Curious you should mention arthritis.

This may apply to no one, but I find an interesting connection that goes like this:

1. Chlamydia is very common, and is a major cause of epididymitis

2. A secondary effect of untreated chlamydia can be "Reiter's" aka reactive arthritis. The theory is your body in fighting the chlamydia creates antibodies which then attack stuff they shouldn't.

Reiter's is a complex story -- it can be associated with conjunctivitis (pink eye) and painful heels and other things. I don't know when (or if) medicine can distinguish between:

- Reiter's arthritis

- the arthritis that is a (usually temporary) side-effect of Levaquin and other quinolones

- other causes of joint pains.

Sometimes Reiter's occurs while the infection that caused it is still active, and killing the infection (if you have one) can stop the reactive stuff too. In most people Reiter's apparently fades.

All fwiw (I am no doctor, just another sucker in pain with a compulsive Google habit).

If Chlamydia is the root of all (well some) epididymal evil, Levaquin is not the drug of choice, and Cipro is said in one study to actually make Chlamydia "persistent" (persistent during the period Cipro is taken, I think).

However it would be interesting to know how many of us here have arthritis pains.

Some people apparently tolerate Levaquin very well. The trick is to be alert to side effects -- insomnia, hallucination, joint pains, inflammation of tendons (etc. -- go Google and see) and to tell your doctor immediately if they occur. The positive side of Levaquin is it kills a lot of stuff -- the reason when in doubt docs prescribe that. Presumably it cures SOMEBODY, maybe even most (whether they have culturable microbes, or not).

- Charles