Horror story symptoms and conditions

Like everyone else, I am SO glad I came across this web-site. I had the Mirena put in about 4 months ago, and it’s been quite a journey since then. I don’t have a horror story like some of the women have, but my experience hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park. I gained 18lbs in 2 months, I feel nausea all of the time, I look to be about 4 months pregnant, and I no longer recognize my period…it’s been different every month. The first month I think I bled 23 out of 30 days, the second month was 17 out of the 31 days, the third month I had light spotting for 6 days, then a regular period for another 7, and this month….well, we’ll just have to see what happens. Oh, and the nonexistent tolerance level, I can relate with that one, too. Of, course the doctors say “it’s normal” or “it’s not the Mirena”, but I know my body and this is definitely NOT normal!! Having a baby is not part of me and my husband’s 5 year plan, but we may just have to take our chances and go back to condoms.

I am in month 4 of a 4 month Lupron shot that my doctor gave to prepare for surgery. I was told I might get hot flashes, loss of libido, increased urinary symptoms for a few weeks. No one said anything and there was absolutely nothing in all the drug leaflets they gave me that would have prepared me for the the horror story that my life was about to become. As if having cancer was not bad enough.Since day 2 I have suffered so many bad side effects that I have lost count. The worst is insomnia and nothing has helped including high doses of Ambien. They suggested Lunesta but my health insurance company balked and even if they had said yes, my co-payment would be unaffordable. This stuff is more expensive than gold. I am exhausted all the time. I have terrible memory problems that are so bad that I can be talking to some I know really well and not remember their name. I am unable to concentrate on anything, my mood swings are unbelievable, I feel mentally disoriented and dissociated all the time, high blood pressure, racing pulse, high blood sugar, hot flashes, raging night sweats, dizziness, bad balance. The side effects that I can handle include nausea, headaches, diarrhea, joint and muscle pain. I am supposed to be on Lupron for 2 years. The only difference I see with my Lupron experience and others here is that my gender is MALE and I have early stage prostate cancer. Being male, my other serious Lupron side effect is complete impotence which is going to go on for a long while due to the radiation. I had radioactive seed implants into my prostate gland done a week ago and I have to follow this with 5 weeks of beam radiation. Lupron seems to be an equal opportunity drug. Lupron has messed me up so badly that for the past 5 weeks I have been off work on disability status with no chance of going back for at least a month and my Dr thinks that may be optimistic. No one seems to know how long it will take to get back to some kind of normal. I just could not function at work and ended up in my doctors office having a complete emotional meltdown. I would caution anyone, male or female, to consider Lupron very carefully before having it.

My boyfriend and I stated taking Yaz together so I wont have to go threw it alone...Now the problem is, his sex drive is low and mine is so high that I'm always using a vibrator to get off..My periods have been regular and his are not.. He's a heavy bleeder as well. can't keep the sheets white enough. I'm not sure if we can continue this with this method. I think I'm taking him off of Yaz asap!!!! I can't deal with his moodiness anymore..He's a horror story!!!

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.

Heres my Levaquin horror story:

In hospital for bowel obstruct. Took LevaQ. at home. 1/2 way through I noticed I wasn't feeling any better but worse while recovering. Starting sleeping for 3 hr intervals, while up I would feel as if I wanted to jump out of my skin. Calf pain. Dizziness. Intermittent instenseTingling around mouth and face. Called my MD.
I was put back in hospital due to a platelet count of 'one million'. My MD who is wonderful, consulted with others, even an oncologist. I refused a bone marrow aspiration, so they came up with a game plan -- possible reaction to the Levaquin???? So... 'flush out the Levaquin'. With each day of continuous mass flushing of IV fluids....my platelets decreased daily.
3 years later...I getting intermittent tingling, flu like symptoms, dizziness, heart palpitations, extreme fatigue-------------still looking for answers to my illness. Just had more blood work - lymphocytic profile was drawn, waiting on results. Definitely am anemic, chronic slight rise in liver enzymes with last sed rate and wbc count in norm range.

