Nasty effects symptoms and conditions

hi my name is T.im 17 and i have had severe asthma and allergies since i was 2. i was put on the singulair drug when i was 10 i started having nightmares about my percents dying and severe depression and anxiety.my parents thought it was just a phase kids go through.i realized all this didn't start happening until i started taking the drug, so i refused to take it anymore. well now im 7 years later my parents EMT,and pulmonologist.think its a wonderful idea to start taking it again so my parents give it to me and make sure i take it each night,bc my allergies are so bad. ive warned them once,but i guess they will all see what happens

I've been on Levaquin for only 2 days, combined with Prednisone... Taking them due to a nasty sinus infection. One of these two meds is making every joint in my body hurts, as well as me having lost almost every bit of my sense of taste. I ate general tso's chicken today for lunch and could not taste anything, so as an experiment I ate one of those little red Chinese peppers that I normally throw out because they are WAY too hot - I couldn't taste a thing. Last night I had to drop the air condition down to 68 degrees as one of these two meds made me sweat very heavily and uncomfortably hot.

My 13 yr old daughter was put on Singulair along with Asmanex and Clarinex for her asthma about 6 weeks ago. Everything seemed to be going very well at first and her symptoms were starting to get controlled. I started noticing after about 3 to 4 weeks that her temper and attitude were getting much worse. Anyone with children this age knows what I mean but this was like a 180 degree turn for her. Her actions were becoming totally out of character. Before I knew it she would cry and get highly upset over the least little thing. Week 5 came around and things totally bottomed out. She came home from school and WAS NOT HERSELF. Made comments about how she hated her life and it was not worth living. Later that evening we had a big argument because I was telling her nothing was worth saying that. She went totally out of control and I had to physically restrain her to calm her down. It appeared everything was better so she went to her room. I went down to check on her and she calmly told me that she had taken advil and tylenol pm and things would be better for her forever now. We went to the ER where they made us wait for at least an hour, then finally took her back. She had to drink two cups of charcoal and was poked and prodded repeatedly. They did a catheter to get a urine sample. She was very cooperative but also was in a complete daze so who knows. The poor child couldn't even lift her head up when she started the vomiting to get rid of the drugs. It was very upsetting and sad. Her heart rate and blood pressure went very low and I really thought in the back of my mind that this was it. Finally, after several hours she started coming out of it and they sent us home. The next evening when she was starting to really come around she proceeded to tell me how she had been seeing a man walking around in her bedroom at night and she was afraid to go down there. Breaking down and crying telling me about all of the horrible nightmares she had been having recently and didn't know why. I thought what am I dealing with here? This just isn't her. Three days ago I heard about singulair in the news and looked it up on the internet. OH MY GOD THIS SOUNDED LIKE US!!!!! I immediately had her stop taking it and the next day phoned her asthma specialist who agreed she should stop now. We are going to watch her for two weeks and see if any symptoms return and then decide if she needs something else or will be fine on just the Asmanex. As a side note, she also mentioned being unable to concentrate in school (unable to do even the simplest math problems) and that her brain felt confused or like something was missing. She said this had been bothering her for several weeks. I know it was this drug. They really need to take this off the market NOW and stop flirting with disaster. The only reason I posted this was to let others know they are not alone.

Unfortunately my lawyer told me that they do not want to take our case because of the lack of evidence that Singulair has caused our daughters problems. :(

Does anyone out there have a pending class action lawsuit that We may be able to get in on? I have tons of proof that Singulair has caused our daughters problems and loss of almost 5 years of her elementary school career!

My phone number is *** and my email is ****** if You email me please put "Singulair" in Your subject line so I know it pertains to this posting.

Thank You in advance,
Chuck & Brenda
Jamestown New York

Effective after two weeks for some people - not effective for others. Side effects for some people - others do not report side effects. So why does Merck have to grow their market before they have any idea what's going on?

This isn't a big group of people in the study but it makes sense from what we are reading here. These researchers did examine the mast cells. We need to know about mast cells (while suppressed by montelukast) on a longer term basis.

J Asthma. 2008 Apr;45(3):243-50. Links
The efficacy of montelukast and airway mast cell profiles in patients with cough variant asthma.Kawai S, Baba K, Matsubara A, Shiono H, Okada T, Yamaguchi E.
Division of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Department of Internal Medicine, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Aichi, Japan.

Background. Cough variant asthma (CVA) is characterized by chronic cough without apparent wheezing; its pathophysiology is considered to be similar to that of classic asthma. Objective. The clinical effects of montelukast, a cysteinyl-leukotriene receptor antagonist, on cough variant asthma were assessed, and the activation profile of airway mast cells was examined. Methods. Montelukast (10 mg/day) was given orally to 36 CVA patients (25 women and 11 men; median age, 37.5 years). Before treatment, the patients' bronchial mucosa underwent a biopsy with a fiberoptic bronchoscope. The biopsy specimens were double stained with anti-CD63 antibody and anti-human tryptase antibody. Results. After 2 weeks of montelukast treatment, cough symptoms improved in 22 patients (the effective group) but did not improve in 14 patients (the ineffective group); in the ineffective group, the symptoms disappeared 2 weeks after they were switched to fluticasone propionate (400 mug/day) inhalation therapy. In the effective group, the time interval from the onset of symptoms to the initiation of treatment was significantly shorter than in the ineffective group. The bronchial mucosa biopsy specimens showed that the proportion of CD63-positive cells in tryptase-positive mast cells was significantly higher in the effective group than in the ineffective group; although the total numbers of mast cells were not different between the two groups. Conclusion. There is a subgroup of CVA patients in whom leukotrienes are closely involved in the pathogenesis of their chronic cough; activation of airway mast cells may be an essential feature in these patients.

