Victoria was in so much pain, she thought something was seriously wrong (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
If you saw her in the street, you’d think Victoria Abotorabi was just a hard-working, happy mum.
A successful recruitment consultant from Leeds — you’d never be able to tell that Victoria was in so much pain she thought she was dying.
But this was Victoria’s reality for months, with the 50-year-old even going as far as penning goodbye letters to her two young daughters Yasmine, 15, and Erin, 10.
Behind closed doors, she was battling seriously debilitating medical issues and doctors couldn’t seem to figure out what was wrong with her.
Now, after finally discovering the truth about her health, Victoria is sharing her story to try and make sure no-one else has to suffer the way she has.
Victoria was so convinced it was the end, she wrote goodbye letters to her children (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
It all started when she began experiencing ‘a dull pain in [her] left ear,’ she shared.
‘I thought it was just an ear infection. The doctor gave me some antibiotics and steroids and told me to take them for three weeks.’
Victoria was put on ciprofloxacin — a drug within a group of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones that are often used to treat bacterial infections.
She considered it a job done. However, just five days into taking the prescription, Victoria woke up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations, numbness in her hands, and an intense pressure in her head.
The mum-of-two immediately sought medical attention. But she was turned away by her doctor, who told her that the symptoms were linked to the ear infection and advised to continue taking the medication.
‘I was in so much pain I spent days just crying, it was horrific.’ (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
This marked the beginning of a five-month-long journey, that saw her develop a piercing headache that wouldn’t go away, alongside other crippling symptoms.
‘It was awful. I couldn’t even lie my head onto the pillow,’ Victoria recalls.
‘I went on lots of different medications but nothing was working. I had body twitches, muscle spasms, my digestive system shut off, I lost so much weight, I had facial nerve pain.’
‘I was in so much pain I spent days just crying, it was horrific. Medical professionals just kept saying I was anxious and stressed,’ she continued.
‘Nobody knew what was going on, I kept going back to A&E. I thought I was dying, I felt so incredibly poorly.’
The mum made seven visits to A&E to get answers (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
It was at this point that she made the deeply difficult decision to write her two children goodbye letters.
‘I wrote letters to my kids saying goodbye, because I thought the doctors had missed something really bad. I thought I was either going to die or I wanted to die. I just couldn’t deal with the pain anymore. It was absolutely unbearable.’
It wasn’t until Victoria’s seventh visit to A&E in November 2024 that a discovery was finally made and Victoria learned the truth about what was going on.
During her appointment, the mum was asked about her recent medication, which ultimately led to the realisation that she’d suffered an adverse reaction to ciprofloxacin.
While it is rare, according to the NHS, in some cases fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause disabling, long-lasting or permanent side effects affecting the joints, muscles and nervous system.
Victoria urges others to think before taking antibiotics (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
It cost Victoria £6,000 in private appointment fees to finally reach her diagnosis.
‘There is no cure for this,’ Victoria explains. ‘It’s just whether your body can recover.’
‘If I’d have known, I’d have never taken it. It shouldn’t be given out as a first-line antibiotic. It should be that they’ve tried everything else.’
‘It’s a horrible drug, it’s not worth the risk of taking. It’s not worth the long-term damage.’
As Victoria says, currently ‘there are no pharmacological treatments established to be effective for these disabling and potentially long-lasting or irreversible side effects.’
Government advice actually states that medical professional should not prescribe fluoroquinolones ‘for non-severe or self-limiting infections, or for mild to moderate infections unless other antibiotics that are commonly recommended for these infections are considered inappropriate.’
Understandably, Victoria feels incredibly ‘let down’ by the health service — an industry she previously had ‘complete faith in.’
Victoria is now trying to regain control of her life (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)
Shockingly, there are a number of personal testimonies online regarding the debilitating and serious side effects of Ciproflacacin antibiotics.
Reportedly, serious side effects are estimated to occur in at least between 1 and 10 people in every 10,000 who take a fluoroquinolone.
Someone who can relate to Victoria is Nazir Khan — who shared their story on the Mayo Clinic blog forum, stating that after taking this medication for just five days in 2017 for a UTI, their quality of life has been ‘steadily deteriorating.’
‘Over the past seven years, my condition has worsened to the point where I can barely walk, and I will soon need a wheelchair. The best way to describe my current condition is that the soles of my feet are completely numb, with a constant sensation of poor blood circulation, tingling, and severe pain,’ the post read.
For Victoria, her focus is trying to move forward and cope the best way that she can.
‘Looking back to where I was to where I am now, I’ve come a long way. Life is hard still but better than when it was,’ she adds.
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
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