Upping symptoms and conditions

I started out exhausted and dizzy as I was upping the dose for the first 3 weeks and then magically all of my pain was gone! I have chronic back pain due to L5/S1 disc removal, bulging discs and degenerative disc disease. Everything was great until I got my period and it started for 1 day and stopped w/mild spotting (that is not normal) the Dr. suggested I was pregnant when I KNEW that I wasn't. After the 4th week on the medication my hair started falling out. 1st more strands than normal and now by the handful! It is obviously thinning. Has anyone experienced this? Is the follicle permanently damaged by the chemicals? I've since weaned myself off the medicine and am in complete pain again. This seems to be one of the rarer side effects of this medication. Has anyone experienced this?

Hello, since starting yasmin 3 months ago after having a break from my previous pill (Microgynon) for nearly a year, i am having terrible mood swings, im sure my skin has actually got worse, and more upsetting to me, i have put on nearly a stone in weight despite actually upping my exercise regime and starting a healthy eating plan.
I am planning to come off yasmin in a weeks time at the end of the current pack but am really concerned about unwanted hair growth as a result of coming off the pill...im sure it happened last time, has anyone had trouble with this after stopping Yasmin? Thanks for ur help, S

Just resumed my 25mg of toporol XL after a miserable 5 day trial on lisinopril. My main symptoms are PVC's, chest tightness (chronic), lightheadedness. These seem to be somewhat helped by the medication, and I wonder about upping it to 50mg (MD fine with that), but I really don't want to be on it. Originally put on for high BP (150/90), and persistent PVCs. I need to lose about 40 pounds to get the BP back to normal, but if this toporol puts the weight on that is truelly a catch 22. Anyone find any supplements that could be helpful? Please feel free to email me. Thanks Liam

This is a nightmare. I have been on Lamictal 200 mg, tab in morning, for approx. 5 months. About 3 1/2 months ago I started getting muscles aches and weakness, muscle overuse problems, fluid retention ( like 12 pounds), stayed in a trance with very little short term memory. Thought it was everything but this medicine....I am an avid athelite, yes, even at 51. So, I blamed myself for not slowing down. Quick exercising totally, for 2 months, iced 3 times a day on leg muscles. Finally after making it to the summer without a mental breakdown, I went to the emergency room and a new internist to get checked out. Blood work, thyroid, hormones,ok.... Really don't care what they think , I can not walk, it hurts like hell. The Dr. did tell me to get off Lamictal....ok 7th day and I have some relief but it is not complete. Called manufactures, interesting, yes- these are side effects!!! But the studies are limited. Listen , unless you have seizures, get off this medicine... you read the full disclosure of side effects and then search yourself......It can ba a huge FOOOOOPA.....And you are the fool that will end up holdling the bag, not the manufacturer. Hopefully I will get better. Right now , I just trying to stay calm.

Well I have been taking Topamax for 3 weeks tomorrow and so far the side effects have not been that bad for me. I have experienced a little bit of most of the ones I have heard about: loss of appetite, weightloss, numbness/tingling in hands/feet, off tasting carbonated beverages, fatigue, mood swings, increased thirst, increased perspiration. But they haven't been that extreme for me. The pros have really outweighed the cons so far. I have only had 1 migraine since taking the Topamax, and it was a few days after starting it. I am upping to 75 mils tomorrow so we'll see how I feel about it after that, but so far so good. I think that it is really important to remember that everyone's body chemistry is sooo different and we are all going to react differently to this drug. I have pretty much found that people either love this drug or they hate it. But it is really nice to be able to get feedback from other people to see if the side effects we are experiencing are "normal". When 50 some odd other people are experiencing the same thing on this drug then I think it's a pretty safe assumption that it is related to the drug, whether or not the doctors want to claim it is or not.

Hi I have been taking wellbutrin for over a year and I have had lack of concentration and memory loss so i went to my psycologist and he is upping my dosage of wellbutrin he said it will help with my lack of concentration and memory loss now I am reading this forumn and everybody is saying it is the wellbutrin that is causing these sideeffects. I have beent aking 100mg 1 a day now he wants me to take 150 mg 2 aday does anyone have the experience of going to a higher dose and it helping with their memory loss and concentration problems please email me at ****** with wellbutrin in the subject column thanks for your help.

I have been on Wellbutrin xl 150 for about 8 months. I also take 5 mg Lexapro daily, but am weaning off. I was recently upped to 300, about 1 month ago, since I want to eliminate the Lexapro completely. I have noticed I sometimes stutter or cant get my thoughts out fast enough! I am a nurse and work in the ER in a very fast paced environment. I thought it was just me, and I am worried maybe it is something else, but has anyone experienced this? I noticed it only after upping my dose??? also I am very concerned about the seizure statistics.. 1 in 1000 or 1 in 4000 people have seizures on Wellbutrin???? I never knew this, has anyone had a seizure from this? I am very worried!!!!!

i've been on tegretol for well over 15 years now, for my Status Epilepticus (severe epilepsy). i was always on a small dose (600mg daily i think). but due to my epilepsy being poorly controlled, the dose got increased to 800mg - that was around 10yrs ago.

i am 6' 5", and used to weigh around 224 pounds. Since the dosage was upped to 800mg/day, i have gained around 84 pounds in weight, and have allways had drowsiness, lack of concentration, poor short-term memory, double vision and terrible balance. And still the epilepsy has been poorly controlled, still suffering petitmal and grandmal seizures.