Hi to all,
I wanted to take a minute to say Thanks to all who post and search for answers to this drugs confusing and serious side effects.To all who have taken the time to contact the FDA and file a report to help others.Dr.Sarah Sellers is no longer the person to contact at the FDA,she has moved on after concluding her end of the investigation on Singulair.If you have a serious side effect please still take the time to file on the official FDA site for adverse event reporting.In NY. state we are still searching for legislation to help with the notification process for these serious side effects.There are to many Doctors that still do not have a clear idea of the updated side effects,and are not reporting as they should.
Letting your doctor know that good medicine is all about follow up on complaints,such as researching the singulair website to rule out that it may be the drug or it may not.Just dismissing the patient and prescribing another drug is how these drugs go undetected for so long.We want this to stop and only the unfortunate recipients of the horrors of this drug can make this happen.Again thank you for your efforts to change the system with follow through and perserverance.Our horror story is one of many and we want to help those who have survived the ravages of this drug, OUR CHILD DID NOT. Kate and Dave M.

I have been on Ortho Tri cyclin and Tri-Nessa both for years before starting Tri-Sprintec 5 mos ago... Both of the previous two had good effects.. I had no problems and felt barely any changes in my body... Now on Tri-Sprintec I am moody beyond belief for the entire three weeks of pills.. Also I have what seems like a constant dull cramping and headached have had some spotting.. I have gotten my period at the end of each pack but its heavier than with the other pills... And lasts about week as opposed to 5 days.. I never had acne on the others but on Tri-Sprintec I get many huge, painful pimples that start deep down and hurt the whole month.. And the last and most wonderful side effect is that I have gone from 125 to 140lbs in 5 mos.. I have NEVER weighed more than 125 and in fact since I was 15 years old to my current age of 32 I have stayed at 125 lbs.. I work out 5 days a week doing spin class weighs and jogging each day... I'm switching back to Ortho-tri-cyline at the end of my current pack... End of horror story..

After a month on Lisinopril, I started noticing shortness of breath. Then awoke one morning with pain in shoulder and numbness in arm - thought I was having a heart attack! ER diagnosis was asthma. Advair, methylprednisone (steroids) and albuterol helped at first, but after two weeks, breathing problems all came back. Started using a nebulizer which provided only short term relief and was then referred to a pulmonary specialist. He put my on Advair, Singulair (another side effect horror story), Nasonex, Intal inhaler, albuterol inhaler, the nebulizer as needed. Upon follow up two weeks later, it was all still going on! He rx'd another prednisone pack, but NOW he notices in chart that I was taking Lisinopril, which he said is KNOWN to cause breathing problems - and to stop taking it, immediately. Within one week, all of these horrendous asthma problems WERE GONE. It's been two weeks and I have since discontinued ALL asthma medications - everything - not to mention the Lisinopril. How could prescribing doctor and ER doctor mis-diagnose Linsinopril side effects for asthma! How could I? I would like to think that if they're going to prescribe this stuff, they would be familiar with possible side effects as such. I'm just lucky this stuff didn't kill me and that I didn't get rid of my cat!

