September 12th
2008
2:24 PM
I have been on Lisinopril for 10 months and I have experienced horrible side effects. I am 48, pre-menopausal and I believed the side effects we due to my aging. I thought I was dying on this medication. I started having stomach problems, diarrhea, bloating, swelling in my throat, dizziness, cramps in my feet, constipation, weight gain, hair loss, shallow breathing, increase in my glucose levels making me pre-diabetic. Most importantly, I believe the drug contributed to the heart palpitations I experienced one month after starting the drug. I rushed to the hospital and had to wear a holter monitor for a day to monitor the irregular heart beats I was experiencing. My blood pressure was never stabilized until I started a new drug. I am now off this Lisinopril and taking a wonderful drug called Tekturna. Tekturna dropped my blood pressure down to 122/72 from 150/80. Talk to your doctor if you have experienced these side effects and demand a change.
-- By fieldska | Reply | Private Message me
July 8th
2008
6:53 PM
I have been on effexor XR 75mg. for 3 or 4 years and now I have decided to wean off. I never had any noticeable side effects on the drug. I decided to wean off not only because I felt I had been on it ample time but also because my liver enzyme count kept coming back high.My doctor put me on a dosage trail that will wean me off. I don't understand these posts about stopping cold turkey? Why? Why wouldn't you wean off? Anyway I have been taking a capsule every other day for 2 weeks (at bedtime). On my off day I do feel dizzy IE:vertigo, hot flashes, shallow breathing, extra tired. Before these symptoms would begin later in the day maybe around 5 PM and for some reason now 2 weeks in the symptoms seem to begin earlier. My doctor suggested after the 2 weeks that I take 1 capsule every 2 days instead of every other day. Because I have many pills left still I'm going to do 1 every other day for an extra week. To be honest I'm nervous about going every 2 days with out. So I may just end up reverting to 37.5 every other day then every 2 days and hopefully that will be easier. There are options here people. I wouldn't suggest effexor XR for any other depression than major depressive disorder. The healthiest alternative is to not be on anything and instead try less invasive methods such as therapy, consistent exercise etc. To each there own? Like I said the exception would be major disorder. Good luck.
-- By dgo314 | Reply | Private Message me
June 30th
2008
5:57 PM
I feel like I am SO tired on doxycycline. I'm on it for Lyme disease, had Rx for 3 weeks, was off it a week and started to have the joint pain relapse, so now I'm on it for four.
It seemed that I was finding myself with very shallow breathing too. It seems if I forget to take a dose or two, I'm not as tired.
I'm less focused and more forgetful, it's hard to get things done.
May 2th
2008
11:43 AM
I have been on Lamictal for approximately 7 years. The product initially seemed to work a bit on controlling my seizure activity, and did provide a bit more confidence in social situations. At this point I was taking 400mg per day, and had little side effects other than the absent mindedness, and occasional problems with vertigo.
Briefly, about a year ago, I began having an increasing number of partial and general seizures, and was brought up to a dosage of 700mg per day. It was at this point that I began noticing what could only be called "hard-core" side effects. These included days where I was just totally confused, paranoid, suicidal, having an unrelenting feeling of not being able to breath, feeling bloated in my abdomen, and regularly being struck with a very irregular, very scary, rapid heart beat.
At this point, I am taking 600mg per day, and am still having most of these side-effects, but in decreased frequency. My neurologist never mentioned any of these possible symptoms, and doesn't seem overly concerned about any of the problems that I have mentioned in the past. With this in mind, it is somewhat relieving to see that there are others out there who are noticing similar effects.
If anyone can explain the difficulty breathing thing a bit more, it might help me wrap my brain (no pun intended) around this whole mess. I'm not sure if it's related to a decrease in blood pressure - I've been monitoring mine and haven't seen any irregularities. Or if it's related to a decrease in the amount of oxygen in the circulatory system due to the drug itself, or as a side-effect of the shallow breathing I have read about in other posts here.
December 23th
2007
3:44 AM
Dosage: 0.4mg / Day for 5 days.
Age: 26
Occupation: Chemist
Physical:
Feels like something is pulling down on my lungs inside of my chest. Sinus blockage. It feels actually like Viagra where there is swelling in the sinus cavity but not due to mucus. Result is a slightly blocked airway in nasal passage. NO EJACULATE, able to orgasm, but nothing comes out. (A good male birth control pill?) Sporadic, short headaches (~2-4 / Day). Shallow breathing, shortness of breath after going up stairs. Feeling weak all day long. Most of these probably due to lower blood pressure.
Mental:
Wanting to sleep more. A small lack of motivation to socialize, but not major. Annoyed / Angered more easily and often. (could be due to NO EJACULATE!!) A little humor there. No, seriously, I am really easy to agitate now. I wouldn't say lower sex drive, but more controlled sex drive. I felt horny most of the time before Flomax, but now only when engaged in sexual activity. (kind of nice actually) Haven't noticed anything about dream alterations.
Side Note:
The ejaculation part scares me a little bit just as others have expressed. As long as it comes back when I am off that is fine. Flomax DOES NOT shrink the prostate, it relaxes the prostate. I can see why this may cause a lack of ejaculate since the prostate in a way, a sperm valve. I feel like this should really be listed in the side effects but I know that masturbation is not part of clinical trials. Interesting though...could it be used as a male birth control pill? The first few days, a small small volume of ejaculate came out. Now, at day 5, dry as a bone.
