YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - When you take a prescription, how well do you really understand the risks?

A class of antibiotics is associated with side effects that can affect tendons, muscles, joints, nerves and the central nervous system.

A Youngstown woman never read the side effects until she experienced symptoms firsthand.

Vitamins go down easily for Kalea Hall but prescriptions are a tough pill to swallow.

"I'm pretty terrified to take anything, especially antibiotics," she said.

The 26-year-old Vindicator reporter had a health scare after taking Levaquin five years ago.

She had constant sinus problems and a suspected ear infection before leaving for Italy. 
 
"My primary care doctor, first he gave me a Z-Pak, which I always took. I took that, nothing I still felt off you know and I know with inner ear infections they can kind of be hard to get rid of. So then I went back to him and he just gave me this Levaquin and I've never taken it before, I can't take penicillin, I'm allergic to it," Kalea explained.

While in Italy, she started to feel weird.

"I started to feel like my right side of my body was going numb and I noticed when I was walking I was extending my leg further out than it needed to be," she said.

When her sinus infection got worse, a doctor in Italy prescribed her Avelox. Avelox is in the same class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones.

"My hands were all red and hot and swollen feeling. I felt like I had an elephant on my chest and I had tingling all over," she described.

She made it back home but within days became bedridden. "I'm like oh my gosh do I have MS (multiple sclerosis), do I have lupus what do I have?" 

Dr. Alex Rae-Grant, a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, found that she had an adverse reaction to the antibiotics. It's something the FDA has taken notice of too.

The FDA updated its strongest warning, the boxed warning, on fluoroquinolones in July of 2016. It warns of disabling and potentially permanent side effects that include tendinitis, tendon rupture, peripheral neuropathy and central nervous system effects. The side effects can happen together in the same patient.

The drugs in this class are the generics and brand names- Avelox (moxifloxacin), Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Factive (gemifloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), and Ofloxacin.

"They can be a life saving medication in certain instances but only as a last resort medication," said pharmacist Jeff Covelli.

The FDA advises that these antibiotics should be reserved for patients who have no other treatment options for sinus infections (acute bacterial sinusitis), chronic bronchitis (acute bacterial exacerbation of chronic bronchitis), and uncomplicated urinary tract infections. 

The agency says for some serious bacterial infections, including anthrax, plague and bacterial pneumonia among others, the benefits of fluoroquinolones outweigh the risks.

"They're a nice choice because you can use them with people that have allergies to the penicillins and cephalosporins, which make it very difficult to give oral antibiotics to those individuals. So the fluoroquinolones are a nice option to have in those individuals when you really can't use other drugs but they have a limited market," stated Dr. John Venglarcik, former medical director at the Mahoning County Board of Health.

The risk for tendinitis and tendon rupture is greater in patients over 60, in those taking corticosteroid drugs, and in patients with kidney, heart or lung transplants.

The side effects can appear hours to weeks after exposure, according to the FDA.

"The risk factor is a lot of this occurring in elderly women who get an Achilles tendon rupture and may not associate it with that as well," explained Dr. Venglarcik.

Doctors and pharmacists encourage you to ask them questions about these drugs and all prescriptions when you are in the doctor's office and the pharmacy.

"I think antibiotics have helped a lot of people and I think they are important that we have them but I think it's important to know what you're putting in your body and like so many other people I just took a pill thinking it would help me and it really severely hurt me," said Kalea.

Kalea feels lucky that most of her symptoms subsided. She was prescribed gabapentin to relieve the tingling and she added vitamins on her own- a multi-vitamin, vitamin C, chelated magnesium and glucosamine chondroitin.

Kalea said that she still deals with anxiety, some pain in her neck and her tendons feel more sensitive.

It is a word of caution to understand the risks before throwing away the warnings. 

Dr. Venglarcik added that people need to ask the question "Do I really need an antibiotic?" We will have a follow up on that topic Friday night on 21 News at 11 p.m.