Time and patience symptoms and conditions

How long does it take to be free of the side effects from taking Flomax? After being on 2 Flomax pills daily for over a year, I was still up 3x in the night. I stopped taking Flomax a month ago after reading here the side effects and realizing I suffered from many of them. Trouble sleeping, sinus headaches, almost zero libido etc. Question...when will the libido return?
R. (Ontario)

Despite the messages I've seen on this board, I actually have a success story. I've always had horrible experiences with birth control and this pill took time and patience, but I feel *so* much better now that I'm on it. The first 2 weeks were tough - and any birth control will take time to adjust to...you're putting hormones in your body after all - but now my mood swings are gone, my period is regulated plus it's lighter and shorter, I don't have any bloating or water retention, and my acne does not flare up at random.

The only side effects I've had are early afternoon headaches, which have nearly disappeared now that I'm in my second month. My body temperature has even stabilized so I'm not cold all the time (iron in the pill..??).

I was pretty determined to give this a good try because I was starting to completely skip over my period for some reason, and without a regular cycle I was gaining weight out of no where despite my desperate attempts to lose it (I was near anorexic and *still* gaining weight), I was a psycho b*%ch to be around, and when I'd wake up in the morning, my stomach was so bloated I looked pregnant! I'll take the slight side effects of this pill over that any day!

I had Mirena inserted at my 6 wk post natal check up, I have 3 little boys. I have not had a period, I have been breastfeeding so this is not unusual. I have had slight pelvic and lower back pain/pressure. I'm not sure what to think if anything. This is the second day. I'm trying to decide whether or not to see my doctor. I'm scaring myself by reading all of this info but don't want to ignore something that may be serious...Any comments or advice?

My three year old son has been off Singulair for @4 weeks now. He still is having these crying episodes, though not as long, often or severe as before, but to the point that still has my husband and I going nuts!! Has any one taken there child back to the doctor's to have them evaluated for these symptoms? If so were they any help.
Thanks for everyone posting their stories, this site has really helped!

I have a three year old son who has severe allergies. He's been taking singulair for 2 years on & off just in the allergy season. He started taking, singulair again in the beginning of April. One morning he woke up and both eyes were really swollen and red, I called his doctor's office and told them i thought he had pink eye, after 2 different drops and no change I brought him into the doctor's to see if it could be his allergies, and they agreed and started him on Zyrtec. I still was not impressed with the results so i brought him back yet again to see if we could see a specialist. Instead they put him on nasonex to try.
In the beginning of March I started to see a change in my usual happy fun loving son. He was scared to sleep in his bed, waking up in the middle of the night from bad dreams, uncontrollable screaming fits that would last up to an hour, saying he wants a Boo Boo. At first we thought it could be jealously over his new brother, or maybe something at his school.
Then i found this website and everything clicked, how scary it must be for a child to have these horrible thoughts and not be able to understand or stop them. What are the people at merck thinking??
Can any one tell me when the symptoms stop. He's been off for a week and we see some improvements. But he still has these fits with almost an OCD tendency to them (mainly when he's overtired), stomach pains, lack of appetite.

Well, if it's that way, I think I better don't react to anything again here. I got the feeling that you don't want to read what we all are trying to tell you, Kim. No one can tell you the one miracle thing to do against all that shit you and WE ALL are or were going through. There IS no miracle that can help, the only thing that helps IS TIME and PATIENCE, even if you still don't want to hear that.

I wish you all the best, believe me. But I'm also still not in a constitution where I can take such posts as yours now. I also come around here some days to find some help after two years of hell and still not being the 100% old me. And believe me, even after such a long time I'm still that desperate sometimes that I also still think about ending all that by myself one day, if I should not be getting completely healthy again ever in my life!

AND I just tried to help you also a hundred times you posted here (did you even notice???), but nothing seems to get through to you.

Bye.

Sorry Kim,

you had asked for an answer of Sarah, so I didn't react on your post.

But another thing: I really don't understand, what else you want to hear from us! Sarah had told you so many things, you could try to help with the anxiety. Did you even read her posts? And sorry, I don't think, that you really tried EVERYTHING prior to Lexapro. And if you did, you didn't do it long enough!

