This registry is a place to share positive or negative side effects of using Topamax. If you directly experienced a side effect while using Topamax, then we encourage you to enter it here. Please note that entries here are the experiences of individual users, and in no way means that you or anyone else will experience the same side effect, since the same medication affects people in different ways. Please always contact your physician.
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November 2th
2007
11:24 PM
I just found this and wanted to put a warning on here to new topamax users. If you experience difficulty breathing, please consult with your doctor immediately! I havent even been on this for two weeks and this week I upped to 50mg @ bedtime, and within 1hr of taking the first 50mg dose of this, I started having swelling and tingling of my hands and face, difficulty breathing, and a lot of problems concentrating. Second day, same thing, third day same thing, and today, I went in and demanded to see my dr (who wasnt in the office today) and they wanted me to wait until next week to be seen, and I knew something wasnt right, I wanted seen now. They kept insisting "its not a common side effect of the drug" and I kept asking if it was a side effect at all... seriously, it took me several hours to be heard, and finally, the ARNP that I was seeing in place of the practitioner I normally see looked it up and its a severe side effect. Needless to say, I am not taking this drug anymore, and will continue my quest for a migraine relief. *They* said it should only be in my system 21hrs (we're on 25now) and the effects should be gone by then, which makes sense because each day, the effects seemed to subside shortly before I took the next bedtime dose, but today, they're persistant... I can't breathe, my fingers wont cooperate with me due to the numbness and tingling, and my lips are numb, swollen and tingling which makes it difficult to drink anything...
Anyway... PLEASE... be proactive with this medication... if something doesnt feel right, talk to your dr, and make them listen to you... Im waiting for blood and urine tests to come back to be sure the drug hasn't had any other effects on me... they said that the topamax allows (as a severe side effect) the blood to absorb high amounts of carbon monoxide (great, huh?) which is what causes the difficulty breathing (which she was originally trying to brush off as my athsma, which I KNEW wasnt the issue... I KNOW when my athsma is bothering me, and what an athsma attack is... I've been athsmatic for the greater part of my 26yrs of being...)
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