Sensitivity to light symptoms and conditions

I'm a 47yo female & sorry for putting this as a reply to another post - new here:

Gosh.. glad I found this place - have been taking Warfarin for AF for about 2 weeks now and have been slowly sliding down hill. Thing is you just never know when to contact a doctor hey.

My symptoms, bloating, weight gain already, light headed, blurred vision, have had numbness & tingling in right arm and leg, and now I'm slowly getting colder and colder, and have a high sensitivity to light. Just started my monthly cycle and it's literally flooding, and I have an awful pain in the left hand side of my neck - it's sharp and unbearable at times. Some days when I'm driving home from work I feel I should pull over, not sure what my body is going to do to me next. I lack concentration, am crabby most of the time (and was picked up on that today at work) - and very emotional.

I don't like this at all - at what point do I mention any of this without seeming like a whinger?
I have a physical job, which has been reduced to 'light duties' due to the risks at the moment, which I'm grateful for. Today I bumped my thumb only slightly and it swelled up in a bloody lump - the blood has disappeared but the swelling is still there together with 'loose' skin where the originally larger swelling was. Everything seems just so weird.. I don't feel like ME any more - I want ME back :((

I am a 48 year old female with a-fib. I am not overweight...just started falling apart since now I am menopausal. I've been on Warfarin for 6 weeks. My INR has hardly moved. I'm now on 8 mg and have my INR test on Monday. I started at a 0.9. Now I'm at 1.20 and have been there for three weeks in spite of upping the warfarin. I've not changed my diet except to exclude greens and green tea when I began the therapy. Everything else is consistent.
I just started exercising again a week ago. Something I haven't done in five years since I lost my sister. I bought a Total Gym and enjoy it. It has helped me get some energy back, has helped alleviate some of the mental fog, and has lowered the incidence of anxiety attacks. (I've been getting anxiety lately...since the mental fog and memory lapses...that bothers me since I love to read and write and the mental fog seems to be taking the joy out of it now.) The reason I decided to start strength training again is because of the joint pain I have been experiencing lately. I didn't have it before warfarin. I do now. Only one joint, though. The strength training does help, but every once in awhile, that sharp pain comes back to visit. It's just a little less now.
I plan to tell the doctor that I have begun strength training again. Not just because it's good for me and my heart, but it seems to help with the side effects of menopause and warfarin...without adding another drug like an antidepressant.
Warfarin...I believe is a life saving drug. BUT, I have to do my part too.

BTW, if I didn't have triple thick hair, I would complain about hair loss. Right now, it's a non issue for me. Just saves money at the hair dresser.

I was prescribed Dexpak for sudden severe pain in my back. The pain was gone the third day but the side effects of this drug are so horrible that I will never take it again. Besides the common steroid side effect of sleeplessness, on day 4 I started noticing vision problems, cloudiness of my eyes. On day 5 my taste was gone and my tongue felt like I had burned it with hot liquid. The tongue also started blistering. Then my legs started swelling so bad that my socks left about a 1" rim above my ankles. On day 8 I was done with this drug. 2 hours sleep per night, extreme mood swings, depression, heavy acid reflux and stomach pain, constant and excessive urination and incontinence, the skin on my hands extremely dry and cracking and the worst, my tongue and gums so swollen and painful that I could hardly eat right and decided to taper off early. I went 2 more days 2 - 1 and 1 - 1, then I quit. First steroid free day I awoke with a massive candida albicans outbreak under my breast about the size of a dinner plate. By the evening my knees were abnormally swollen and painful and I was scared to fall asleep because my heart was pounding like a hammer. Next day I was hardly able to get out of the bed. My hands were looking worse and I developed very painful bumps on the skin of my skalp. The slightest stroke of the hair brush hurt. All my leg joints were hurting, my face and eyes were swollen, I had pressure behind my eyes and sensitivity to light, and a debilitating headache. I felt so bad, that I thought I would die. Went to the doctor that evening just to hear that all these are side effects (which I was not told when starting this drug) and was released with Lasix for the excessive fluid and Candida medication and the order to have my eyes checked. I have taken steroids before but never ever experienced such serious side effects. Wished I had never started this and had rather dealt with the back pain then going through this cruel ordeal!

