October 30th
2008
1:49 PM
Similar problems. A-fib @ 37. Unknown etiology with no conclusive cause. Possible due to taking prescription allergy meds with sudafed for 15+ years.
Anyway, tried to go off of Toprol XL 25mg once a day several times. The first time I felt horrible, weak and lethargic, chest discomfort. Lasted for a few weeks. Went back on and in one day symptoms disappeared.
I tried this week to wean off by taking a half a pill a day. Made it one day! I was feeling great so I decided what the heck and tried. What a mistake.
I have tried several different ways of coming off (weaning) with no success.
My cardiologist would like me to try to go off... We need to come up with a better solution.
Things that I have found that "work" for me taking this drug is:
1. I take it after lunch. It is the only time of day taking it that I don't feel bad.
2. The generics made me feel bad. Tried several different manufacturers.
3. If I miss the normal time I take it as soon as possible. Usually by dinner time.
Good luck trying to come off or maintain with Toprol XL. Please post if anyone has success.
Toprol XL seems like a necessary evil at this point for me.
-- By donte | Reply | Private Message me
October 30th
2008
8:58 AM
Well.....ain't this drug wonderful!! Glad I came here first. I am currently on Diovan 80mg. basically doing very well on it, but I started to loose some hair, and do have some sinus issues, so talked w/Doctor he gave me a prescript. for Toprol XL yesterday, got it filled (my proper prescription for 3mos. supply mail in is written for the Brand Name) the prescrip. I filled yesterday locally (he gave me 2mos to fill locally before sending in my mail in prescrip.) My God! When I read the patient info, scared the living crap out of me! See if I TAKE that medication - NOT! I will stick with the devil I know, Diovan and hope that the hair loss thing will resolve itself. I suffer from anxiety, so can push my BP up at will, and it's been up since I started stressing on the hair loss - I have made up my mind to just try and chill about it, but Diovan appears to be one of the least "evil" of the BP meds I'v taken so far. Lisinopril was a nightmare, Diltiazem wasn't too bad, but thought my teeth were going to fall out! I swear, the anxiety about these meds. does nothing to help ones BP but I definitely am not taking this poison, probably would make me stress worrying, I'd give myself a stroke. I am making a copy of the patient info. and sending it to my Dr. (whom I love by the way) and ask him "what the hell were you thinking Doctor?" Good luck everyone
-- By camberwell | Reply | (1) replies | Private Message me
September 23th
2008
12:59 AM
My 9 1/2 yr old son started Singulair in July 2004 when he was 5 yrs old.Looking back now we realize that he started showing signs immediately. We only gave him Singulair in the fall when he had the most trouble with his asthma. His asthma was under control immediately but was not worth the damage that was done. He complained of pains in his legs that I just thought was growing pains. He would sometimes run a fever with no other symptoms of being sick and then the fever would go away. He would also feel like he always had to go to the bathroom, especially after he went to bed. I gave him Singulair at 7pm before he went to bed. The biggest change we noticed in him was the signs of attention deficit. We first noticed that he kept getting out of his seat at dinner time. No matter how many times we told him to sit down he would sit down and then a little while later he would get right back up. We realized after a while that he wasn't doing it to be defient he just couldn't help himself. I asked his Kindergarten teacher if he had trouble sitting in his seat or with attention but she didn't think he was any worse than any of the other Kindergarten kids. In 1st grade, at the beginning of the year, his teacher said he had trouble keeping his attention but then by January she said he was a different kid. We usually stopped giving him Singulair in December. The same thing happened with his 2nd grade teacher. I question his allergist in the fall of 2nd grade but his allergist said Singulair wasn't the cause for his ADHD symptoms. When his 3rd grade teacher contacted us in Oct 07 with the same complaints I realized that it must be the Singulair. I looked online for Singulair side effects and came across this website. I couldn't believe it. I was so disappointed in myself for not doing it sooner but we took him off Singulair immediately. I called his allergist the next morning and questioned him for a second time and he told me that sometimes parents of kids with ADHD just look for something to blame for their childs behavior. I couldn't believe he said it to me. We made an appointment at Children's Hospital Boston to have him evaluated for ADHD just in case but couldn't get an appointment until Feb 08. When we had him evaluated he had been off Singulair for over 3 months. The neurologist said he did not have ADHD. When I asked him if he thought Singulair could have been to blame for the symptoms he was showing and he said there was "compelling evidence" that showed Singulair does cause ADHD symptoms in some children. We were happy that he did not have ADHD but were so sad that we gave him this medicine for 3 years without realizing what damage it was doing. My biggest fear now is that there may be long term damage. All his symptoms have gone away but sometimes he still seems a little out of it and I don't know if it is just his age or his personality or if it might still be some long term effect from the Singulair. He is such a sweet, loving, caring boy and I hope that I didn't do any long term damage by giving his this horrible medicine. I hope that something will be done soon to get this medicine off the market. My prayers go out to all the families who lost children on this medicine. I can't even imagine the pain you are feeling but I thank you for getting your story out and saving other children! I am thankful that I was able to get informed by this website because God knows my allergist wasn't looking out for my son! His asthma has been under control since being off Singulair and just seems like a happier child over all!
