Question, My ears have been ringing with taking the quinine even at a relatively low dose according to the guidelines. So my question is should I stop because the damage could become permanant? Or will it go away once I stop no matter how long I'm on it?
I'm really scared of getting constant tinnitus, since one of my immediate family has that, and I don't think I could deal with that on top of everything else. Also, sorry I was going to try to make this mildly funny and witty for once but I'm really tired now so "nuts to that!"
Thanks to all for reading and please share your thoughts/experiences
john duncan
Posted by trueblue (Member # 7348) on :
Hi John,
I've only tried one dose of Quinine (years ago for muscle cramps) and it was screaming loud ringing.
I'm sure someone with practical experience, and advice, will be by soon.
Have you asked the LLMD what they think?
Posted by minoucat (Member # 5175) on :
John, the hubby is on quinine and clindamycin for babs. Every other babs tx has failed, so he's doing his best to ride this out.
The ringing starts low and gets pretty loud -- loud enough that he has trouble hearing me at normal conversational tones.
He's managing it by taking treatment breaks of 3-5 days every 2-3 weeks, when the ringing is loud. When it subsides, he goes back on treatment.
I'm not recommending this (or any treatment!), but it works for him, and the tinnitus does fade within 48 hours of stopping the quinine. His babs sx are much reduced (possibly gone, but he's going to continue treatment for another month to be sure).
I have corresponded with quinine users who found that the tinnitus did last beyond treatment, but I don't know whether it became permanent or eventually faded. You have a valid concern. I also don't know if there are people more susceptible to tinnitus from quinine than others -- if you can find a good pharmacist it would be a great question to ask.
Are you experiencing any muscle or tendon pain from the quinine? (The hubby's really sore, and we're trying to figure out what's causing it).
Be sure to protect your liver and get your liver bloodwork done while on quinine.
Best of luck.
Posted by micul (Member # 6314) on :
Velveteen : The very long link to the abstract does not work unless the person has an account. Would you please remove it....these long links make reading threads difficult.
The following link will explain 2 different ways of creating a tiny url. One using this site for creating the tiny url and the Tiny Url site itself that has an explanation as well. I hope that you will be able to use one of them. It's really very easy.
I did take Quinine at one time and also Zith, and I do have permanent tinnitus, or so it seems to be permanent. Lots of my symptoms are gone, and one that persists is tinnitus.
The ringing (after being off of abx for 3 years now) is persistent, and sometimes, even not as loud, but I am thinking of getting a "white noise" machine for night, as I am resolved to believe this is permanent for me.
Mostly, I just deal with it.
I did refuse taking Plaquenil due to possible eye problems, but at the time didn't think about tinnitus being an issue. My mistake.
Catching it early is the key, so we do have choices of which meds work best for us.
Much luck.
lifeline
Posted by groovy2 (Member # 6304) on :
Hi John
I took quinine for several months-- I did get ringing ears- Screaming Loud-- was no fun --
It did stop after awhile --
It is important to take with food-- (lowers ringing effect)
Also take lower doses and spread thru the day helps too --
Tonic Water worked well for me and had no side effects except for the taste-- 1 to 3 liters aday -
Ringing has mostly stopped for me-- and only seams to happen now when I'm herxing -
It did take a month or 2 to stop tho -Jay--
Posted by sunnyslumber (Member # 7065) on :
Thanks everyone for your warm and helpful replies. I'm going to try and make the dose even lower and more throughout the day than at one time. I can do that a little bit. Also I've tried to contact my doctor but they are on vacation (just my luck). Hopefully there is a low dose where the ringing isn't there, but that is still efficacious vs. the Babesia. Hope that is not asking too much...
I did have something similar happen a while back with flagyl which eventually subsided when I quit it. Anyhow the its just the thought that I'm experimenting on my body, and it could end up being even more screwed up without even curing the babesia is... disconcerting.
Ps. That is really cool that you know latin minoucat! I've always wanted to learn that language (partially because I thought it would make the other european languages easier for me to learn, what a great mentality get to your goals in the easiest way possible )
Posted by minoucat (Member # 5175) on :
Hey John -- I did do years of latin once upon a time in grammar school, and here is what we thought of it:
Latin is a language Dead as dead can be First it killed the Romans And now it's killing me.
I've forgotten most of it, but I can still sing the first verse and chorus of "Come all ye faithful" in Latin, decline the verb "To Love" (HA! That's Freudian for you!). And if I'm ever in a position to do so, I can tell a Roman soldier with great authority that "Aquina is a farmer, and Agrippina is his wife."
I recommend finding a latin phrase cheat-sheet (no, I'm not sharing my source) -- so much more time-effective to look intelligent and well educated than actually be that way.
More on quinine -- 1)it should combined with clindamycin or some such abx, and 2) primaquine/chloroquine has worked for some other people, and has fewer side effects and I believe is less ototoxic than chloroquine. Didn't work for the hubby but might be worth a try for you. Check out posts by Liz28
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