I work at a computer all day. I have just begun taking Wellbutrin and I have noticed that my eyes seem to be getting more and more sensitive to the light on my screen. A couple days ago, I was looking at a paper and then back at the screen while I typed and, my eyes just went out of focus. It was like I was looking cross-eyed. There were two of everything and it made me really dizzy. I have had inner ear problems in the past and I don't know if the Wellbutrin is triggering them or what. I am not using alcohol or other medications other that Benadryl at night. Has anyone else experienced this? This is scary.

Im only 16 years old and ive been on levaquin for about 3 days now. My doctor told me off the bat that the only thing wrong with the drug were some "theories" on cartilidge damage, how ever, now i see for myself, and for many other people that is not the only side effect. He told me that no one under 18 is supposed to have it but i caught a severe case of sinutitus, and a uti which ive had for 2 months and nothing was working, so he put me on levaquin, once a day for 7 days. Ive now been having the following symptoms and im extremely scared!!
1. Constant fatigue
2. Extreme Migraines
3. Nausea, vomiting
4. Rapid heart beat (and chest pain)
5. Stiffness in joints and horrible pain...
6. Constant anxiousness, to where i cant get to sleep
7. Dizziness

Is there anyone i can talk to who's had these same problems? please email me or something im scared and i don't know what to do my mother doesn't believe me and she says its just a head cold....

******

Please help me!!

I'm so glad that I found this site because I was beginning to think that something was seriously wrong with me. I started taking Nuvaring almost 2 months ago. 5 more days and I can take it out...FOREVER!!!!

At first, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread...and then the weight gain began. My husband said maybe it was just that I was eating junk. Maybe...so I started back on Weight Watchers. I can not lose a single pound, and when I have counted points in the past the pounds fell off the first week or two. I've gained 15 lbs since I started Nuvaring. The strange thing is that it is all just around my stomach. It is like a big spare tire. I've gained very little in the rest of my body.

I also noticed pretty bad cramping after I put it in. It was pretty much all the time, not just during certain parts of my cycle.

Then I started to get headaches. Not little headaches, but debilitating migraine headaches. The sensitivity to light is almost unbearable when I have one of these. Many times I find myself going to bed at 8 pm when I put my son to bed. Pretty much all I ever want to do is sleep. Sex? Nope, not interested. (Very different from how I was in the past.) Huh, I guess it works as birth control because it promotes abstinence!

The worst part is that I am soooooo depressed. Like major depression. I have usually been a pretty even keel personality, but since starting Nuvaring I find myself wondering what I have to live for. I've come to the conclusion that if it weren't for my husband or son, I'd rather just be dead. I've even found myself thinking about how I would want to die. It has gotten so bad that I haven't been to work in almost 2 weeks. I have so much anxiety that I actually feel scared to go. My husband finally called a doctor for me on Wednesday and I start therapy on Monday. I hope that the side effects will go away soon after I take the ring out, but I am very afraid that I might be like this for a while.

I question how so many of us have these HORRIBLE side effects and yet no one in the medical profession has even questioned whether something is amiss. It seems to me that I better just have another child and then have my tubes tied so I don't ever have to mess with all this awful birth control stuff again. (I was bad about taking pills on time, so I ended up having spotting most of the month, which kind of defeated the purpose.)

I'm thankful that I found this site and now I know that I am not alone!

I don't know for sure but I am suspicious:-
I took omeprazole for the first time last Saturday (6 days ago) and noticed that same night an acute sensitivity to light which has persisted. Starting the following day I had a severe headache persisting until today. Went to doctor today and blood pressure is up from normal to a little high to 170/112. I've been feeling dizzy with chest pains/palpitations - thought I was going to have a heart attack.

