Whining about Topamax side effects....

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Sun, January 13, 2008

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I freaking hate this drug..... I have been on Topamax for eight days and it is already driving me nuts!

The tingling in my finger tips is annoying, but I can live with it. The neuro who prescribed told me to take potassium, and I noticed when I take a 99mg a day it goes away. Fine.

And the coginitive difficulties, frustrating but maybe I could cope with my IQ dropping 40 points for the next couple of months for the hope of my migs finally going away. To give you an idea, my two favorite idiot moments thus far.... spelling"curl" as in to curl hair , "C-I-R-L" and forgetting how to spell "distribution" halfway through the word.... Wacko

But here are two new fun side effects that I am pretty sure are correlated to this stuff screwing with my birth control pill. One, breakthrough bleeding. Okay, this is a minor inconvienence. It is really light and most of my panties are black so I'm not stressed. Two, I have been so depressed the last two days I barely want to move. I don't want to do anything but curl up in my bed under the covers and sleep for a month. Everything seems like a hassle. In fact, the only reason I am even online this morning is because I have bills that need to be paid (and no matter how crappy I feel I am still a grown up. Embarassed ).

See being depressed even a little bit upsets me because I have clinical depression. I pay good money every month for my Lexapro to not feel this way. And I can tell the difference between being cranky, and something really not being right in my head. When my hormones get screwed with it aggrevates my depression, which is one of the plethora of reasons I have to be on birth control in the first place....

I hate this drug so much. I am only up to 50 mg and they want me to go to a 100mg. No way. The only reason I am going to stay on this crap another minute is so I can at least say I tried.

Well, thanks for listening to me throw my temper tantrum.

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Cindy

1/13/08 12:08pm

If you cannot vent here, where can you vent??? The drug may not be for you. Sometimes the side effects lessen, sometimes they don't. I'm off the anti-depressent I was on, and I can't say that that side effect now is alot of fun, but I see the neurologist Friday, so we'll see. I'm on a 100 mg. My spelling was bad before, all I can say is thank God for spell check. Also the whole finding the right word is not getting any better. I do like the weight loss though.

Take care

Cindy

Nancy Harris Bonk

1/14/08 5:37pm

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

Topamax is one of four medications approved by the FDA for Migraine prevention. The other three are - Depakote and Depakote ER, Inderal LA, Blocadren.

Being on topamax for only eights isn't time for it to work properly. It can take up to three months to adjust to medications and see a reduction in Migraine reduction. Side effects are potential, meaning they don't happen to everyone, all the time, can lessen the longer we take the medication. You can find more information on topamax HERE.

Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.

We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information on the main page of our site, MyMigraineConnection.com

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,

Nancy Bonk
MyMigraineConnection.com Expert

PS: If you receive this message from more than one of us, please excuse the overlap. Thanks!

Katinthecorner

1/15/08 11:38am

Well, unfortunately, as "potential" as side effects are, as you can see by my full post, I am "actually" getting all of them. I'm beyond done with this drug.

Eileen Gray

1/20/08 8:02am

The only thing I can tell you is my own experience. Yours sounds very similar to mine, obviously they cannot be exactly the same, but from what you describe, I went through the same thing when I started Topamax.

I felt more depressed at first, tingles, sleep problems, breakthrough bleeding....and this was at the 25/50mg mark too!

Here is the deal - is it helping your head? If so, see if instead of upping your next dose to the 75 and eventually the 100mgs, if your doctor feels ok with you staying at the 50mgs for a while. If the Topa is helping your migraines at the 50mgs already - see if you can stay there for a bit, get your body used to it, and see if your body adjusts to the drug easier, then adding in more and more.

The tingles, I still get them, but no doctor I've had ever linked the potassium thing as a deficiency (I did!!!) The cognative side effects - just like what you say you are getting - they went away (except when I migraine) after I'd been on the topa for a bit and my body was at the same level for a while. The breakthrough bleeding stopped too (but I did just change my pill and it's started again, but I think it's the pill).

All in all - you know 8 days is not enough time to give this a fair chance. I understand you being frustrated. And yes, it is up to you - but I just wanted to voice to you that the side effects may go away in a little while. You just started this drug - you need time to get used to it!

I now take 75mgs with the only real side effects being tingling in my heels usually at night. That's all. I've been on it for a little over a year now and I get a migraine about 2-3 times a month. Compare that to before Topamax, I had a migraine every single day.

If you want to talk more about it, feel free to email me via my sharepost page. I know what this feels like. I went through it too! It should get better!

I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide to do!

Whining about Topamax side effects....

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