Thank you!
August 26th
2008
1:40 PM
I had extreme anxiety so the dr. gave me .5 Ativan. i have been taking it for a month now 2 times a day. it worked great up until last Friday. Since then my heart has been pounding and i have extreme anxiety again, not as bad because i still am taking the meds but the rapid heart beat has taken over my life right now. I can't sleep, eat, concentrate on television. i barely go to work. I don't know what to do. Another doctor i went and saw told me that Ativan is only used temporary and that if you keep using it as a long term thing you are going to have to keep uping the doses and depend on it more and more until you go to the highest dose and it dosent help at all. Now I am scared about depending on them and not being able to get off them. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP. i need some help through this.
i am going to a therapist and all she can say is practice deep breathing so it doesn't really work 100% for me.
August 19th
2008
12:19 AM
oh my God I wish I had read this sooner I thought I was going crazy! it seems like the doctors just don't know about the side effects of a lot of these drugs, because I have had ALL of those symptoms- the tingling, the muscle pain, the aches, the feeling of bugs crawling, the itching, the one I have the most now is pain in my arms and legs now to the point where today I cannot lift my arms past the front of my chest or over my head. So I barely stand the shower and barely get ready for work. When I told my doctor this last week, he said, hmmm, I don't know, lets just give it a few more weeks and see. I've been on Topomax for 5 weeks. I started at 25 mgs and worked my way up to 100 mgs slowly. Each time I add more mgs I have more EXTREME fatigue, and spaciness, dizziness, etc. My legs and arm and back pain did not start until the past 2 weeks. THIS SUCKS. But having migraines sucks too. I have lost weight. But I just don't know that I can live like this. The migraines are new for me, as a result of an accident I was in on January 26th. The side effects of the Topamax outweigh the pain from my accident. I might have reconsider taking this. Although I must say, this drug is the kind of medicine that definitely takes a while to understand how it will work for you. A lot of the effects will wear off. A lot of my spaciness or "Paula Abdul" moments as I like to call them, are getting so much better. I'm sitting at 100 mgs and really don't want to raise the dosage at all. I will talk to the doctor and see what he says. That's the other thing... doctors tend to give people too much or dont know how much to prescribe. Starting people off at 50 mg is too much. I take mine around dinner time as it tends to kick in around sleepy time and if I increase I ALWAYS increase on a Friday so I can regulate over the weekend. PS. I also have blood clots in my legs so being on Coumadin doesn't help things either!
GOOD TIMES!
I'm just so glad I'm not alone!!!
Caroline
May 19th
2008
2:51 PM
I started taking the generic of Toprol (metaprolol) 3 months ago. I'm on 150mg per day for a rapid heartbeat, I'm 39 years old. It has helped my heart problems but I don't know if the side effects are worth it. I experience major fatigue that may last a week at a time and subside for a few days, aches in my back and neck (which I've learned may also be attributed to the Lipitor that I am also on), and my worse symptom is constant diarrhea. Some days I will run to the BR 15 times in one day. It seems to subside by dinner time, but that is probably because I stay away from food all afternoon. I'm fortunate that I am a stay at home mom I can't imagine having to go to work in this condition!
-- By kstranahan | Reply | (2) replies | Private Message me
April 19th
2008
12:51 PM
Is there a potential explanation for the adverse psychiatric side effects of montelukast?
In my opinion, there are at least some very good clues based upon the work of the Chinese researchers.