You wrote that you had tried Kava, St. Johns Worth, Valerian and nothing helped... Well, you've been off the pill for 6 - 7 weeks, am I right?? So how long have you taken each of the meds you've mentioned??

The only thing I can say a hundred times again: You need much more patience than you have. You can't be cured within a few days, that's a fact and that's what you have to deal with. We all had to and we're all still alive! And you will be too, I promise!

Kava and Valerian and all the other mentioned pills need a few WEEKS until they can show any effect! So I really ask myself how you will have tested all of them within only 6 weeks??

Why do you want to go off the Lexapro again after such a short time?? You don't give anything the chance to help you somehow because you can't await an effect. Your health should be worth more time and patience that you give it!!

Sorry if my words may sound hard but seeing that you don't take any advice from anyone makes me a bit enraged (and please remember: I went through pure hell, too and I definitely know what you are going through right now!!!).

All we can do is tell you the same things a thousand times , but if you don't hear any of them and do, what everyone tries to advice you, no one here can help! It's YOU who can change your situation and TIME and no one else out here!! We only can be here and talk to you and give you some advice and tell you that we've all been there, too and are still alive and that you WILL be better some day; the rest has to be done by YOU!!

Best wishes

Silke

Sarah,

I feel so happy for you, that you're finally doin better. And thanks for supporting so many women here (including me). I feel it's so important that even those women, who finally feel better, still come around here to give the others, still feeling bad, some hope! I wish you the very best and just go on like this!!

Weight gain: YES!!! I had gained about 20 kg (I think it's about 40 pounds.....) within only 4 months after stopping Yasmin without changing my eating habits or anything else!!!
I just had to take a look at a piece of chocolate and already I had gained another pound!! It was totally frustrating, because it's not me at all. I always used to be so slim and good looking and I could eat what I wanted...

But even there is hope Sarah: About May/June this year the weight finally started going down and until today I already have lost 10 kg (maybe 20 pounds) again, just by doing a little gardening and such things (wasn't able to extra excercise, yet, because of my still sometimes upcoming muscle problems).

I look more healthy again, my face isn't as puffy as it was, I just start to look "normal" finally (as even everyone around me is telling me!!).

So I think it's another thing which needs time and patience within all that hormonal chaos brought on by Yasmin. But I'm sure, that the weight will go back for you either within a few months!!

@Lisa: Sorry for getting back to you that late... I'm so happy to hear, you're doing better finally!! I always think about you ladies and wonder, how everyone I've met here within the last 2 years might be doing today. You've also asked about that "puffy" look. Well, some days I feel that there is again some water in my body, where it shouldn't be, therefore I can't move my rings on my fingers, or my eyes look a bit swollen, but nothing like it was about 1 year ago!! So I think in your case this is also another thing which will go away with time!!

Ladies, I wish you all the best and keep in touch!!

Silke

Sorry, me again.

Claudia:

You're telling the same story, that I went through!!! I too didn't leave my house, sometimes neither my bed anymore in my worst times with Yasmin!! And I really didn't think that this could get better again some day.

But believe me: IT WILL get better!!

All you need is time, as I already told in my last post.

1 1/2 months without Yasmin ist really not very long!! In my case it took about 3 months to feel a real change in me and a slight improvement of my symptoms started (got off Yasmin in February 2005!). But from that point on it got better month by month. Every month the symptoms (especially the anxiety and panic attacks) got less and today I'm nearly back to normal!! Well, as I already said, besides the hormonal chaos (don't have a normal regular period, yet) that really takes much longer for me than for many other women...

But you are NOT CRAZY!!!! I remember me so many times thinking the same thing "What, if it's really NOT the Yasmin and everything is just in my head?" But it WAS the Yasmin and today I feel so much better!!! All you need now is time and patience and hopefully some people around you that understand your problems, listen to you or give you a hug, if you're in need!!

And flowerbabies ist totally right with the supplements! It's really helpful to take some vitamine b, magnesium and other things!! And perhaps some valerian just to calm down a bit, when the anxiety seems to be unbearable!! That always helped me too during the last 2 very hard years!!

