Helping others symptoms and conditions

My eight year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma by our GP and was taking Ventolin for a persistent cough. When this didn't relieve the cough the doctor prescribed Singulair. He started the Singulair in March 2009 and within 2 months we realized that his personality had dramatically changed. It has taken us a while to figure out what was going on because eight year old boys are starting to assert themselves more and I think the side effects have been escalating over the last month. He was angry most of the time, very hateful towards his siblings, saying very dark, nasty, hurtful things. He argued every time we asked him to do something and would snap into a screaming inconsolable emotional wreck at the drop of a hat many times a day over trivial or imagined problems. He was having nightmares and bursts of hyperactivity that were overwhelming. He told us he felt frustrated all the time and hated everything. When we tried to calm him he was unreachable. Just yesterday he had his fist clenched and pulled back ready to punch me when I was trying to help him with a computer problem. He was shaking and his face was contorted with rage and he just wasn't my little boy anymore.
It has been devastating for our family and we were ready to take him to a psychologist. He is normally an incredibly considerate, perceptive, loving child, highly intelligent, helpful and fun loving with a great sense of humor.
He has also complained of leg pains and has been wetting the bed again. It was only yesterday that I began reading about other people's side effects and have taken him off Singulair as of last night. Whilst he has still been argumentative today already the aggressive intensity seems to be easing.
I am absolutely mortified that I allowed this to happen to my son and my family and I am so grateful to others for sharing their experiences.
We still need to address his asthma and will make an appointment with a specialist next week, but given his asthma is so mild he should not have ever had to suffer these side effects.
I only hope now that he has not sustained any long term effects and that his younger brother has not been scarred by the truly horrible things that my son has said to him.

coincidentally, i have had two mirena put in, one five years ago then had it removed three years later, then another in august 2007. and within twelve months ended up on antidepressants. with severe depression. i have the hair loss, bloating, cramping, sooo tired all the time, i thought i had glandular fever again as i had it in highschool. but was tested and result was negative. anxiety,heart palpitations, weight gain, (lots) previously ii have never had problems with my weight. i just attributed it to body changes after having children? antidepressants helped with the depression and the moodiness, but not the heart palpitations. have worn a heart monitor several times with inconclusive results, no explanation. my friend was talking to her friend and she is a pediatric nurse, she was describing the same symptoms as me. and put me onto this forum and also a website showing all the side effects from mirena. if this info is correct, it attributes all of my symptoms to the mirena. i had it removed on December 12 2008. no significant changes yet but am hoping for some changes shortly! i know everyone reacts differently to things, but we all have very similar things,in common. so this has to show something if anyone has any suggestions on what we may be able to do about this, let me know. i would be interested in helping others withe same situation. the link on this page about side effects , rates them from very common, to rare. and most of these symptoms we are describing are common. so how safe can this devise really be??? anyway thats my story hope it helps someone, even just for the realization of "it's not me!!"

On 7-15-08 I had a total abdominal hysterectomy and was given Levaquin thru IV while I was in the hospital.3 weeks to the day later I had a abscess next to my bowel that had to be removed and again was given Levaquin thru IV while I was in the hospital,both times I got very sick right after I was given Levaquin and when I was discharged on the 2nd.trip I was sent home with Levaquin 500mg pills.After taking 2 of the Levaquin pills I again was so sick and could not keep anything down so I called my DR.and explained to him what was going on and I was told I had to keep taking the Levaquin.After a few more days had passed I went into the office to see the DR.and again told him how sick I was and that I was unable to go to sleep,again I was told to continue the Levaquin and that my hormones were out of balance and that was why I was unable to go to sleep.On 9-2-08 I finally went back to work after being off for 7 weeks. I still was suffering from insomnia and was only getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night but was feeling better.On 9-30-08 I had a follow up with my primary care DR.my blood pressure was 211/160 and my pulse was 177 and also had a bad cough with wheezing and was sent straight to the ER.I was admitted and for the next 6 days was given Levaquin thru IV and the more I got the sicker I was to a point I thought I was dying.I ended up with a rash all over my face and finally on day 7 a Lung DR.came into the room and took one look at me and said "oh my god,we have to take you off of that antibiotic")
I was sent home on day 8 and after being home for 3 days all of the Tendons in both legs,ankles,arms,hands and right shoulder were inflamed to a point where the DR.was afraid that they were going to rapture so I was on complete bed rest for 3 weeks.I am now suffering from both ankles swelled and ache all the time along with all of the minerals in my body have completely bottomed out along with the calcium and potassium and also now I have several inflammatory markers in my blood and have to go see a Rheumatology & Arthritis DR.My lungs have also been damaged from Levaquin and I am now using 3 different inhalers and I have never had a breathing problem previous to this.Now for those who have commented that we should have researched the drug before taking the meds in my case I was unable to do so being as though I was given it in the hospital ! I still have no idea how much damage I will be left with and what will be permanent.I will post again when I find out more on the damage that this drug has done to my 44 year old body.

