Insult to injury symptoms and conditions

I have been reading these posts for awhile now and am so glad to have found them.
I am a 25yr female with epilepsy and have been on lamictal for the past 4yrs. I changed from epilim because I was getting married and heard that lamictal was safer in case of pregnancy. Not long after I found myself getting very angry over small things and not being able to sleep. I thought this was just me so I tried to get myself together. It went on for some time before I gave up and got help. I was diagnosed with depression and given fluoxetine. This helped me get back on my feet but I did not want to be on it long term and have been of the fluoxetine 2yrs. I still struggle with my mood but is manageable which I am happy for.
I did not realize that the headaches and the memory loss I had were from the lamictal until I found this forum then it all made sense. I had always thought that I was staying up too late and hence getting headaches. As for the memory I often feel like a blithering idiot. Cant remember words and often the wrong ones come out its so embarrassing. So often I feel like I'm in a daze and life is passing me by.
After all this said I have not heard of any other drug that would be any better. I have found comfort in knowing that I am not alone in this. There are a lot of people that do not understand the effects of medication or take it seriously when I try to explain. If there is anyone out there that is keen to chat about epilepsy or lamictal I would love to talk.

My son is 11 years old. He has been on Singulair for about six years. Ihave taken him to see a psychologist twice because of his terrible mood swings. He was diagnosed with depression last year. I am very concerned about this drug now. He has also suffered from migraines for two years. I also pulled him out of school and started homeschooling him because of the stress of school was causing three migraines a month. I also have a 19 year old boy who is not on singulair now. He took it for 8 years and was diagnosed with ADHD. He also went through depression as a child. I am making a appointment for my son to go back to his allergy doc tomorrow. Also I am not blaming my sons illness on singulair, but I am terrible concerned that it could have harmed my sons.

Extreme nausea, stiff joints, weak, dizzy, quickened pulse.
11/08/08
After taking just one dose of Levaquin, I can say with confidence, this is the atom bomb of antibiotics. My doctor was off for three days, so I went to a walk-in clinic with a solid reputation in Westport CT. My problem was a sinus infection that had gotten slightly better after a round of Clarithrymicin, but was reincarnating itself every week or so with new symptoms. At the time of the visit, I had been sick almost 6 weeks, and now had a phlegmy cough and felt run-down.

The doctor prescribed Levaquin rather casually, said I seemed to have a touch of bronchitis. He never mentioned possible side effects, asked no questions about my history. Adding insult to injury, when paying for the scrip at CVS, I discovered, that having exceeded the cap my insurer pays for medications, 10 tabs of Levaquin cost me $219 -- the good news was, without an insurance discount, it would have cost $310, To his credit, the pharmacist looked embarrassed.

After taking one tab, 750 mg, around 7:00 pm, I woke at 3:00 am feeling very nauseous. I used deep breathing to get back to sleep. In the morning, I felt better, my cough was already gone, but the nausea continued. As the day wore on, my joints felt dry and stiff, my heart raced, I was weak and dizzy. The thought of taking another tab felt like participation in my own poisoning.

I looked up Levaquin on Medications.com, and was glad so many people had taken the time to report their stories. In the end, I didn't take another tab, and don't much feel like ever going to a doctor again. My symptoms hardly justified such a powerful blast. Doctors need to question the authority of their masters, the greedy pharmaceutical ghouls.

Okay , so I poste on 10/25 some of my symptoms. I started off well but did not maintain that way. It hit me on Friday like a ton of bricks. Nausea, Mood swings, Hot Flashes, Stomach Pain. Insomnia, Dizziness, and back pain. I decided on Monday to discontinue the medication and call the doctor. She absolutely said to STOP it. I have been off for 2 days and I noticed within 24 hours I was able to walk around and complete some of my daily tasks. Still having Nausea, but most all I feel like my stomach right under my rib cage at the top is Bloated!! The palpitations were too nerve wrecking. I am wondering if I really messed myself up. Still have back pain but to add insult to injury. I am now Bleeding SO HEAVY, that it is really concerning me. I would never recommend the meds to anyone, I know everyone is different but , I truly felt that Death was warming over. I am usually the one who doesn't suffer from side effects of MEDS. Go Figure!! This forum is great and I was really surprised that people were actually having the same symptoms and posting them for others to read and relate to. I never thought I would find a forum about the meds that "I " was taking. Glad I stumbled upon this. Just be very cautious of your symptoms, only you know yourself and how you feel. Hope this post helps.

