Fashion symptoms and conditions

I was prescribed topiramate (it finally went generic- I've been trying to get this med pre-authorized by Medicare for years) a couple of weeks ago for off-label use related to bulimia, more specifically, for weight loss. I also take lamotrigine, an anti-convulsant, for bipolar disorder.

I began at 50mg/day for 2 weeks then titrated to 100 a few days ago. The side effects I've noticed so far are opposite to most of the ones noted here. I am not lethargic or sleepy at all. It's 3:10AM and I am wide awake, as I was last night. I had an excess of energy today and plenty of words to express my ample thoughts. However, my brain working in a sort of backwards fashion, these are the exact sorts of symptoms that signal mania and are extremely dangerous to somebody who has my condition, so I am on strict notice with the doctors and will most likely be either taken off the topa if this continues for another day or two, or put on an anti-psychotic as a preventative, which of course would be counter-intuitive to the weight loss idea as atypical cause gain. You can see from my writing style of run-on sentences that my thoughts are a bit jumbled.

Also- numbness in the heels, irritability, neck pain, itching.

I shall try to post back if I don't wind up in locked ward :-P

I have been off and on birth control pills for years. I was on Yasmin for 4 years but I had to switch because I started having cramps all of the time, 3 out of 4 weeks a month, no sex drive too. Changed to Femcon Fe. Not too bad. I don't know if what I am experiencing is attributed to this pill but I can say I do have cramps when I shouldn't. I have been on this pill about 5 months. I have had my share of pills though. I am getting off after I complete this pack. I think all pills have side effects. You have to figure out which one is best for you and then keep your fingers crossed. I have had the same symptoms many of the other women have had with different pills. My advice,,,,if you are having symptoms that interfere with your life in some way or fashion, talk with your doctor. That pill may not be for you. Hey, after the years....the pill is simply not for me.
schmooksmom

hi im a 37 year old women from England with two children and had my first mirena coil fitted about five years ago because i was experiencing very heavy bleeding virtually every day after coming off the pill and my husband having a vasectamoy told by my doctor this was best option to be fair first time round mirena was execellant had no nasty side effects and even better lost loads of weight. in April of lart year i had a new mirena fitted as old one was running out and since November i have had nearly all of the symptoms that you ladies have experienced; thinning of my hair ;bad back;bad cramps in my abdomen;sore swollen boobs;pains in my legs;tiredness so much so that finding it hard to exercise;fluttering in stomach like baby is kicking;bleeding starting again after having none at all;always feeling bloated beem eating activa yogurts like their going out of fashion;have appointment with nurse on Monday 2 go through the option of having this horrible thing out lucky for us ladies in England we do not have to pay for any of these procedures.will post back in couple of months with results of how im feeling

I can agree with so many of you who've shared your experiences - for about a year I felt more like 'the old me' on Wellbutrin, but in the last six months I've become progressively more fuzzy-minded. It scares me that there are times that I worry that I won't be able to finish a coherent sentence... like I'm speaking in slow motion waiting for individual words to filter through the fog of my brain so that they can be spoken. OK, it's certainly not always like this - and so far only my husband seems to have noticed, but I dread muttering the wrong thing in a business setting. Perhaps worse than this, in the vanity that is our present reality, I've seen significant hair loss from the top of my head - my squeaking clean pate is SHINY in the mirror and I hate it!!! It's winter now, but I can't wear hats all the time, and I just don't happen to work in a 'fashion forward' industry where I might hope to make hats a trend for all to follow. I will be weaning myself off of Wellbutrin and looking into oral and topical arnica b/c I'm nervous about trying Rogaine and begging stuck with that regimen for the rest of my life. The women in my family all have lovely hair; I'm 40, not 80!!

I'm not looking to offend anyone, but if you look up the FDA info on Mirena, the symptoms many of the ladies here are complaining of ARE listed. So for those who claim to feel deceived, I think that they most likely did not do the research they ought have done. If you are going to be shoving some foreign object into your body, and for such a long period of time, It seems common sense that you'd want to know everything there is to know about it beforehand. It's your body- show some responsibility and take charge of yourself. Just like a car salesman, the doctor is going to tell you what you want to hear in order to make the sale. It's up to you to find the truth. And the truth is not that hard to find.