I wish you all the best and believe me, you've got the power to get through this, even if you don't really believe it now, YOU HAVE IT!!

Best wishes and god's bless!

Silke

Dear Sophie,

I totally understand that you don't like to talk every day about that nightmare... And it's absolutely ok!! Just take and do anything you need, all that matters in the moment is you and your health!!

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Well, what should I say: This sentence could have been written by me around January to June 2005!!! I felt totally old and tired and ill, without any hope to get better again some day and look at me now: I finally start feeling like an 40 to 50 years old happy woman and hopefully in a few months I will be feeling like the 33 years old, healthy and happy Silke again, which I always was before taking that nightmare pill!! :)

I feel so happy that I'm finally able to sing again (I've been a singer in a band since I was 17 years old and had to stop it 2 years ago because of my Yasmin illnes...). That was one of the worst things that was caused by this agony, that I even was no longer able to sing in my band..... I missed that so much!!! So I think this is the best proof for the fact, that there really IS a life AFTER Yasmin!! It might last a long time, but your old self and fitness will come back!!!

So keep looking forward, Sophie and everyone who's within the same situation right now. Better times are ahead!! The first and most important step was to get off Yasmin immediately. The rest will be done by your body himself, all it needs is time and patience!!

Big hugs and love out to everyone out there and god bless you, too, Sophie!!

Silke

Hey abs,

I KNOW it's not just you!!! Believe me!!! Your last post could have been written by me about 10 to 11 months ago!! I felt the same weird things without knowing how to go on any longer... There were days, where I really thought I'd go crazy with all that strange thoughts and fears and I also had doubts every day, if it's really all caused by Yasmin or if it's just me. And a few days I really thought it was just me. But now I know IT WASN'T just me!!!

And one thing I also remember is, that the only thing, which helped me through those hard days was reading the posts on this site or post here by myself. Without the help of those ladies here I wouldn't have gotten where I'm now, I swear!! They always kept telling me, that it WILL get better and all I need is TIME and PATIENCE. And they were so right!!!

So please, don't loose your faith (I know that might seem very hard in the situation you are now in!!!) and chin up!! I know you have the strength to get through this and become the person you have been before that Yasmin nightmare!!

Big hugs and god's bless!!

Silke

@guest 13099:

I completely agree with sherry!!

Perhaps it might help you a little bit to read my post Nr. 12857 (page 4 or 5 on this site) where I had written my and my family doctor's theory about this extreme weight gain after getting off this horrible pill.

A few days ago I got even water in my feet (they looked like they were completely pumped up with water and even poured out of my shoes, I was so shocked!!!) which I never had before in my life!!!

Yesterday I found a website where the effects of diuretics were reported (Yasmin, or better the drospirenone in it is very similar to a diuretic named "spirolacton"!!! and so this pill diswaters your body the whole time while taking it!!!). It was very interesting to read, that if you get off such water pills your body may retain the more water than before taking the water pills. So it's pretty normal how some of us are "bloating up" I fear... :-(

I just hope (and my family doctor also thinks so!), that if I give my body enough time to recover, all this water and bloatedness will go away by itself when everything in my body is working normal again.

So there is hope for all of us but we need much more time and patience!!

@guest 12935:

Definitely YES!! Your hormones have to get back in balance after getting off Yasmin, which can cause such problems as anxiety, depression and many many more!! I know what I'm talking about!!

Even the strange feeling in your head I experienced, too!! In my case (had been taking Yasmin for about 5 YEARS!) there are still some days where I have this strange feeling of fog in my head, but not as heavy as it was while Yasmin and shortly after getting off!!

So be sure, if you give your body time to recover, the anxiety and the other symptoms will get lighter ang lighter and someday go away as suddenly as it came up!! You just need time and patience (seems to depend on how long you've been taking this pill in some cases!)!!

Some women have got such problems after getting off a bcp. That's not just a Yasmin problem, but seems to come up more often under that pill than under others!

Did you have the anxiety already whilst taking Yasmin, too??

Best wishes and a big hug to you!! You'll get better again soon, I swear!!