bad side effects

[doc]

You listen to the drug ads and the "possible" side effects, and you gotta wonder who wants to suffer thru them for a maybe cure. The hospital gave Mom Ambian to help her sleep after her heart attack a few years ago and it wound her up to where I couldn't handle her, it's a joke now but that was one bad night.

So y'all got a side effect story ?

[Brynja]

When I went off effexor, even weaned properly it felt like I was getting electric jolts.

That sucked.

[Varaj]

Ahhh man so many bad side effects.
I used to take a pill for the effect, then a pill to counter side effects and then third to counter the side effects of the side effect pills.

I put on 80 lbs in 2 months from meds. I have stretch marks.
The only cavities I have are from side effects of medicine.
I've been rushed to the ER twice from side effects. One of those times I collapsed after rushing from class because I knew something was wrong.
I used to sleep on average 20 hours a day from a medicine. Lost a job because of sleepiness.

Some of the side effects I didn't get.
Death from brain failure
Permanent shakes (Tardive Dyskinesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardive_Dyskinesia))
Liver failure and death (had to have liver test from blood draw once a week, they only gave a week worth at a time and then had to pass blood test)
Death from Cardiac arrest

The one that almost killed me (would have it I wasn't already in the IC unit) was bad enough dystonia to stop my breathing.

Side effects from anti-psychotics are nothing to sneeze at. Horrible, horrible stuff. If you've never experienced bad dystonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystonia) or bad akethesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia) you just haven't lived. :|

[doc]

Which is why I stay away from pills, hospitals and doctors.

[Varaj]

Which is why I stay away from pills, hospitals and doctors.

I'm a big believer in meds and doctors when needed. You don't want to over use them but under using them is just as bad. :)

[Xavier Lang]

You listen to the drug ads and the "possible" side effects, and you gotta wonder who wants to suffer thru them for a maybe cure. The hospital gave Mom Ambian to help her sleep after her heart attack a few years ago and it wound her up to where I couldn't handle her, it's a joke now but that was one bad night.

So y'all got a side effect story ?

I got paid to hallucinate.

I did medical research in my early 20's. They needed a baseline group that would take a FDA approved drug so they had something to compare a new drug against. After taking the FDA approved medicine I spent about 30 minutes watching the ceiling move.

[doc]

I'm a big believer in meds and doctors when needed. You don't want to over use them but under using them is just as bad. :) I'll just drop dead unexplained.

I got paid to hallucinate.

I did medical research in my early 20's. They needed a baseline group that would take a FDA approved drug so they had something to compare a new drug against. After taking the FDA approved medicine I spent about 30 minutes watching the ceiling move.

Did that after a hit of acid at a Ted Nugent concert.

[Sobek]

The best I've got is taking 10 No Doz w/in about an hour. I wasn't paying attention and just kept thinking, "well, I still feel tired". I was seriously sick the next day.

[Northcott]

Celebrex. That's right -- that "super safe" NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) that they hand out to arthritis sufferers. They also use it for certain types of joint injuries. I was on it for four or five months when my shoulders were fubar.

What they don't often tell you about NSAIDs, Advil included, is that they destroy the lining of your stomach. So if you ever wake up with a gritty, sandy texture in your mouth, and look in the mirror to discover that your tongue is black with what looks like coffee grounds -- go straight to the hospital. That's what it looks like when you've got a bleeding ulcer and your stomach acids are cooking the blood before you cough it up. If you get to the point where you're vomiting blood, it's 911 time. Thankfully I stopped with the coffee grounds.

As an aside: my shoulders didn't heal properly until I went to an old Chinese doctor who stuck needles in me and gave me herbal tea that tasted like evil in a cup. Reduced the inflammation through acupuncture and herbal treatment. No sides, save for a bad taste in my mouth after drinking evil.

[Harry]

I have a big old jar of Celebrex sitting on the kitchen counter, but my surgeon and my general practitioner have gone to some pains to tell me not to use it excessively or on an empty stomach. At any rate, it's going unused now, and has been for some time, but I don't want to toss it out because it is bloody expensive. Most any medicine that promises arthritis relief gets priced throught the roof.

I can get all the hydrocodone I want for pennies, which beggars belief.

[Northcott]

Heh. Yeah, all the docs got this glazed look in their eyes when I started coughing up "coffee grounds". Celebrex? Do that? They knew there were warnings, but... y'know... it actually happened. Turns out there's roughly a 1 in 10 chance of that occuring with people who use it regularly. One in fucking 10.