I did research Mirena before choosing to use it. Not just by reading the pamphlets, comparing to other birth control methods and talking to my ob/gyn, but also by browsing through forums filled with horror stories like this one. I have had Mirena for about 1 year. I barely noticed the insertion. I had minimal cramping the day of insertion. I think I bled for a couple weeks. Over the course of about 6 months, my periods got shorter, lighter, and disappeared completely. Once in awhile I will have some brownish spotting, but it is rare. I have no pains or weight gain. My husband only feels the strings in certain positions. The negative effects I have noticed are that my face is extremely oily, I'm fatigued, I have little sex drive and I'm irritable. Besides these, I am very happy with Mirena. I get baby fever rather easily, and even though I have had three children in just over four years, without Mirena I would most likely be pregnant again at this very moment.

Of course my doctor raved about Mirena ("My wife LOVED it!"). He's paid to do that. The same guy tried coercing me into inducing my last labor just so that he wouldn't have to be woken out of bed if it started naturally in the middle of the night. Guess what! I DID drag his butt out of bed in the middle of the night, and I chose Mirena because I decided it was the best option, NOT because he told me it was.

I had Mirena inseted Nov. 2007. Two months later my periods went from 3-7 day periods to icky brown discharge and a period in the middle of the brown discharge. The doctor said it was normal and would go away eventually. Ten months later I had it removed, because guess what? The brown never stopped. As a matter of fact the longer I went the shorter the period got, but the longer the brown lasted and it lasted longer than a regular period ( a week and a half ). My period started back almost immediately, along with sever cramps. Today, three days after having it removed a clot the size of I would say 1/8 of a cup came out (I apologize for the graphic image, I'm getting to a point, I promise). Never having seen clots in that fashion, I almost freaked.
Well I did some reading and apparently the blood from my "disappearing" period was actually pooling in my uterus. Why? Well the only logic deduction form all this would be that the Mirena cause that nice little, unexpected side effect.
This is after it was removed. While I had it in there were lost of side effects I didn't know were being cause by the Mirena until I read this page.

Side effects included: Bloating, Drowsiness (we are talking sleeping from 7-8 hours a day to 10-12 hours a day), Irritability ( I mean I was already on anti-moody pills! but after being put on Mirena, it was like I wasn't even taking my pills), Weight gain, apatite increase, Depression, oily skin and break outs, cramps, headaches, and probably more than I can remember right now.
That was just me. It Was so embarrassing to begin with the brown smelly show, because I could smell myself all the time. I was advised not to use tampons, so keeping up with panty liners for over a week really cause some skin irritation.

I had Sinus Surgery August 19 2008 and had two F/U visits. On the second F/U the Dr prescribed me the Dexpak Taperpad Steroid (51 pills to be taking in a Pyramid fashion. I was prescribed this for inflammation of on of my Turbinates. This is only my 3rd day on the steroids and I want to stop taking them sooo bad. I have been unable to sleep, I seem to be hallucinating, and I have been having the HICCUPS Uncontrollably!!! The HICCUPS is the most annoying thing to me. As for the if the Drug works, I will repost later after I go back for another F/U appointment. But so far NOT WORTH TAKING!!

Everyone's body is different and reacts to every medicine differently. After experiencing depression for some years i was finally put on an antidepressant (cymbalta). My dosage was continually increased because I wasn't feeling any better. Eventually I changed psychologists and she diagnosed me as being bipolar II and said that anti-depressants have an adverse effect on people who are bipolar. so for about a year and a half i was on 200 mg of lamictal. It worked wonders and i felt no negative side effects other than if i forgot to take my second dose during the day. Eventually i took myself off of it (slowly, in the same fashion that i had started it) and was off of it for about a year. Getting off of it was hard, but eventually i felt ok. Then a year later i felt i needed it again. So after a 3 months of being on it again my doctor took me off of it because i experienced extreme head pressure-to the point that i felt like my head was going to explode. i had a checkup at my regular doctor and nothing was wrong. once i had the lamictal out of my system i felt fine again. well now a year and a half after that, i started the lamictal again in hopes that it would work like it did the first time for me. Unfortunately that has not happened yet. As i write this, my head has so much pressure. I ve experienced headaches on and off for the past 4 days. This is not a common side effect so im not sure whats going wrong.. Has anyone else experienced this or know why that is happening? Anyways like i said the first time i was on lamictal for a yr and a half and i felt fantastic. I would tell people i "loved it"---which sounds silly but when you go from absolutely miserable to feeling alive again and having motivation, that phrase doesnt sound so silly. so take everything you hear with a grain of salt. experience it for yourself because everyone's body is different and who knows, maybe you will feel better on it. I however am stopping this drug tomorrow because of the rare head pressure i experience while on it!