I cannot thank you people enough for writing about yaz. At first I was on yasmine. I was completely fine, I probably gained 5 pounds but that was it. I was on that pill for almost 2 years. I switched to Yaz because I wanted shorter periods. I immediately gained almost 15 pounds. I became extremely depressed for no reason. I started having sensitivity to light and pain behind and in my eyes. I was on it for about 3 months, now I have stopped taking birth control altogether. It has only been a week or so but I'm starting to think this birth control really messed me up. I have had panic attacks before, but I know what triggers them and probably had them once a year. It was something I could deal with. Now I have been off the pill for a week and have already had 3 severe and a couple less severe panic attacks. I literally cannot leave my house without triggering some sort of anxiety or fear. For right now, I can't live the life I want to. I am 19 years old, I've been trying to get a job and I go to school. The fear and panic in me is so severe, I do not know if I can even drive right now. On Monday, I'm going to my doctor to tell her what this did to me. Good luck to all of you out there.

My 17 year old daughter started taking Yaz, and before she finished the first pack she was going crazy. Severe anxiety, overwhelming feelings, depression, aggression, and finally crying jags, the last of which lasted 2 hours with anxiety, when we finally put 2 and 2 together! What a nightmare week, as things escalated. She also was not thinking rationally, I think because of the anxiety. Of course NONE of this is mentioned on any Yaz list of side effects or any WebMD type pages on the internet!! Damn Big Pharma. They can say anything in the TV adds, the FDA does not regulate them. Luckily, it wore off in 24 hours.

I have been taking Wellbutrin for 3 days and I have had splitting head aches, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, and the out of it feeling. I was prescribed to help my focus in college but wasn't feeling depressed. This drug hasn't helped my focus one bit and actually made me LESS focused.

I have had the worst case of severe tension headaches, I would classify them as migraines due to the sensitivity to light and feeling of such disorientation and nausea, followed by loss of appetite. So when I finally eat my stomach goes into shock and I have severe "stomach issues" to put it lightly.No matter what I do I cant shake this feeling of fatigued headaches and Nausea. I am tired of feeling like I am on this emotional rollercoaster. I always feel like I am drugged up and its an awful feeling. The ring is out and I will never go back to using it! I realize each person reacts differently to certain birth controls but I did my research prior to starting the NuvaRing and 8 out of 10 testimonials that I read said Severe headaches, nausea,stomach and bowel problems followed by depression. I would not recommend this to any of my girlfriends. Good luck I hope I can help some woman out there from my experience.

27 yr old healthy male. Have red-irritated eyes, occasional sneeze and runny nose, live in Denver (highly polluted). Come to think about it, never started having symptoms until after about 1 yr of living here. Symptoms have persisted for 2 yrs now. Maybe I should move?

doctor thought was allergies, so tried: Patanol, Singulair, Claritin, Duramist = no help. Eyes are still itchy, eyelids are embarrassingly red (I look like I'm high all the time). After 4 months on Singulair, noticed significant weight gain, dehydration, and sensitivity to light. Couldn't work out, play paint ball. Urine was always dark yellow. Singulair seemed to help at first, but as time went on, symptoms were worse and had additional problems, weight gain, etc. Things seemed to be spiraling out of control, and I am really depressed b/c there seems to be no solution.

I complained of some loss of vision (i.e. blurriness, hard to focus), so doctor sent me to ophthalmologist. They prescribed glasses and said I have dry eye like that person posted on Nov 18th. They told me to wash my eyes with baby soap. No help! These people have no idea what to do, I got fed up and quite taking Singulair after reading this website. I hope to lose weight and start working out again. I can't believe that doctors prescribe Singulair and have no idea (NO IDEA!) of all of us who must suffer from this terrible drug.

I don't do drugs, drink occasionally and have really cut down trying to get this problem solved. I have become sensitive to caffeine, if I drink coffee, my eyes hurt so bad, I can hardly keep them open. I'm going to do as much research as I can to find a solution. I trusted my doctors - bad idea!

