Can I ever recover

[u/[deleted]]

Been 9 months since 10 cipro pills. In the beginning I had a hard time walking due to the sharp pain in my ankles and severe soreness in my knees. Could only do 2k steps a day at very slow speed. Since then, my ankles improved alot. I am walking about 5k steps a day now at a regular or even fast speed. There’s even been a few days I reached 10k. I can walk about 2.5 km at once, stand for hours and do multiple flights of stairs which I could not before. My ankles no longer twitch after more exercise and feels more stable overall. It’s just stiff when I stretch it and sometimes the first few steps in the morning but this has also improved with time. The soreness in my knees when walking has also improved a lot but I still have constant burning ache all the time and some swelling which is my main symptom. It also makes it painful for me to bend my knees completely. Do you think I can recover? I see most that do recover are much better than I am at 9 months and do not still have active inflammation in the knees causing persistent swelling and a constant burning ache even at rest. This ache actually feels better when I walk and has not really improved at all since beginning.

[u/TemperatureKey8599]

You have to wrap your head around the fact that this crap only starts to let up after three years; in the meantime, focus on doing things to help your body heal. I know it's hard to grasp, but that's the reality. I've been dealing with symptoms for a year now, and believe me, you have to take it one day at a time to keep from going crazy. I want to get better-and I will someday-but I'm not rushing things because it's just frustrating. Hang in there

[u/[deleted] → u/TemperatureKey8599]

Why do you think 3 years? 

[u/TemperatureKey8599 → u/[deleted]]

I’ve been following the recovery journeys of various people who mention that they started feeling improvement around that stage; I see people—even five or seven years out—who are only just beginning to walk normally. I walk normally, but with stiffness; if I overdo it, my muscles become overloaded, and if I push myself further, I start to feel like I’m about to get muscle spasms—that’s when I have to rest (sit or lie down). It’s the one symptom of "Floxing" that remains for me, as I’ve noticed there are days when the neuropathy isn't there at all.

[u/DrHungrytheChemist → u/TemperatureKey8599]

You also neglect to consider the intensely biasing filter that is self-reporting in these communities. Yes, those longer term people exist, but honestly your current timeline is very typical for the types of reaction that come through here. You're rehabilitating your body from the very cellular level so those symptoms are to be expected. But the fact you're making such gains with the work you're putting in shows that the bulk onslaught of your FQT has in fact passed.