So here's what boggles my mind:
1) That something with that high a rate of serious problems was approved as safe for the public.

2) That it's supposedly the safest of the NSAIDs. Makes me shudder at what the others do.

3) People label acupuncture (and other alternative health practices) as "quackery" while buying into a system that's rife with questionable practices and deeply affected by the depth of pockets among the drug companies.

[Ancalagon]

acupuncture's has been shown scientifically to work - I wouldn't call it quackery.

[Northcott]

I should have qualified with "some people". Point stands, outside of that error. It doesn't pay to invest too heavily in the opinions of others, nor does it pay to discount them entirely. This holds as true in the realm of healthcare as anywhere else.

[Xavier Lang]

I'm a big believer in meds and doctors when needed. You don't want to over use them but under using them is just as bad. :)

I have a real problem with under using meds and doctors. After watching what the meds were doing to Varaj I had real trouble even taking something for a headache for years afterwards. I think I took a total of 6 ibuprofin when my wisdom teeth were pulled.

[doc]

Mom takes Coumadin with no side effects at all.

[Northcott]

I have a real problem with under using meds and doctors. After watching what the meds were doing to Varaj I had real trouble even taking something for a headache for years afterwards. I think I took a total of 6 ibuprofin when my wisdom teeth were pulled.

Dude! :eek: And I thought I was screwy for refusing freezing when they drill my teeth!

[GreyOne]

Celebrex. That's right -- that "super safe" NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) that they hand out to arthritis sufferers. They also use it for certain types of joint injuries. I was on it for four or five months when my shoulders were fubar.

What they don't often tell you about NSAIDs, Advil included, is that they destroy the lining of your stomach. So if you ever wake up with a gritty, sandy texture in your mouth, and look in the mirror to discover that your tongue is black with what looks like coffee grounds -- go straight to the hospital. That's what it looks like when you've got a bleeding ulcer and your stomach acids are cooking the blood before you cough it up. If you get to the point where you're vomiting blood, it's 911 time. Thankfully I stopped with the coffee grounds.

As an aside: my shoulders didn't heal properly until I went to an old Chinese doctor who stuck needles in me and gave me herbal tea that tasted like evil in a cup. Reduced the inflammation through acupuncture and herbal treatment. No sides, save for a bad taste in my mouth after drinking evil.



Mmmmmm. Evil.

[Badwednesday]

I have a real problem with under using meds and doctors. After watching what the meds were doing to Varaj I had real trouble even taking something for a headache for years afterwards. I think I took a total of 6 ibuprofin when my wisdom teeth were pulled.

And you teased me for taking 4 months to get my cluster headaches figured out. lol

I'm glad I did though. Prednisone tastes HORRIBLE.... but that first day on it I had more energy than I'd experienced in.... wow.... since like grade school! So I guess not all side effects are bad.

[Pigs in Space]

I have a real problem with under using meds and doctors. After watching what the meds were doing to Varaj I had real trouble even taking something for a headache for years afterwards. I think I took a total of 6 ibuprofin when my wisdom teeth were pulled.

But always finish the damn course if it's prescribed for you!

right!


RIGHT.

[Martin]

That should only apply towards antibiotics, my pale, ale friend, and only because you need to make sure you kill the infection dead with no chance of resistant strains growing back.

[Morbidity]

Never had bad side effects. A lot of drugs make me vaguely nauseous. Most annoying is pseudoephedrine (better known as speed) which makes the room feel vaguely not right and generally sends me right off to sleep.

[Atticus_of_Amber]

Never had bad side effects. A lot of drugs make me vaguely nauseous. Most annoying is pseudoephedrine (better known as speed) which makes the room feel vaguely not right and generally sends me right off to sleep.

It never ceases to amuse me that you have the same upside-down reaction to speed that ADD sufferers have... ;)

[Varaj]

It never ceases to amuse me that you have the same upside-down reaction to speed that ADD sufferers have... ;)

Just FYI: ADD folks don't have an upside-down reaction to speed that other people have. They still get wired and have excess energy just like everybody else.

[Xavier Lang]

But always finish the damn course if it's prescribed for you!

right!


RIGHT.

IF I fill a prescription for antibiotics I take all of them and finish the course.

[Atticus_of_Amber]

Just FYI: ADD folks don't have an upside-down reaction to speed that other people have. They still get wired and have excess energy just like everybody else.

