and stages was done with rough-sawn wood boards so it gave the impression of being rustic construction, but was very solid.  A number of the food and merchandise shops were full-on buildings – some even two story and a few of the bar areas had huge concrete slab seating areas.  The toilet situation appeared to be all port-a-potties (I really like the constructed bathroom facilities at the Texas RenFest), so they have room to grow in that area.  Other than that, everything I saw was solidly constructed and looked great.

Being the first weekend ever of the festival, the turnout of people wasn’t huge.  This was both negative and positive; each of the different stage areas had sparse audiences which both made the performers more accessible while also making the shows seem less like a proper production.  When thinking about it in hindsight – and considering the size of the festival grounds and the number of different stage areas – the turnout was really pretty good.

Faire Food

Ah, faire food – my favorite.  If you are trying to eat vegan or strict gluten free, you probably already know this isn’t a good place for you.  For vegetarians, however, there was plenty of food and it was excellent.  We had fried cheese sticks (our kid-approved favorite), french fries, cheese quesadilla, nachos, and churros with ice cream (another kid favorite!).  Other veggie-friendly items I noticed were veggie burritos, hummus and pita, cheese pizza, fried jalapenos (which I tried to order, but they were out), fried eggplant strips, plus the usual suspects like funnel cake, roasted nuts, and kettle corn.  Note that the menu on their website is not complete.  They actually had much more variety at the faire than they list on the website.  The food was a definite highlight for myself and for the kids.

Entertainment

We caught a few of the shows and it was the standard renaissance festival performances.  As I commented above, the low turnout made the shows we saw seem more intimate, but less like the large performance spectacles I am used to.  I was surprised to see that they had a jousting arena set up and .  The program ($1 just inside the gate) lists 22 different performance areas.

Final Thoughts

Sherwood Forest Faire - Archery Demonstration

I was impressed, we had a great time, the kids enjoyed it and they are already talking about going back.  Other than just continuing to get the word out to get more guests to show up, I really didn’t see any faults at all.  Make sure you check it out and help them get going.  The festival runs now through April 4 on the weekends and you can buy discount tickets on their website, or from HEB stores.  I’m looking forward to next time.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The blog is official now – I have completed the incorporation of this blog, so please welcome Lopaul Industries, LLC to life!  I want this to be more than a casual hobby, so I committed to making it a business and have begun investing in it and treating it as a business entity.

Look for new and current posts.  I have a notebook full of ideas and a number of draft posts already in progress.  I also have exciting ideas about how I can help my readers with motivation and inspiration.  Please stay tuned as I kick this thing into high gear and start cranking things out.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tracking Books

For quite a while now I have been wanting to keep track of the books I read so recently I went looking for software or a website to keep track. I found a few good websites. My favorite is goodreads.com. It is free to sign up for an account and can easily track books. It has “shelves” which you can assign books to. By default you have a “read”, “reading”, and “want to read” shelf. You can add your own named shelves such as “I own it” or and other category you want to track.  There are a few other free websites so be sure to look around if this doesn’t fit what you want.  For software, I really didn’t find anything good – most people just suggested keeping an Excel spreadsheet like I do for my biking log.

iPhone Notes

I love carying my iPhone with me because I always have a place to jot down thoughts.  The Notes program is perfect for miscellaneous thoughts, ideas, or things to follow up on later.  You can even sync Notes with your Mac so you have them available on your computer.  This is a two step process:

1. In iTunes with your iPhone connected, in the left panel select your iPhone under Devices.  Then select the Info tab and scroll down until you see Notes and check the box that says “Sync notes”.  Now click Sync in the lower right corner and it should sync the notes onto your computer. Tip: the computer may warn you with a scary-sounding message like “this will change over 50% of the notes on your computer.  Are you sure you want to continue?”.  If you don’t have any notes already on your computer, this is perfectly normal and safe to continue.
2. The notes actually appear in the Mac Mail program.  If you don’t have Mail set up, you will have to do that now to be able to see your notes.  Once configured, the notes appear in the left pane under Reminders, Notes with the first line of the note appearing like the subject of an email, and then the entire note appearing in the email body section.  Very handy!

I hope you enjoyed these additional tracking tips.  I really like having an accumulation of data over time.  It is great to analyze for future reference, and also just to refer back to since it is so hard to remember everything.  Let me know if you have other data that you like to track or have found good methods.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m writing this post using the iPhone WordPress app which seems pretty good at first glance. I may do a future post about it once I’ve had some tome using it.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.