PMID: 18415834

Hello,

about a week ago I admitted myself to ER because of terrible breakout of hives (never had them before) but was covered from head to toe.

Doctor prescribed PREDNISONE 80mg for 4 days, and gave me an IV with the drug a week ago Saturday night (don't know how much was there), 12/29/07, I took my daily dose 80mg Sunday noon. I only slept about an hour or two. By new years eve 12/31, I have started getting cold chills, feeling unbearably cold, then the next day 1/1, I felt like I was 100 years old, all my joints were stiff, I couldn't get up from bed, couldn't sleep much but there is still more.

By Wednesday I have felt even more stiff and hives were not going away, I went to the doctor (my stiffness went away after couple hours in the morning) he prescribed more PREDNISONe for another week, luckily I have stopped taking the medication after 5 days of 80mg, plus whatever they gave in in an IV but I still have what I think are side effects from taking it.

Ankles are still sore, I cannot sleep because an extreme numbness sets in my left hand middle to index finger, it is no numb it hurts like an elephant is sitting on it, that is why I am still up at 4:30 in the morning. When I am up it just tingles. Not sure what to do but can't sleep at all for last 3 days and getting really tired.

If I knew what Prednisone does I would never take any of it, I'd rather deal with hives oh and they still didn't go away, I have had them for about 10 days now, they did stop itching. Honestly I felt very very sick a day after taking it, I didn't associate this with Prednisone, until I found this website. Please if you can stop taking it or see for yourself how much you should take 80mg is definitely too much, for me at least.

Did anyone have to deal with joint stiffness, and numbness how long does it take for it to go away. My wife says to to ER again because I can't sleep I am just very uncomfortable with the numbness and rattle in bed, but guess what they could shoot me up with more Prednisone.

I am not a doctor, but I suggest that everyone who is taking prednisone and having these nasty effects...to get weaned off of them. THIS DRUG IS NO GOOD!! My Rheumy rushed me off these pills just last week and doesn't want me back on them...unless I run in to a crisis with my Lupus. I have been on these pills on and off since 1997 and the side effects are ugly. Constant craving for anything I could get my hands on, round face, mood swings, no sleep, brittle bones and bones cracking,sleepless nights and one major problem was the thinning of my hair. Boy did it do a number on my hair. So I am trying to grow it back little by little by taking baby steps. That's what my Rheumy told me. So I am just on the Plaquenil and taking my multivitamins. I am just hoping for some resolution and I wish you guys all the same. But please think about another alternative to prednisone. That drug is awful.

I have read with interest (?) the 'downers' here about Lipitor (Atorvastatin). Most of the posts here are anti Lipitor.
One I read seemed to be ok with it. I have been taking Lipitor 20 mg for 18 months. Sure I have memory loss (I am 62 years of age) ... who doesn't have lapses of memory. Sure I have aching joints ... had that checked out by X-RAY's and it turns out I have arthritis, which I suspected. That's not funny. And sure I have occasional muscle fatigue - that could be due to many things particularly not getting enough exercise which I admit - and that's MY responsibility. And sure there are people who have allergic reactions to many drugs, and to many vitamin and mineral supplements as well - I feel for those people. I am allergic to Penecillin myself.

Many people here might be simply allergic to Lipitor ingredients. Others might have some underlying problem which has been exacerbated by Lipitor - still others may have had those underlying problems for a lot longer than they've been taking Lipitor but it has become easier to blame the Lipitor.

I was particularly concerned at the number of people who have taken themselves off the drug virtually overnight. I have been told and have read many times it can be dangerous to suddenly stop a medication - should be weaned off it. Sudden stopping of a medication can result in liver enzymes going out of kilter and other unwanted, sometimes quite nasty, effects.

As for the drug companies not giving warning - here in Australia anyone can go to their chemist (pharmacist) and have printed out for them, the side effects to any drug.
I think that comes under the Freedom of Information Act.

All I can say in conclusion is - Lipitor has worked wonders for me, and in working those wonders - reducing the bad AND increasing the good Cholesterol, they have taken one worry away from me - that of premature death or severe illness due to high cholesterol. My Doctor advised me (after I had dieted, exercised etc) that she was not surprised those regimens had not worked, and these were her words " a largish person can eat fat drenched food and have low cholesterol all their lives and a slender person who eats well - abstains from fats etc. can have very high cholesterol - No one factor determines it"

Hope you all obtain some form of relief - some way from life threatening high cholesterol. Anne.