Honestly thank you for this website! I mentally feel better if not physically yet. I was prescribed 3 day/2 dose Bactrim for a UTI. I have NEVER had a reaction to antibiotics or any type of medicine. I can no longer say that.

That said...thought I was dying. My temperature was 102 for days, every muscle in my body felt so sore I felt like a car had hit me and then hit me again, ridiculous size headache, massive stomach pain, insomnia, thought I would faint every time I stood up, could barely walk, no appetite, etc. It was ridiculous and I thought I was going crazy because how can one medicine do all that?? I now have a whole new respect for antibiotics.

Since I was feeling so horrible by the 2nd day on it I went ahead and finished the last day. (hindsight probably stupid)

This is my first day off and all my muscles are still killing me, especially my neck, chest, stomach, back. Still feel weak and my temp. this morning was 101 and went down to 100 now.

And I don't know if it was the medicine or just being sick but I've been so 'out of it' today and just depressed. I can not WAIT for this medicine to be out of my system! And I will never use it again.

To add insult to injury I'm not sure if it cured the UTI all the way. Not running to the restroom but still have slight (non-painful) tingle down there.

I was on a combination of Seroquel and Depakote. My doctor took me off Depakote and increased my Seroquel from 300 mg to 600 mg to compensate. The first time I took the 600mg dose I ended up in the emergency room because it paralyzed me! My blood pressure was 80/40.
And, to add insult to injury, I had to eat the $750 ER bill because my health insurance disallowed it.

Wow! I've done a lot of reading post Mirena and wish I had spent the time before instead of just relying on the pamphlet from the Dr's office.

I made it a whole 3 days!

Insertion was fine but it should have raised a flag when the Dr said "oops, it slipped out, hang on one more minute". I felt fine all that day (Wednesday). By Thursday cramping was pretty intense, vomitting, diarrhea, low grade fever, lower back pain, headache, rapid heartbeat. Called Dr "Oops" & told me I had a stomach bug, symptoms not from Mirena. Friday sucked, stomach problems went away but everything else just got worse.

By Saturday I was immobile on the couch, no other way to describe it than to say it just friggen hurt! Dr "Oops" closed on the weekend so I went to the hospital. ER doc couldn't find the threads to take it out and didn't have the "magic tool" required to fish them out. His solution was take antibiotics for possible infection and a narcotic pain reliever (3 mo old little boy at home, narcotics not an option) and have it removed on Monday.

Being stubborn, I insisted on seeing the on-call OBGYN who was upstairs waiting to deliver a baby. He was kind enough to come down and fish the strings out without this "magic tool". The relief was immediate, especially given that the Mirena had turned 90 degrees inside me. I'm lucky it did no damage. This Dr explained that the symptoms should not have been that bad had it been in correctly.

I've been bleeding heavy with clotting since Sunday, cramping is nothing compared to what it was. Think I have a yeast infection brewing from antibiotics, just to add insult to injury. I am just glad to have it out!

I would have to rate Mirena up there in the top 5 most unpleasant experiences of my life. Please do your homework and weigh your options before trying Mirena. The pamphlet from the doctor's office doesn't tell the half of it. And if you do decide to have it, consider having it done on a Monday to give yourself a few days to see how you like it before the weekend arrives. I'm sure having it come out of place is rare, but I'm proof it can happen. Good Luck to all :)

I got serum sickness from Clindamycin. I had enormous hives everywhere, along with angioedema, fever, joint pain, and intense itching/burning. I had to take Prednisone for 10 days and, just to add insult to injury, later developed both thrush and a yeast infection.

