Topamax and nerve pain

I am a 39 year old man with peripheral neuropathy and migraines. When I was diagnosed 3 years ago, the pain in my right leg was horrible and headaches daily. My Dr. put me on Topamax and I was so happy, it seemed to help but one night( about three weeks into it) I went to bed and awoke in the morning legally blind. Topamax was stopped that day but it took 4 months ( and changing the prescription in my glasses 3 times) for my vision to return to 20/20. The doctors tell me I was lucky as some people have perminate lens damage from the optical pressure change.
My doctor said I could not take any thing in that class of medications as it would probably have the same effect on me. So he decided to put me on Cymbalta for the neuropathy. He said it was being tested as a possible use for neuropathy but had not been proven. It works great for the pain and oddly my migraines have gone down to about two a month.

I've been on Topamax about a month now for nerve pain. It really hasn't helped my pain much, but the side effects have been incredible. I've worked up to 150mg and have had side effects from the beginning. Unfortunately, I haven't lost weight, which I need to do and the Doctor said it was probably because I don't drink sodas.

Here are the side effects I've had:
memory loss, "can't find the right word", confusion, difficulty breathing, eyes burning when looking at computer and tv, trouble reading & spelling, slower movements, dry mouth and ears vibrating.

I forgot to fill my prescription and it's a Sunday morning, so I am cutting my dosage in half. I hope decreasing so rapidly doesn't cause any kind of reaction and I will have to see how I feel as to whether or not I continue at the lower dose. I probably will. My husband does not like me on this drug. It makes me quite stupid and slow, and it doesn't even help my pain.

The eye pain is what worries me the most. My Doctor warned me about glaucoma. I don't want to take a chance and over the last week or so my eyes have started hurting more and more.

Good luck to everyone.

Hi. I was on Topamax for about a year for severe pain in my foot. I had nerve pain on the front outside part of my foot so bad I could not walk. I am also a sufferer of chronic migrains and have been hospitalized several times a year for them. I stopped having migrains - didn't realize until now that it was probably the Topamax. I didn't know why they stopped and didn't know that Topamax was used for that. I took it for just over a year. 100 mg a day at bedtime. I lost 40 lbs, the pain in my foot went away, and I haven't had a severe migrain since. I have been off of it for abou 1 1/2 years now, but want to go back on it because of the weight loss and some other nerve pain I am having with my ciatic (sp?) nerve. I did experience tingling in my leg and toes and soda was flat. I didn't know what the leg tingling was from until I read this blog. I can deal with soda being flat because I really don't need the sugar!! I love Topamax. It worked GREAT for me!! The pros far outweigh the cons for me. But everyone is different!!

I have been taking Topamax since 2002 for migraines. I started out slow with 25mg at night for a week then 50, 75 then 100mg after one month. The following week I was suppose to start 25mg in the morning. I received headaches from that. I only stick with 100mg at night and have not suffered from a migraine since. Unless I am hung over. I did get the tingling in my hands and now I hate soda. Which to me is a good thing for all the sugar it has in it. However, when my script runs out and it takes me two or more days for a refill, I get extremely sick. Must be a withdrawel thing. So do not miss more than one day.

I've been taking Topamax for a couple months now and am up to 200mg per day for both my Trigeminal Neuralgia (right sided facial nerve pain) and migraines that I was having 2-3 times a day. I now only have migraines 2-3 times a week which is so much better and my trigeminal neuralgia is under control, no pain as long as I take the medicine. I have frequent tingling of my hands and feet, I feel drowsy alot, but there are some times where I go one to three whole days when I can't sleep at all and I feel like a zombie and I'll even try taking tylenol PM to try to sleep but still can't. That is such a horrible feeling. When I finally do get some sleep, I'll sleep for like a whole day and night and then I am so relieved and back to normal. I used to love diet pop but now it just tastes totally bitter, so I pretty much just drink water which is good. I've lost about 8 pounds of weight and hope to lose more, sounds like others of you out there have lost some weight on this drug. Thats a good thing right? Like some of you out there, I also have that tip of the tongue thing where you know what you want to say but you can't say the words some times, and that is very frustrating. But on a positive note, I have friends that don't take anything and it happens to them too! I have had lasix surgery on my eyes and since being on Topamax, I have had to get some glasses and contact lenses for my eyes which is quite a frustration for me. I don't absolutely have to wear them, but things are just too blurry now if I don't wear them especially when I drive. Overall though, I am happy with the fact that my migraines are so much less frequent and I feel like I have a much better quality of life than before. I hope as time goes on my sleep patterns will even out, I have a feeling that they will. Good luck to all of you out there! ;-)

Been on Topamax for 4 weeks working up to 100mg. My face is twitching and I have fluelike symptoms. Don't know how much longer I will keep this up either. Taking this for nerve pain.