Reglan and migraine

About a week ago I was having a severe headache that had not subsided for about two days. I knew it wasn't a migraine because I had suffered with migraines before and the pain was not at all similar. The symptoms I was having were fatigue, severe weakness, and the two day headache. The doctors then ran the usual blood tests and ruled out my adrenals for the fatigue and weakness issues. Just as a side note, I also suffer from Depression and Anxiety so keep that in mind as I continue. The doctor decided to give me Reglan with Benadryl in my IV. Bad choice! About 20 minutes later I started to feel droggy and in an altered state of mind. I felt as if my body was heavy and my sense of tough was lessoned. Then the fun part came. Without my control my left arm would shot up straight in the air as if I was a 6 year old trying to get the attention of my teacher. It was horrible because I would feel a tingling sensation right before it would occur. So I started to time the sensation and hold my arm down, however, I almost hit my mother who was beside me. So just to recap, here I am sleepy, droggy, in another state of mind, and with my hand flinging in the air. I was not a happy camper. Did I mention this all toke place at 2-3 in the morning! The doctor just told me that the reaction was an adverse reaction that some patients get. Thanks Doc ;)! The only way to offset the Reglan is by administering more Benadryl. So if you are ever found in the position where you are having an adverse reaction to Reglan try some Benadryl. The next day when the rest of my panels came back I have hypothyroidism, which means that my body does not produce enough thyroid enzymes to support my thyroid function. Hypothyroidism causes depression, weight loss or gain, fatigue, weakness, and many more symptoms. Good Luck to everyone and stay off the Reglan not a fun trip to be on.....

I was told by my doctor to go to the ER for my severe migraine. I was given Reglan, Toradol, and a third drug that I cannot remember. The drug was given through an IV. About four or five minutes after the drug was given (I was in the room alone) I began to feel strangely. I wasn't warned about any strange side effects so I began to worry what was going on.

The side effects started by feeling a GREAT and inexplicable sense of urgency...like I needed to get up and run somewhere important RIGHT AWAY. Shortly after, like thirty seconds later I was forced to jump up out of the bed, it was literally painful to be sitting in the bed. I needed to move...and NOW! I was trying to rationalize my behavior. I felt as if I was given some kind of psychological drug that screwed with my mind. I began to feel a terror unlike any terror I have ever known.

I was trying to reason myself back to calmness and sanity, but I began to feel the rest of my body go into convulsions. I was standing on the side of the bed in my hospital room and I clutched on to the bed rails and started rocking and twitching and crying hysterically. I wanted to rip my IV out and run like crazy. I became claustrophobic and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I was covered in a cold sweat and I felt like a knife was going into my heart. I was convinced I was having a true heart attack.

My doctor happened to walk by my room and the curtain was half open. He saw me crying and writhing on the side of the bed. He laughed at me and asked me what was wrong. I politely reminded him that he was the one with the medical degree and that he should tell me what was going on. He smiled a Mr. Rogers kind of smile and said, "dystonia....that's all. So, just relax." He made me sit on the bed and that is when the full body convulsions started. I was flopping like a fish out of water on the bed and the nurse started getting short with me telling me I needed to "calm down." I politely told her that it was not my disposition that was causing the freak out, but the chemical that she pumped me full of.

I kept asking what was going on and what "dystonia" was. I was treated like an irrational child and the doctor sat smiling at me like I was crazy. I was convinced I was literally dying. The nurse put the blood pressure cuff back on me and she started freaking out saying that if I didn't control my heart and bring it back down to normal that I was going to have a heart attack. I told her that was my complaint from the beginning of the allergic reaction. I thought I was having a heart attack.

Reluctantly, (and after ten minutes of suffering the most painful and slow torture) the doctor prescribed some benadryl. I was begging him at this point to sedate me because the pain, panic, and body convulsions were beyond my tolerance...that and I was terrified and not getting any answers. The doctor held me down in the bed after the benadryl was administered and he kept insisting I go to sleep. How can you sleep when you are suffering those kinds of symptoms and convinced you are dying (without so much as an explanation as to what is happening to your body)?

I eventually fell asleep five or ten minutes later and woke up being wheeled to CT scan for my migraine. The worst part was that I was begging for my husband the whole time (who was just outside the room fighting with the billing department). The doctor told me that he was going to get my husband and then just left. I went through that whole trauma alone.

And when I was released from the hospital two hours later no one ever bothered to explain to me that the muscle spasms, heart pain, palpitations, and panic attacks would continue for some time as the drug worked its way out of my system. The side effects lasted on a much more mild scale for two days following this episode. I wouldn't wish this terror on the worst person on earth. Why is this drug even offered to people?

It really is surprising that this drug is used. I had an episode when I was 18. My parents were out of town and I got a really bad migraine. I called them and they told me I should go to the emergency room. I went by myself and I don't remember what they gave me, but it must have been Reglan. With in minutes of the IV I got really nervous and agitated. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I buzzed the nurse button like 3 times and after 10 minutes and no one came I panicked. I pulled the IV out and left the hospital. Crazy I know but I couldn't think clearly. I went home and after a few hours I was okay.