A 2006 report indicated that they had localized (meaning found it was there) the CystLT1 receptor (same as the receptor that montelukast
Singulair blocks) in the neurons of the brain tissue of rats. In order to do that, they injected rat brain's with NMDA to cause a chemically induced state of excitotoxicity. Excitotoxicity is a common factor in Central Nervous System disease. They concluded that both 5-LOX and CystLT1 were upregulated by the excitotoxicity that they artificially created
with the NMDA. Therefore, there would be a potential link between neuron activity and CystLT1. Nerve cells are damaged by excitotoxicity. These researchers used NMDA to cause nerve damage which caused the CystLT1 to show up. NMDA was often used in human behavior studies to cause brain damage. They would then try to observe whether behavior was compromised to conclude what areas of the brain determined what behavioral response.
So I was thinking about the Chinese researchers as I was reading other posts. One post interested me particularly regarding the mother who described behavior that seemed like hypoglycemics when their snack doesn't arrive on time. So a light bulb went on. Glutamate, another excitotoxin, can build up in the brain to a level that is damaging if humans become excessively hypoglycemic. If glutamate concentration around the synaptic cleft reaches too high a level then neurons die. Clinically, it really does seem that many people experience things that sound like the effects of hypoglycemia. It could be only a coincidence. But then again, maybe not.
The Chinese researchers found the CystLT1 receptor in the rat brain neuron after brain damage. They found the CystLT1 receptor in the normal human brain in the microvascular endothelial cells and in neuron and glial-appearing cells in brain trauma or tumors.
What role does the CystLT1 play in brain function? If it exists in brain tissue, we can assume that it does have a function. If it plays a role in preventing or repairing neuron damage due to excitotoxins, then there would be a very direct link between Singulair and adverse psychiatric side effects.
http://www.chinaphar.com/1671-4083/27/1526.htm
The bottom line is that Merck owes people who take Singulair further research regarding it's effect on the brain.
-- By concernedcitizen | Reply | (3) replies | Private Message me
January 19th
2008
11:56 PM
After reading your stories, I am terrified that I even let my doctor talk me into getting this. I have a 3 year old and a 4 month old. My husband and I weren't sure if we wanted more kids so I asked my doctor what she recommended.
We decided on Mirena so I had it put in back in December. It is now Jan.19. On Wednesday I went for my 5 week checkup to make sure it was still where it was suppose to be. Well, they couldn't find it. This was in the morning...I needed to get an ultrasound. They still couldn't find it so they did an internal ultrasound...still nothing. So my doctor ordered an x-ray.
Mind you I had my kids with me because I thought it would be quick. So they were both hunger at this point. By this point it was almost dinner time.
They finally found it back on the right side of my abdomen. NOT IN MY UTERUS!! I couldn't believe it. I now need surgery to remove it.
They will be doing a laparoscopic surgery...my doctor has never done this before. Do I let her or do I get someone else to do it? She said she has never perforated anyone's uterus before and that she would not charge me for the surgery but I would need to pay for the hospital stay. Is this right?
I don't think I should be paying for any of this.
Besides the fact that I've also been experiencing lots of cramping and pain. I 've gained 6-7 lbs., have muscle aches, crabbiness, headaches, dizziness, bloated all the time, bad gas pains in my stomach,...tired.
Was it worth it...NO!!!
I can't wait to get it out. My husband and I will stick with condoms for now until we want a more permanent solution. My husband said he would get the vasectomy at that point. I've gone through enough.
I am sure this is not a good form of bc. I'm sorry women have had to go through the same experience but hopefully more women will realize how bad it is and not get one.
Toprol-XL (3) Singulair (2) Topamax (1) Mirena (1) Doxycycline Hyclate (1) Ativan (1)
February 8th
2009
5:28 PM
I was prescribed Doxycycline Hyclate 100m for acne on January 20th 2009. Then, on February 6th, I took the medication at 11:00 only to wake up at 11:40pm with severe chest pains. I have never had anything wrong with me heath wise and the first thing that popped into my mind was the medicine. I went to the doctors the next day because the pain had become so severe and i could not eat or drink anything (even water) without feeling a sudden sharp pain. They did an x-ray and found nothing wrong. I was told it was probably anxiety and this medicine had nothing to do with the chest pains. I
-- By ninjaturtle | Reply | (5) replies | Private Message mewent ahead and took it again last night only to still have chest pains so i decided to do research on this medicine and came to this where i found posts in which similar things were experienced upon taking the medication. I have just stopped taking the medication today and am hoping for the pains to go away.