I have experienced severe pain at injection site along with awful nausea and vomiting the first few weeks following the injections; unsightly rash/acne over neck, chest and shoulders that is taking over a month to clear; irregular and quite heavy menstruation...even midcycle... equaling three periods in 6 weeks. Palpitations sent me to my primary care md. These side effects have been an insult to injury and embarrassing. The rash has left scars and the constant bleeding has left me exhausted and a little scared. I use an SPF on my face...maybe why it was spared from the breakout. I told my orthopod about the breakout and he and his assistant laughed at me pretty much and said they never ever heard that before. I have been in to see my OBGYN, last week, and will speak to her soon about the likely correllation between Kenalog and my heavy/irregular and never ending periods. I did not make the OBGYN connection until after I read some testimonials. I was going to have some pretty uncomfortable obgyn tests done and they would have been in vain. It sounds like the pharm reps selling Kenalog...or a generic brand...have not been educating their docs on these awful and life changing side effects. I feel that the physicians choosing to use a specific corticosteroid should informl every patient what it is exactly they are injecting into them. Each woman shoud be told of the potential menstrual irregularities and major inconvenience. My husband and I have been trying to conceive and now it seems impossible.

I was given a five day course of this drug, levaquin. I did not have problems for the first 3 days. On the fourth day i experienced sleeplessnes, all over muscle pain, i was so tired that i could hardly put one foot in front of the other. When i did sleep I had such vivid awful dreams they would awaken me. The last time I had this reaction was when i took the drug that was to help you stop smoking. To add insult to injury the prescription cost me $67.00 on a fixed income.

Prescribed 10 day course ($113!!!!) for severe pneumoia, despite requesting to first try some I knew I tolerated well from past experience. (I smell kick backs here.) Within an hour of taking the first dose, I had horrible muscle pains and cramping. My intercostals (ribs) cramped so badly, all I could do was gasp for breath in tiny little pants, each of which felt like getting kicked in the ribs. Tachacardia, mild cynaosis. I began coughing up froth (sign of pulmonary edema.) After 4 hrs (and some codine) the pain gradually subsided.

Now, I'm no quitter, so I went on line and did some reading and realized the problem most likely was a potassium (K) deficiency. I loaded up on K and tried again. Very painful, but no cramping. Began to have chest pains. Insomnia.

Third day: Same as second except towards the end of the day, my heart began beating wildly and arrhythmically. I could feel it banging against my chest wall. Wildly erratic. Still coughing up white foam. Sharp chest pains. Insomnia. Normal rhythm gradually restored over 12 hr period but rate very high.

Needless to say, I have discontinued the course.

Adding a tad of insult to injury, the usage info given by pharmacist was pretty much dead wrong. His complete instuctions:
One a day on empty stomach.
No vitamins
Avoid sun.

Not a word about additional water, that the no vitamins was only for two hours before or two hours after dosing, that I should quit immediately if I experienced severe muscle or chest pain, swelling, skin rash or allergic reactions. And it makes no diff if your stomach is empty or not.

My advice is to tell your MD to make his marketing perks at someone else's expense and give you something safe and affordable. If you must take it, make sure you are K loaded before hand and stay that way. Drink lots of water.

TM - 53 - male - generally excellent health. Never had the slightest adverse rx to any med before this. Never bashed any med before and am not bashing this one. Just relating my experience. Be well.

Wow, I really had no idea that Ovcon could create cuch problems! Due to continual breakthrough bleeding my doctor switched me off of Ortho-Cyclen onto Ovcon. Threw up the first few days, then started taking it at night. I've gained 10lbs in 4 months! My breasts are huge and tender all the time (my husband loves this, I don't). I am incredibly irritable and weepy too...never been overly emotional before! I'm also breaking out like a teenager. To add insult to injury though, I still have spotting and have gotten my period during the last week of "active" pills EVERY time! I don't know what else to try, hopefully my doctor will.