-Unable to sleep
-Awful taste ALL THE TIME
-Nausea
-Dizziness
-Sensitivity to light, and sound
I have an upper respiratory infection, I'm unsure if the Nausea, and Dizziness have something to do with that, but I've taken this stuff before, not the 500Mg, and have never had the nausea, and restless night. My eyes are extremely sensitive, as well, after only 2 1/2 days

10/08/07

Started Lisinopril this morning. After taking a 4 hour nap, I awoke to a nasty, dull, headache. It lasted 6 hours and was accompanied by light nausea, thought it was a migarine, without the sensitivity to light! Next morning I awoke to find the dull headache still with me, accompanied by neck ache and dry throat, started to cough an hour after coming to work. Blood pressure seems to have adjusted back to normal, but what good is it if you feel this bad!
First time and the last time I take Lisinopril!

I recently was given 200mg over the recommended pharmaceutical dose of Lamictal. My dr.'s partner prescribed this after a trip to the ER for a seizure to get me by until I could see my regular neurologist at the beg. of the week. The extra dose caused major blurred vision side effects, inability to walk, extreme sensitivity to light, and nausea. I am now at 400mg of Lamictal and starting Topomax with it so I hope this works. Any thoughts from anyone else taking this med combo?

I was started on Levaquin 750mg for a sinus infection on April 27th 2007 for a sinus infection. I took it that evening and the next morning I could hardly open my eyes due to the severe sensitivity to light. I didnt connect the two at the time. So I continued to take the pills until May 5th. I felt as what I would describe as "loopy". It has been three days since I took the last one and I have never felt so awful in my life. While I was on them it felt as if i had a 10lb weight on top my head. It just felt so heavy!! Which I still didnt connect because I thought it was just a sinus headache. Today 3 days off the med I feel somewhat better but I have numbness on the right side of my face and hearing loss in my right ear also blurred vision in my right eye. I am so scarred that I will never feel normal again. I also have some confusion and short term memory loss. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if so when does it go away? Does it ever go away? I told my NP and she said that it was probably just sinus pressure, but I have always had sinus problems and never felt like this. I think that it was this medication. I wish to god that I would have looked up possible side effects before I ever took this. I would have much rather dealt with a sinus infection than this war going on inside of my head. I need some help, please if anyone has experienced this or has any suggestions I am more than willing to try anything at this point. Oh yeah, I also had terrible joint pain in my right shoulder and elbow.

This is about Blepharitis, a very uncomfortable eye/eyelid condition of unkown origin. I was diagnosed with blepharities a couple of months after starting to take Singulair 10 mg. I have also experienced weight gain and severe depression. Also experienced extreme sensitivity to light, compulsive blinking (tic-like behavior) of the eyelids. The eye doc told me I might have to get bo-tox injections to stop my eyelids from blinking. Today it occurred to me to research here and other places whether the singulair could have caused the eye condition. I have seen enough here to make me decide to discontinue the Singulair for a few days. I have been taking it in the morning, and I have noticed that my symptoms have been minimal in the morning before taking the pill, and have been at their peak about three hours after taking the pill. Unfortunately, I have already taken the tablet today, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to begin the experiment. This is the first time I have put all this together and realized there is a strong possibility of a conneciton.

I have been on the NuvaRing for a little over a year now. Up until a few months ago it has been fine. I have gained a little weight but I don't know if I can blame that on the ring since my activity level has changed. But now I am having SEVERE headaches with sensitivity to light. They started out coming once a week or so but now they are almost everyday. The doctor has given me a CT Scan to rule out anything else but she thinks its my ring.

swelling on the face accompanied my redness. sensitivity to light and headache.

I am a 52 yr old female. Just finished my 6 day supply of 20mg prednisone. I have shoulder impingement in both shoulders. Prednisone is a NIGHTMARE MEDICATION! I had several of the side effects mentioned. It lessened the pain in my shoulders, but the side effects were far worse. I had difficulty sleeping (bad dreams), anxiety, depression, severe hot flashes,sensitivity to light, heart beating rapidly. I felt like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I didn't recognize myself in the mirror. There was this old wretched looking person looking back at me. Now after the medication is gone the pain is back.Whoopdedo. 6 days of misery and torment for that! Never again!