I had my first MI at age 57 on Oct. 29th 2004. I was given Zocor 40 meg. and my problems started in the hospital. I had terrible leg aches and they even looked for clots. Finding nothing I was sent home after 5 days with two stents and told if I got tired just rest. I had to take two months off work. In January I returned back to work but the leg aches continued at night. In January I returned to the hospital with another episode and received three more stents. My cholesterol was at 110. The Dr. continued me with the Zocor 40 mg. twice a day now. I continued to have problems with clogging arteries and in the next four months I had another 4 stents. In the summer I walked a lot and still continued to have leg aches at night. After a year of complaining I was put on Vytorin and things really got worse. In six months I couldn’t walk right, kept falling, couldn’t sleep with the cramping, my joints all felt like they no longer supported my frame. I was put on Crestor, then Lipitor, then Zetia, and then I took matters in my own hands. I stopped the statin drugs. My cholesterol skyrocketed of course to 289. It was only 189 at the time of the first MI. I have slowly regained my ability to walk and joined Curves. This is about all I can do and am slowly getting better. I tell everyone I can about my horror story with statin drugs. I’ve been to an arthritis specialist, negative on all forms of arthritis causing this. I went to a gastric specialist and no stomach problems. I was sent to a neurologist who told my muscles were very weak and not to take statin drugs, but like all the Dr.’s I’ve been referred to none would touch the statin drug issue. My last referral was to an orthopedic surgeon because of my walking problems, and at first I was told that if my hips didn’t stop degenerating I would need them replaced to be able to walk. Last month after 9 months off statin drugs he retook x-rays and said my hips are looking fine. There is hope. I have been on a strict diet and exercise program and am ready to start stationary bicycling to try to rebuild muscle mass lost during the 2 years on different statin drugs. I also took C10 150 megs. after getting off statins to see if that would help and I don’t know, but I am told to keep doing what I’m doing. I hope the cholesterol will come down as I eat more oat bran or oatmeal. I hope my story helps some of you because I do believe I am getting well.

I had my first MI at age 57 on Oct. 29th 2004. I was given Zocor 40 meg. and my problems started in the hospital. I had terrible leg aches and they even looked for clots. Finding nothing I was sent home after 5 days with two stents and told if I got tired just rest. I had to take two months off work. In January I returned back to work but the leg aches continued at night. In January I returned to the hospital with another episode and received three more stents. My cholesterol was at 110. The Dr. continued me with the Zocor 40 mg. twice a day now. I continued to have problems with clogging arteries and in the next four months I had another 4 stents. In the summer I walked a lot and still continued to have leg aches at night. After a year of complaining I was put on Vytorin and things really got worse. In six months I couldn’t walk right, kept falling, couldn’t sleep with the cramping, my joints all felt like they no longer supported my frame. I was put on Crestor, then Lipitor, then Zetia, and then I took matters in my own hands. I stopped the statin drugs. My cholesterol skyrocketed of course to 289. It was only 189 at the time of the first MI. I have slowly regained my ability to walk and joined Curves. This is about all I can do and am slowly getting better. I tell everyone I can about my horror story with statin drugs. I’ve been to an arthritis specialist, negative on all forms of arthritis causing this. I went to a gastric specialist and no stomach problems. I was sent to a neurologist who told my muscles were very weak and not to take statin drugs, but like all the Dr.’s I’ve been referred to none would touch the statin drug issue. My last referral was to an orthopedic surgeon because of my walking problems, and at first I was told that if my hips didn’t stop degenerating I would need them replaced to be able to walk. Last month after 9 months off statin drugs he retook x-rays and said my hips are looking fine. There is hope. I have been on a strict diet and exercise program and am ready to start stationary bicycling to try to rebuild muscle mass lost during the 2 years on different statin drugs. I also took C10 150 megs. after getting off statins to see if that would help and I don’t know, but I am told to keep doing what I’m doing. I hope the cholesterol will come down as I eat more oat bran or oatmeal. I hope my story helps some of you because I do believe I am getting well.

Has anyone on Lisinopril experienced upper GI problems such as Achalasia, trouble eating, reflux, or getting food 'stuck' in the esophagus?
My wife has lost 50 lbs in a year due to inability to eat from what was initially diagnosed as Achalasia (rare disease that affects the operation of the muscles in the esophagus and/or lower esophageal sphincter at the top of the stomach). However, Botox injections in the LES provided little relief which is not typical for Achalasia patients. She tests negative for Barrett's Syndrome and any form of Connective Tissue Disease (or arthritis).
My MD recently put me on Lisinopril (another horror story); while I was researching the drug, I noticed that it could cause muscle weakness. My wife backtracked the date that she was put on Lisinopril and it coincided with the onset of her GI problems. While monitoring her BP several times a day, she has cut back to 1/2 dose and has shown a marked improvement in the last 10 days. (It is too early to say with certainty that Lisinopril is causing the GI problems.)
Has anyone experienced similar problems?