Really? I'd read the opposite. Hell, I knew someone who's brother had exactly that reaction to his ADD medication.

But of course, IIRC, ADD isn't really a disease but a collection of similar symptoms caused by any of a bunch of diseases or deficiency (get some ADDers off sugar and a lot of them stop being ADDers). So I suppose it's not surprising reactions to medication differs among ADD sufferers.

[Varaj]

Really? I'd read the opposite. Hell, I knew someone who's brother had exactly that reaction to his ADD medication.

But of course, IIRC, ADD isn't really a disease but a collection of similar symptoms caused by any of a bunch of diseases or deficiency (get some ADDers off sugar and a lot of them stop being ADDers). So I suppose it's not surprising reactions to medication differs among ADD sufferers.

Yes really. Central nervous stimulates help most everybody focus on a task which is why they are given to ADHD folks. They provide a greater benefit to ADHD folks because they have more room for improvement, but the cognitive benefits are one of the reason stimulates are abused. They really do make you smarter. (better memory, better focus) :)
But the loss of appetite, surge of energy, wakefulness,etc. has the same incident among ADHD folks as non-ADHD folks.

[Atticus_of_Amber]

Yes really. Central nervous stimulates help most everybody focus on a task which is why they are given to ADHD folks. They provide a greater benefit to ADHD folks because they have more room for improvement, but the cognitive benefits are one of the reason stimulates are abused. They really do make you smarter. (better memory, better focus) :)
But the loss of appetite, surge of energy, wakefulness,etc. has the same incident among ADHD folks as non-ADHD folks.

Trust me, if you gave Morbs speed, she'd fall asleep and not wake up until it wore off.

God knows what would happen if she ever took a sleeping pill.

[Varaj]

Trust me, if you gave Morbs speed, she'd fall asleep and not wake up until it wore off.

God knows what would happen if she ever took a sleeping pill.

I don't doubt it. There is a wide range of reaction to any given medication. I wasn't discounting Mordidity's reaction to the assertion that that is usual among ADHD folks. :)

[Enk]

Fuck you, AstraZeneca, for the piece of shit that is Seroquel.

That is all.

[Varaj]

Fuck you, AstraZeneca, for the piece of shit that is Seroquel.

That is all.

Seroquel is the only anti-psychotic I can handle side effects wise. Sure I put weight on like a bear prepping for hibernation and sure I sleep like a bear in hibernation but damn all the others are way worse side effects wise for me.

[Enk]

Seroquel is the only anti-psychotic I can handle side effects wise. Sure I put weight on like a bear prepping for hibernation and sure I sleep like a bear in hibernation but damn all the others are way worse side effects wise for me.

I must be one of that 1% that gets the bad side effects. I took my first pill and it knocked on my ass out for the next 20 hours, during which time I had pronounced palsey, horrid balance problems (I had trouble with stairs), mild paranoia, oversensitivity to touch, restlessness, and 5 pounds of weight loss in 12 hours.

I'm going back to valproic acid. I can deal with being fat and bald.

[Varaj]

I must be one of that 1% that gets the bad side effects. I took my first pill and it knocked on my ass out for the next 20 hours, during which time I had pronounced palsey, horrid balance problems (I had trouble with stairs), mild paranoia, oversensitivity to touch, restlessness, and 5 pounds of weight loss in 12 hours.

I'm going back to valproic acid. I can deal with being fat and bald.

I don't doubt it. I take some of the other anti-psychotics that most people tolerate and I will be in the ER in no time flat.

[seizure salad]

my experience with med change this last winter. my old incompetent neurologist told me to increase my keppra (for my epilepsy) and decrease my depakote. i experienced the side effects of more seizure activity, mood changes, anxiety during the strange seizure activity, irritability, dizziness. so i called and left a message for the docter explaining what i was going through. he instructed me to go on a med that i can not remember the name of, but it was a benzodiazapine. since i was in such a horrible mental and physical state at the time i didnt question him. i now know benzo's have the effect of causing seizures, and in my case immediately made me want to kill myself. i have never been that crazy before, or ever seriously thought of killing myself before. it was definitely because of the mood altering meds i was put on. that is why i am soo happy to have my new neurologist.also, i believe due to some chemical and hormonal changes in my body since my brain surgery, i believe due to me now experienceing the side effect of weight gain from depakote, i gained 50 lbs w/in 6mo.