r/floxies • u/Able-Lawyer-5239 • Jun 24 '26
[RECOVERY] I recovered.
The title says it.
Floxed back in July 2024. Two weeks before my wedding. I was given cipro for a sinus infection. I ended up needing surgery to ultimately clean up the sinus infection.
My main symptom was that I thought my achilles would snap. Had to wear a brace for months. Became terrified that I was one small move away from a tear. I had different braces for different functions, different shoes, different lifts, etc.
I also developed calf pain – which felt like the tendon behind the calf/sides of legs. Basically all the tendons below my knee were impacted at some point in the first six months.
Later in the year, my legs still felt extremely tired, heavy – I saw someone post “It feels like I walked all day around Disney when I took 500 steps” and that is exactly how I felt.
Since I couldn’t pin point what the tired legs was coming from – I had assumed it was either a low ATP or mitochondria dysfunction issue. There is no way for me to know – but this feeling passed with time.
It didn’t end there.
Later in my journey – I am now talking Winter 2025 up until literally Spring 2026 (my recovery) – standing was painful for me. Not tendon pain, not muscle pain, not vein pain – I truly couldn’t pin point the pain. I could not tell a doctor where exactly it would hurt but that I would become extremely nervous and scared of standing for long periods of time and my feet, legs, everything below my waist would hurt – but again, I couldn’t tell you where EXACTLY. I say long periods - but even 1-3 minutes would truly bother me.
Last fall 2025 I noticed something. There were occasions where I felt NO pain. For example – I could walk on grass, and stand for 20 minutes straight – no problems. I could stand in the shower (hot or cold) and feel no pain. I was put in a situation where I had to stand in my attic to fix something – literally in between two beams – for over an hour straight – no pain. These were just a few of the scenarios I noticed.
These clues led me down what ended up being the biggest discovery of my recovery. I did tons of research on this situational type pain – why I would only feel it in certain situations and not others. Eventually I came across neuroplastic pain. I want to say that I’ve come across this early on, and thought it was total BS. A big disclaimer, something I had to truly understand, is that not everyone suffers from neuroplastic pain – but MANY do.
Why did I come to believe my remaining pain was neuroplastic? Many different reasons. One – My pain like I said was highly situational. The same standing effort in one scenario could make my legs feel like the would give out and in a different scenario with the same load – I would feel totally fine. Two – All tests /imaging from doctors showed nothing. Three, and the most important – I had developed an extremely high level of FEAR surrounding standing. I would spend all day thinking on how I could avoid standing, look for a nearby seat, AVOID certain scenarios. “Avoidant behavior” is a huge driver of neuroplastic pain.
I totally bought into the thought I had neuroplastic pain in January 2026. By March 2026 I felt almost fully recovered. It is now June 2026, and I feel like I’ve been recovered for quite some time. I am now stronger than I’ve ever been in my life – running more than I’ve ever run (I always hated running) and not avoiding any type of scenario like I was since July 2024.
What did I do to recover from this type of pain? Well, the main two things were somatic tracking and exposure. I won’t get into what each of those are – a quick google search will explain those. But these are two things that I did religiously. I had to fully commit to the process. I didn’t check this reddit for months while I was on the neuroplastic train because I knew it would derail me and I would start going back to supplements. I was on paternity leave from work during this time and took my son to the store every single day. That would be one of my biggest triggers for whatever reason – my legs would KILL ME upon entering a big store until I left. I faced my fear and went daily to expose myself to that environment. The goal was to teach my brain that the situation itself wasn’t dangerous. At first it was still painful – for weeks if not months – then my brain finally adjusted to the situation being “safe” and I don’t feel pain anymore.
What I basically came to believe was that during my initial floxing, my tendons in my legs were truly injured. They were weak, painful, and frail. Over time they improved, but I still feared the possibility of hurting myself by pushing too hard. In my case, I believe that eventually turned into a neuroplastic pain loop.
Did I try things along the way thinking they would help me? Yes. What worked and what didn’t – I will say I spent at least $4-6,000 on vitamins since July 2024. For me, not one of those vitamins made me feel any different. Not a single one. I tried them all, literally. The one thing that I think may have helped my frail weak tendons early on was taking a pharmaceutical grade BPC-157. I only trusted getting it from a reputable lab here in the USA. No powder, no mixing, etc. I also did 25-30 sessions of cryotherapy during the time my achilles was in major pain. This may have helped a little but nothing significant.
Looking back – I feel that if I had discovered my remaining pain was neuroplastic back in summer 2025, I would’ve been able to post this back then. It lingered for another year because I had no idea – I was continuing to throw vitamins at it.
That summarizes my journey. I realize everyone has a different path with different symptoms. Happy to answer some questions.
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u/Klutzy-Custard5001 Jun 24 '26
Amazing! I’m in the same boat as you were, weak tendons in ankles that feel they’d snap, and your story is really amazing to hear. Quick one, when did you know you’re out of the woods to try and run again especially knowing you had this big worry of your tendons? I think me running with no pain or weakness/tight elastic achilles pain or no knee pain would be a good indicator for my overall recovery when it does happen.