Another Lipitor horror story.I have just been diagnosed with dermatomyositis caused by lipitor.It is a horrible skin disease.I had been on lipitor for close to 2 yrs.It took 4 doctors to finally give me a name to this skin stuff.Also muscle weakness is one of the symptoms and lots more.Am trying to get the skin rash and and pain under control.Just had a skin biopsy today.I have had this for 9 months and it has gotten worse every month.Rash is like a sun burn on chest and back and arms.Around eyes and on eye lids and under eyes is purple rash.

It will natural med for me or live with high cholestrol.

If you are on Lipitor and get a rash find a good dermatologist.

-I have been on Effexor XR for almost 1 year @ 150mg.

When I was first on the drug I would feel the dizziness, brain shock, etc, side affects if I went roughly 2 days without taking the drug (on accident). In the past few months I start getting severe withdrawl side affects (dizziness, brain shocks, etc.) as soon as it hit 24 hours from my last dose (If I took a pill at 2pm on one day, by 3pm on the next day I was having severe side affects).

What seemed to be unrelated at first was the fact that in the past 2-3 months I started to have severe sleeping problems. I got extremely worse in the past 2 months as no matter what time I went to bed it became extremely difficult for me to wake up before 10am - 11am (which obviously affected my work). It was the hardest thing in the world to drag myself out of bed, no matter what time it was (it was almost impossible for me to get out of bed before 8am). I would then work for a few hours and come home and take a nap. I went to my Doctor (same one that prescribed me the Effexor XR) and he sent me to a sleep study thinking that I might have Sleep Apneia. Immediately after that a friend recommended trying to get off of the Effexor XR and as soon as I started weening down my doseage, my sleep went back to normal. In any regard, I was able to ween myself down to 37.5 MG for a couple of weeks and have now been off of it or 3 days and it has sucked. I've tried getting off before and have many horror stories as other people (the following horror story is one that happened about 2-3 months ago when I tried to quit cold turkey once from full 150 mg a day doseage, not a good idea!).

This is somewhat funny & scary...I had gone about 2-3 days at one point in trying to cut cold turkey from 150 mg a day(I was also out of pills) and was suffering from severe withdrawl affects and decided to drive to my pharmacy to have it refilled because I could not take it anymore. My pharmacy is one that is in a large grocery store...so while it was being refilled I tried to find some granola bars so I would have something to eat to take with the medication. I was so dizzy and confused that I had to call my wife (fiance at the time) on my cell phone. I had to ask her to help me find the granola bars (this was a store that I often shopped at) and was standing in the middle of an isle with tears streaming down my face begging her to help me over the phone. I'm a 30+ year old professional who is 6'2" and was (prior to my weight gain recently) a healthy 250 pds, and was reduced to tears in a grocery store trying to find granola bars. The storry is sad, true, scary, and slightly funny all at the same time.

I've also managed to put on about 25-30 pds in the last 2-3 weeks as well. One of the side effects I personally got when I went too long between doses (or now in trying to stop completely and was feeling after reducing doseage) is a weird nausea feeling (I suppose similar to the one others have felt too). If you've ever felt nausea from being overly hungry, this is the type of nausea feeling I get. I feel like my body needs some food to help it feel better, so I eat and eat, and it's a very temperal relief (unfortunately, even the temporal relief doesn't always come), then the nausea is back. Hence the 25-30 pounds in the last 2-3 weeks.

In closing, I think it is sad that most doctors probably do not fully understand the drug. I know the manufacturer states that the side affects occur in about 10% of those that use the drug. However, I wonder what the percentage of severe side affects is in those that try to come off of the drug? I'm sure it has to be very high as the only thing my doctor made clear was to talk to him when/if I want to ever come off of the drug. THESE SIDE AFFECTS FROM COMING OFF OF THE DRUG ABSOULTELY NEEDS TO BE MADE CLEAR TO PATIENTS BEFORE THEY START OUT ON THIS DRUG!
Thanks,
M