I was diagnosed in April 2006 with congestive heart failure and End Stage renal Failure. Out of the blue! One month before I was diagnosed I began bruising severely, and just not feeling well overall. I have maintained uncontrollable hypertension for about 3-4 years now.

I have been on at least 15-20 different medications, not all at the same time, but in different combination. I have adverse reactions to everyone I have been on in some form or fashion. ie rashes,, sometimes in the form of blisters from my hands up to my elbows, severe deep itching, headache, nausea, vomiting or they simply do not work. The only medication that I have been on for the entire time without stopping, only changing the dosage is Clonidine.

I am very sensitive to a lot of chemical drugs, even the chemical form of folic acid!

I recently had a biopsy done on my kidney. I came back positive to chronic and acute inflammation, causing scarring of the kidney. Therefor causing my kidneys to shut down to about 7% activity. There is still some active inflammation. Could this be from the clonidine? Since it is the only thing that has been a constant for the past 4 years?

It has certainly raised a question in my mind.

Does montelukast affect growth in children? Remember the report of identical twins, one took Singulair and one didn't. If I remember correctly, the one who took Singulair was at least two inches shorter in a short period of time.

If anyone would like a reason to look into that, then I refer you to this study. It could suggest that leukotrienes act on the pituitary to release pituitary hormones. We don't know what happens when the production of leukotrienes are blocked by montelukast.

"Finally, leukotrienes have also been found to act on the pituitary to modulate the release of the pituitary hormones."

"The distribution data of HPN321 suggests major role(s) for this receptor in endocrine and cardiovascular systems. CysLTs are well known for their modulatory effects in cardiovascular functions, where they reduce myocardial contractility and coronary blood flow (Letts and Piper, 1982) and have vasoactive effects (Drazen et al., 1980). They are thus considered to be important players in cardiovascular diseases (for review, see Folco et al., 2000). The strong expression of HPN321 in adrenal gland points at a new tissue where to study the influence of CysLTs on endocrine circuits. Finally, leukotrienes have also been found to act on the pituitary to modulate the release of the pituitary hormones (Hulting et al., 1984; Saadi et al., 1990). Our discovery of the existence of the HPN321 message in pituitary adds a molecular credence to this concept. The HPN321 receptor may thus modulate a variety of different physiological functions, which can now be tested using BAY u9773."

Vol. 58, Issue 6, 1601-1608, December 2000

ACCELERATED COMMUNICATION

Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Second Human Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptor: Discovery of a Subtype Selective Agonist
Hans-Peter Nothacker, Zhiwei Wang, Yuhong Zhu, Rainer K. Reinscheid, Steven H. S. Lin, and Olivier Civelli

Departments of Pharmacology (H.P.N., Z.W., Y.Z., R.K.R., S.H.S.L., O.C.) and Developmental and Cell Biology (O.C.), University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California; and NeoGene Technologies, Inc., Irvine, CA (H.P.N., Z.W., R.K.R., O.C.)

http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/58/6/1601

I have been taking Singulair for a year now and although I was prescribed it for seasonal asthma and allergies, I am not really sure I needed the medication. I am 37 and live in an area with a lot of sage brush and was having trouble taking full breaths and/or catching my breath. I have taken this medication faithfully for 12 months and after reading some of the posts on here, I can relate to some of them in a mild fashion. I am wondering though, my lack of ability to catch my breath or take a full breath happens more regularly, is this an actual side effect of the medication? Does anyone else experience this? I am very interested in knowing. Thanks!

I have been prescribed Lamictal for seizures, and am currently taking 400mg daily, with my 300mg of Dilantin. Had horrible side effects this weekend-nightmares, exhausted, worsening depression, crying jags, difficulty swallowing. Has anyone else experienced mood changes for the worse while on this drug?

Looking for info on if Yutopar can cause long term damage to the digestive system. Yutopar is basically a muscle block & while I was taking it 1981 I experienced inability to digest my food in a timly fashion. I still have that problem & am wondering if Yutopar may have had something to do with this.
Thanks, Anita