I am taking Wellbutrin and it has helped my depression and desire for drugs every day. I have bad ringing in my ears all the time but I can deal with that compared to the good it has done.. The problem is I'm a engineer which requires a lot of concentration that I have lost since I've been on Wellbutrin. I also have memory loss. I can't remember peoples names 2 minutes after they told me. I am a support engineer so I have to tallk to many people every day as well as typing cause and solution. I find myself having to read everything I type over again because I leave out words and sometimes what I type makes no sense at all. Wellbutrin has helped me so much but I think I will have to stop or lose my job. What a choice. Before I started taking Wellbutrin I never felt like I was in tune with the world. Smoking pot worked for me but we all know what the long term effect of that is. Codine also made me feel like I fit in. So Wellbutrin has fixed all those needs and feelings but I just hate the loss of memory, concentration, and ringing in my ears.

I am replying to my first post here yesterday....So today I didn't give my 3 yr old son the singulair and do not plan on it ever again! I have to say though...I am very very concerned. I think tonight I truly saw one of the bad behavioral side effects :( He got upset over something so small. Said he didn't love any of us, he didn't want Chinese which is his favorite! He didn't want to do any of the things that we gave him options on that he normally would jump right up to do! This devastated me! I right away thought to myself is this going to get worse before it gets better? He is still complaining of back pain which I know that will take some time. He punched a little boy just before dinner in the neck. He walked out of the neighbors house to go home and usually I have to carry him out. This is seriously scaring me! I'm not sure what to do ? My fiance, his father, doesn't understand and started to yell at him for his behavior. (We don't get much time to talk and when I try to his dad just says he is ok but I know, deep down he isn't) I am the one with him everyday at home taking care of him. I am now being more patient with this behavior when normally I would lose patience and punish him with time outs. Do I continue to do time outs?
Why should I punish him when its not all him ? This is so unfair :( I mean, he is a boy and yes he acts like one. Doesn't share at times, hits sometimes, he is a or was a normal 3 year old boy. His dad will follow my footsteps on this as he see's how I handle things but I'm a little witty on how to handle it now. At this point I am babying my baby! I will tell him when things he does is not right but I'm at the point now that I don't want to send him to preschool! Do I inform the teachers? Can someone give me some words? Its just hard because he is my oldest and is only 3 so not only am I learning to deal with regular behaviors, I now have to understand how to cope and deal with this until its over. Thank you in advance very much for any help and advice!!!!

My wife started taking Reglan last year one week before she committed suicide at the age of 57. She had never been diagnosed in her life as depressed, but obviously she was at the end. Two years previous she had a hysterectomy as part of treatment for uterin cancer. Five months previous to her suicide she got sick and after many weeks was diagnosed with acid reflux. She was given Nexium for this, but continued to suffer from the reflux. I believe somewhere in this time she became depressed though she continued to deny it right up to the day she took her own life. I really do not know if the Reglan or the Nexium was behind her suicide, but I believe it is quite possible. I should be mad as hell about this, but for now I just can not get beyond the grief. I am putting this out here just to say you may want to be very careful with Reglan!!!

Here is the deal, everyone has a pre-disposition to certain health related issues, and you can thank your ancestors for that. As it relates to hypertension, I would recommend staying away from Lisinopril. It may be effective in lowering your blood pressure, but it is very effective in making you cough, anxious, depressed, etc. etc. One must evaluate the trade-off in quality of life. First and foremost, the medical profession loves to suggest that low blood pressure is more important than being happy, cough free and erect. My philosophy is live each day as it is your last, help the less fortunate, and think positive. That will help to keep your blood pressure in check, even if your genes tell you otherwise. Prior to going on Lisnopril, my BP was 150 over 100, I am 40 years old, eat well, exercise, and try not to indulge in excess. After taking Lisinopril, it lowered my pressure to 110/85, but I felt like crap. After quiting the drug 1month ago, my BP has gone up to 130/90, but I don't care...I feel like I am myself again. Whether I live to be 41 or 80 doesn;'t matter to me at this point, especially worrying about blood pressure. I am happy and helping others, and that is what counts. My advice is to live strong, deal with your genetic predisposition, and don't worry about your blood pressure as there is no clinical evidence that you will crash and burn anytime soon.