So around a month ago, my neurologist was informed of my side effects becoming so severe. He told me they are "toxic side effects" of the tegretol.. Yet told me to increase the dose, by 200mg/day, increasing it every fortnight.

i.e. up to 1000mg/day, then 2 weeks later go up to 1200mg/day, etc.. he told me to keep doing this till i get to 1600mg/day. then possibly go as high as 2000mg/day.. !!

i have to tell you all, that since i started following his advice and increasing the dosage past 1000mg, i have felt absolutely terrible. I find myself needing over 13hrs sleep, then more sleep a few hours later. I also have difficulty reading (despite my eyesight testing ok), and unbearable migraine-style headaches.

at 30years old, my daily routine is not too good at present. And still no benefits have been noticed since upping the dose. On 13th October, i increase it to 1400mg/daily.. :(

OK. This is a really weird one. I was taking doxy for a 'suspected' case of Lyme (I won't even go there for this post! Its a whole other story) .I was prescribed 200mgs per day, but all the Lyme patients i spoke with said you had to take a lot more. Just to be "on the safe side" I upped the dosage to 300mgs a day, (the lowest dosage sanctioned by the experienced Lyme docs at ilads.org,) administered 8 hours apart. Four days after upping the dosage I was sitting on the couch when my left wrist felt numb, then my left side of my face momentarily went a little numb. At the same time i got really dizzy and faint. I felt really strange, like everything seemed unreal and glistening. I was rushed to the Er and 4 hours and $3000 worth of tests later (I have a $5000 deductible) I was discharged given the diagnosis of a TIA (mini stroke) meaning all the tests were negative and that's what they guessed. The thing is, I'm only 52, look 44 (objectively) am not overweight, don't smoke , exercise regularly and have low blood pressure. There is no history whatsoever of heart disease in my family. The only risk factor is elevated cholesterol. The point is, I'm a relatively low risk for stroke. My own doctor saw me a few days later. I still was dizzy and out of it. TIA symptons resolve thenselves in 24 hours He was certain I had not had a stroke and thought that all these symptoms could possibly have been caused by aside effect of doxycycline, intracranial hypertension, or in layman's terms, pressure on the brain. Yow...I stopped taking the stuff for a day and a half and felt almost normal. My doc thought i should take one a day and after a couple of days go up to the 200mg suggested dosage, but when I took just one last night, I woke up with similar symptoms, although not quite as pronounced as before. They persisted all day,gradually dropping off.

I have now stopped taking the stuff and am beginning to feel a little better. I have never had a negative reaction to antibiotics before, but after this I will be very reticent to try then again, unless I am dying or something. I am finished with doxy. All in all, a nasty and very expensive experience. (unless of course, I really DID have a TIA!)

I am a 32 year old male who has been on Lipitor for about four years. High cholesterol runs in the family, and recently went up to 40mg. I think this was a big mistake.

I have experienced some nasty side effects including chest pain, upset stomach, and horrible muscle cramps and tingling. My feet are always cold and have a tingling sensation in them. I did have some mild muscle cramping before upping the dose, but it defintely became worse. I have stopped taking any more lipitor for a week, but the symptoms remain. I also do get dizzy at times, and have trouble sleeping.

I have now stopped taking the drug for a week now, but the symptoms remain. I would appreciate if anyone could let me know if they have stopped, how long, if any, did the symptoms start to go away. I am worried that it has been a week, and I still have the foot tingling sensation and the muscle cramps in the legs. I hope this goes away.

For some good news, for people that have exprienced some chest pain or discomfort, I did find that taking a gas inhibitor did provide some relief. The chest pain is caused I believe by the stomach, like a heartburn. This did provide some relief, though I have not found anything that helped the muscle cramps and coldness.

I am off to the doctor and I hope to hear something that will make me better. My wife thinks I am crazy and thinks it will go away now that I have stopped. I hope she is right, because it is really starting to wear on me mentally.

I have never posted or complained about Lipitor before. I am not an angry patient, or someone who has a grudge to bare. I just want to feel normal again, and not feel so crazy and bad all the time. I am took young to feel this way.

Thank you for reading my story.

Hi,

I just started Neurontin about a few weeks ago I started at 300mgs a day now just 3 weeks later I am on 1200mgs per day and upping it to 1500mgs tommorow. I am told to up the dose 300mgs every 3 days. If I don't its like I'm just taking candy and nothing happens. It works for a day then it stops.

I am concerned though after reading all this stuff that maybe this isn't the drug for me so far its helping but I'm worried I don't want permanenet Kidney damage and I have just started w/ a small tension headache but it could be stress at work doing that and not the med. I'm taking this for IBS pain/Anxiety my shrink gave it to me said, its not approved by the FDA for anything but seizures. God I hope I don't get blood clots and have a stroke all this info is scaring me reading this stuff you all wrote.

I think I better get off this stuff.

Neurontin for IBS:
If "IBS" means "irritable Bowel Syndrome" I have some personal experiences to pass on --
I was already a userid of Neurontin for fibromyalgia -- a condition in which the muscles of the body ache like having the flu all the time -- and the Neurontin wasn't helping a bit with the gut-wrenching cramps and diarrea of IBS.
My doctor prescribed Lomotil --which I DO get in a generic called Lonox -- and only one pill at a time stops the IBS problems, even though at first I was up to 4 at a time (the instructions say to take one pill after every instance of cramps and loose bowels.)
Why don't you ask your doc about this, instead of upping the dose of Neurontin (which hasn't helped my IBS at all). Best wishes -- JanK