Well this brings me to 9 years later and to my most recent experience. I am pregnant and I got a really nasty migraine. I was puking, couldn't see out of my right eye. Since there wasn't anything I could take I called my OB. He told me I should go to the ER and so I went with my husband. They said they wanted to give me Reglan and Benadryl, since I didn't know that was what they gave my when I was 18 I said okay. With in minutes I was having the same reaction I did 9 years ago. I went nuts. I started freaking out. I told my husband I wanted to leave. I needed the IV out of me. My skin was itchy and burning. I was nervous, shaking, and having a hard time breathing. When I husband got the nurse she was really condescending. She was like, “Do you have a history panic attacks?” I said, "no." Then she got the Dr., who ordered more Benadryl. After about 15 more minutes I calmed down. This was an extremely unpleasant experience; I will never take this medicine again.

I had an agonizing migraine this Saturday, with all the usual delightful symptoms: pain, violent vomiting,... Went to the ER. After many hours I was hooked up to an IV with Tegretol (an anti-seizure med that's effective with migraine) and Reglan (for the nausea). Within a couple of minutes after the IV drip started I realized something was wrong. My migraine pain was actually increasing. I felt a desperate sense of being connected to this IV that was feeding me drugs whose effects were suddenly unexpected. Then things spiraled from there. I went into a panic. This sense of panic was unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life (and I've had my share of hospital horrors). I thought my heart was going to explode. Luckily my friend was next to me. I told him to get a nurse. I told the nurse frantically that I didn't know what was happening to me, I was freaking out, but I begged him to do something. He said I was probably having an "anxiety attack", which can happen with Reglan ("anxiety" sounds like a euphemism for what I was living through, but whatever...). He moved quickly, and hooked up some Benadryl to the IV. I also asked him to get me out of the dark, airless room I was in, as I felt like I was going to choke from the claustrophobia. Between the Benadryl (which apparently counters the panic effects of a Reglan reaction) and standing out in a spacious, well-lit hallway, I felt a couple of degrees removed from hell. Anyhow, there's my Reglan tale. R.M., Newton, MA

First off, I am an RN. I was working the night shift and about midnight was struck with a migraine that any light or sound and I thought my head would explode. I personally never had a "migraine" just headaches that 2 Tylenol took care of. Within 15 minutes of this migraine attack I was running for the bathroom and vomited non stop till I felt my stomach was inside out. I left work early. When I got home I took 1 Percocet prescribed for muscle spasm pain following an auto accident. It did not touch the pain. I could not sleep and felt restless. It took a lot of encouragement, but finally let my family take me to the local ER (not my hospital). Upon arrival they inserted an IV which immediately infiltrated and my hand blew up like a balloon. I knew I was off to a bad start and trouble ahead. Another IV line was inserted on my wrist by my thumb. I was told I was dehydrated and needed fluids; meanwhile no bloods were drawn to even know whether I was dehydrated or not, or to even check for some toxin or something; maybe the meatballs in tomato sauce I had for dinner were tainted with salmonella?..Next in comes the nurse and gives me Reglan into the IV for what? She says it will help my nausea.....I did not have any and told her so....she can't to inject it and within 5 minutes I am jumping off the gurney and freaking out with my whole body in some sort of muscle spasm. I am agitated and yelling for someone to help me. My skin on my entire body felt like it was being burned by branding irons. The nurse comes in and gives me IV Valium 10mg twice......I am now more agitated and ready to rip out the IV which is burning my wrist and I am losing control. Meanwhile my migraine/headache is more intense and I felt like my head would explode. Another doctor came in and then ordered 2 750mg Robaxin's and 2 Percocets by mouth. 1/2 hr of jumping around like a jumping bean I finally was able to calm down. I was then D/Cd from the ER without any diagnosis and told to take 2 Robaxin 750 mg 4 times a day with 2 Percocets 4 times a day...As a nurse who just went thru 1 year of Robaxin and Skelaxin treatment following the car accident I was no way going back on those drugs that caused me to be depressed and useless.I saw my own MD the next day and my neurologist and they told me to take what I was prior to this experience. Well, the whole body spasms sneek up on me esp at night and now I am taking Robaxin only when it happens.Needless to say, ER's and all doctors really have no idea what is wrong with anyone unless they have a bleeding open wound that needs sutures. Sad to say this being a health care professional. I have been to 15 doctors in 1 year who have yet to treat me with a cure. Now the migraine thing....was a waste of time in an ER. I have phlebitis on my wrist and can't use my thumb and its been 3 days since the IV was there.

This drug was given to me along with toridol for a sinusitis attack. After fifteen minutes I screamed to have my IV taken out and began jogging around the room; not good since I had undergone back surgery two weeks prior. The nurse unhooked everything and said he had seen the same reaction that night with a similar case of migraine. He said it should wear off after fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes later the doctor came in and suggested that I have a shot of Benadryl to sleep. No sleep came. I have also experienced this reaction with compazine, except with compazine, I feel like I could run a marathon, but can't move. With Reglan, I run around and feel jumpy and insane. I came home that day and took more Benadryl. I walked laps around the mall. Still no change. Just waiting to get tired.

In preparation for colonoscopy, I took one 10mg tablet of Reglan. Thirty minutes later, I began drinking Nulytely. I drank 1 glassful of Nulytely and felt I could not go on. I laid down on the floor and an hour after that, my arms and legs started shaking uncontrollably. I felt uncomfortable, sick, and couldn't do anything to feel better. The shakes lasted about an hour. About 5 hours later, I developed a migraine that lasted 12 hours. I then spent the next 2 days in bed with extreme weakness and tiredness.