I have been on 50mg of Toprol for mitral prolapse for about 8 years. At times I am experiencing confusion and cloudy thinking along with occasional blurred vision/sensitivity to light. I still have some palpitations and erratic heartbeat, mostly at night when I lay down. The confusion is awful.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Re: side effect:Joint pains,etc
OMG!!!!
I was on this pill for just around 2 mos,and I started feeling joint pains,in the back of my leg,from my upper back to the back of my neck.
I felt spaciness,and sensitivity to light.
and i have NEVER EVER felt such symptoms in my life before.
I have gone off it for almost 3 weeks now,and I hope it gets better soon.
I had a period after going off it,headaches,and foggy and dizziness.
I am not sure when this will dissipate.
And NO doctor could figure this out

I just started taking singulair 2 weeks ago for my asthma.. i am 15. starting around a week after i started the medication.. it was the day after easter. I got up in the morning and had a very scary dizzy sensation, where i couldnt stand up straight.. and everything turned black.. and it was as if my hearing had faded. this happened again a few days after that. now it happened yesterday. and 5 times already today.. the doctor says i should go to the ER. but my mom thinks i should just try to not take it to see what happens. i get very dizzy when i get up from sitting or laying down...faded hearing. sensitivity to light, instant headache, naseau, sweaty, tired, and the 5th time it happened today i saw a flash of white light(kind of like a halo effect(type of migrane)) and then the blackness started. i dont know if im having petit mal seizures, lethargy, convulsions, or simple partial seizures, but i think its getting worse what ever is going on from this medicine.

Posting to fix typographical error, other changes made.

Flomax should not be used by anyone. It attacks the eyes. One would never want to hurt the eyes. One will not be able to have cataracts removed, either. I took a single pill, before I knew this, and yet some side effects keep increasing for one week now. I guess my liver is not very good. Without a healthy enough liver, this stuff might remain in blood forever. I don't know what is going to happen. I have no control. I stopped immediately, but the drug effects keep marching on, because drug is still active. Some side effects which are increasing even though I took only one pill: unusual and severe back pain, constipation, excessive sensitivity to light, blurrier vision, headache, transitory sharp pains in eyes. Other side effects which remain but are not increasing are insomnia, (at best now I have restless inferior pieces of sleep with somewhat changed dreams, not restful sleep, a completely different sleeping pattern and experience), also a few nasal things remain that are not getting worse. Over-all am morbidly affected by this change in health this last week, especially distressed I guess by changes in vision, at least some of which and maybe all are permanent, and in the sudden lack of hope for removing cataracts in the future. My sense of self is of course changed and the knowledge of my lack of sufficient thoroughness in checking this drug out, recklessness in using, doesn't help either, but the main thing is simply being less healthy.

Http://www.crstoday.com/PDF%20Articles/0405/crst0405_f5_chang.pdf

The above link is for a PDF. The link below is to a different article, but is HTML.

Http://www.revoptom.com/index.asp?page=2_1596.htm

Floomax should not be used by anyone. It attacks the eyes. One would never want anything ever to hurt the eyes. One will never be able to have cataracts removed, either. I took one pill, before I knew this, and yet some side effects keep increasing for one week now. I guess my liver is not very good, I'm age 64. Without a healthy enough liver, this stuff might remain in blood forever. I don't know what is going to happen. Some side effects which are increasing even though I took only one pill: unusual and severe back pain, constipation, sensitivity to light, blurrier vision, headache. Other side effects which remain but are not increasing are insomnia, at best now I have restless inferior pieces of sleep with somewhat changed dreams, not restful sleep, a completely different sleeping pattern and experience, also a few nasal things remain but are not getting worse. Over-all am morbidly affected by this change in my health this last week, especially distressed I guess by changes in vision, at least some of which and maybe all are permanent, and in the sudden lack of hope for removing cataracts in the future. My sense of self is of course changed and the knowledge of my lack of sufficient thoroughness in checking this drug out, recklessness in using, doesn't help either, but the main thing is simply being less healthy.