August 23th
2007
7:30 AM
I have been on Lamictal for 6 weeks, working up to 100 mg once a day for seizure control in addition to Topamax (100 mg) and Keppra (3,000 mg). As the dosage has increased, the side effects have become unbearably worse. I am so sick to my stomach, I can't eat. My headaches are horrible, and all I want to do is sleep. The only thing that keeps me from sleeping is my pounding pulse rate and shallow breathing... I'm still waiting on a phone call from the neurologist to see what I'm supposed to do about this.
I noticed several other mentions of a lack of ambition. I'm now noticing my own lack of will power. Good luck to all of you.
July 27th
2005
2:53 PM
I will NEVER take this medication again. I was perscribed Sulfameth 3 days ago for a mild UTI, and yesterday I called my doctor to have them call in a new perscription for me because I refuse to take that garbage any longer. I have had the most HORRIBLE headache I've ever felt, and I have a relatively high threshold for pain and discomfort. I've left work early due to vomitting and nausea, I've been dizzy, diapharetic, had a constant terrible taste in my mouth, I've experienced blurred vision and white spots in my vision, muscle aches, joint pain, muscle spasms, I've been unable to sleep even though I've been exhausted, I've been nervous, and near tears with a pounding heart beat and shallow breathing like an anxiety attack, I've had hot and cold sweats, indecisiveness, nervousness, intolerable neck and back pain, pain in my left kidney, and terrible sinus pain and pressure. This stuff is awful. When I went to pick up my new perscription for Cipro - something I've taken before with no negative side effects - the phamacist said I was probably allergic to sulfur drugs. Now I see that my experience was not unique. I wish I'd found this site before beginning Sulfameth. These side effects were terrible. I do not recommend this medication.
-- By theaterlady1 | Reply | Private Message me
December 29th
2004
7:40 AM
Started on 10mg of singulair almost 4yrs ago for chronic hives, never had asthma or allergies but after the hives disappeared my allergist kept me on singulair for my breathing. Lost almost 50 lbs at the gym and was breathing fine, running 1-5 mi a day, now if I stop taking singulair I feel tired, and feel tightness in my chest and throat, shallow breathing. Sometimes it feels like I could just stop breathing. Stopped for a week and a 1/2 but had to take again because of feelings described. Am going to try and take every 2-3 days and then try and wean myself off entirely. No nightmares, I usually don't remember dreams anyway.
-- By mack4o7 | Reply | Private Message me
December 5th
2004
11:19 PM
My daughter is 8 1/2 yrs old. She has been on Singulair, Advair 250, Zyrtec and Zantac for 1 1/2 years. While her asthma is very controlled, she is having side effects. She was a wonderful student and so happy. Within the last month she began having anxiety attacks. Small things that normally were no issue now make her cry. Within the last week, she cries anytime her mind is not occupied by tv, etc. Tonight she began shallow breathing while saying she was scared of monsters. I now must sleep & stay with her at all times. She cannot even go to school. This is a very smart , well adjusted child and I am certain 1 or a combination of the above medications have brought this on. Her other side effects were constipation, weight gain, stomache pain, blurry vision.
-- By cindydd1 | Reply | Private Message me
Lamictal (2) Singulair (2) Sulfamethoxazole (1) Doxycycline Monohydrate (1) Flomax (1) Fentanyl (1) Lisinopril (1) Effexor XR (1)
September 26th
2008
4:18 AM
I have been on the Fentanyl Patch for about 5-7 years now, for a condition called Loin Pain Hematuria Syndrome. It's rare (but more people are showing up with it) that is not life threatening and has no cure, but consists of serious pain in groin (loin) area, side pain (near kidneys) and sometimes around to back. It also consists of mid to large amounts of blood in the urine, it's known have thin blood vessels in the kidneys that allow blood cells to enter urine, but no real known reason of its cause. I am still pain free (just have discomfort on the third day before I change to a new patch) but after the first few years have started to have a lot of side effects and withdrawal symptoms. I change my patch at night and on the first day (the next morning) I feel fine and have no issues except a little sleepy from the night before. On the second day I get very sleepy, anxious, somewhat agitated easily, and a little depressed. On the third day, when I have to change my patch that night, I am even more sleepy to the point where I can barely keep my eyes open and they are heavy, all through the day and evening, I too have some memory issues but are not as much as the other side effects, I get low grade fevers that I can feel change over different areas of my body, shallow breathing in which it feels like it is sometimes hard to catch my breath, urinating often with not a lot of urine coming out (on third day only), some body aches, worrisome, more depressed, and weakness. Then after I change my patch the third night and it absorbs, I am wide awake and can hardly sleep. I even wake up every few hours on the second night, but the night I changy my patch is the worst, so I am tired the next day which is the first day on a new patch and the three day cycle starts all over again. I like that I am pain free, but at what cost? I am going to talk to my doctor again and they cannot pinpoint the nerves or areas of pain so I cannot have a pain pump, and I changed to this because I was getting so much break through pain between any pill form of pain medications. I did not like having to take pills every 4-6 hours. Has anyone else had this on Fentanyl or had the condition I have?
-- By gina9398 | Reply | Private Message me