If I miss a dose, then I'm supposed to take it immediately. When I want to go off it, I need to ease off of it over several days. (I only took 1/4 dose last night as I was supposed to do for the first few days, then 1/2 for a few days, then full. I assume going off the drug would be the reverse.)
That's the scary part to me... 1/4 of a dose did this to you. And for next weekend's festivities you probably want to be feeling well. Hey, what has been (even somewhat) successful for you for dealing with migraines in the past?
I've only taken reactive drugs in the past. This was the first preventative. I can continue to take the pain meds when I get a headache (and if I'm better about taking them sooner, then I won't have headaches nearly as long) but I thought that maybe not getting them would be better. Not with this drug.
i'm sure you bumped into this in your search, but topamax was originally designed as an anti-seizure med. in fact, i see patients all the time who take it for that purpose.
i'd recommend calling your doctor (immediately!) and explaining the serious side-effects you were having. he/she will know if those symptoms should improve with repeated use, or if they're sufficiently icky that you should stop taking them immediately. i would also reiterate your allergy, as this could be exacerbating any potential issues.
how is your appetite? i feel like every kid i've seen (N > 50) who is on it has majorly decreased appetite. who knows...maybe it will next get marketed as a diet pill!
I wasn't hungry at all, but food still tasted fine (I read that it might not). The doc did tell me I'd probably lose weight. And reading the the 'net, several people claimed they used it for weight loss. I know most people don't get the same side-effects that I did, but I can't imagine that right now.
While I didn't eat much less than normal yesterday, I'm very hungry today. I just keep eating! Maybe it did more than I thought to suppress my appetite.
I'm also mildly craving wine. (Maybe I'll have some later) In my searching, I noticed that this drug is used to treat alcoholism. I don't know how that works (makes the booze taste bad? or makes you feel extra sick? just makes you not want it?) but i wonder if my craving is at all related to lack of drug. (Probably not, but interesting to think about.)
It seems like this drug does far too much to do anything effectively. Snake oil anyone?
If you can spare tomorrow, you might try it one more day. But these side effects SUCK. If you want to try to continue anyway, you should definitely call the doctor's office and ask if it's worth continuing with these initial symptoms.
I agree with your husband. I think waiting a few days before stopping is a good idea, unless the side effects are worsening. It could be that your body needs to adjust to the drug and that's what's going on here. I know my wife has had this happen in the past when changing birth control pills; it was sometimes difficult to change but after a week or so things were fine.
And while certainly not pleasant, if after a short time things improve and the migraines subside, then you might be much better off in the long run. Unless your doctor tells you that these symptoms are highly irregular, you're probably not doing any harm to your body in continuing for at least another few days.
Especially if you're supposed to ramp up your dosage, that suggests that the drug won't be working entirely properly until you're running on the full dosage. But these are great questions to ask your doctor, perhaps s/he'll tell you to get off the meds right away, or maybe tell you to give it more time.
After noticing that I had several of the "call your doctor immediately" symptoms and nearly all of the "signs of severe allergic reaction", I stopped taking it. (Well, I didn't take a 2nd dose. It's only 1 dose/day.) I have a call out to the doc, but I think I'll just stick with the reactive drugs instead of trying to do the preventative drugs.
I agree that I'd need to take it for a lot longer before seeing results. In reading more, it takes 3 months before most saw results (though some noticed improvement in only 1 month!) and it's not up to full effectiveness until 6 months. Even then, their test shows a very convincing-looking bar graph that shows that their study participants started at 5.5 headaches/month and were down to 3.5 at the end of 6 months. You'd probably enjoy looking at that marketing: http://www.topamax.com/html/ptop/about-topamax-safe-effective.jsp?
Yeah good idea to stop taking it. And re: the bar graph, it's interesting that the placebo had an increasing effect proportionately equal to Topamax, although not as dramatic.
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I like that your icon is a stop sign. :)
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i'd recommend calling your doctor (immediately!) and explaining the serious side-effects you were having. he/she will know if those symptoms should improve with repeated use, or if they're sufficiently icky that you should stop taking them immediately. i would also reiterate your allergy, as this could be exacerbating any potential issues.
how is your appetite? i feel like every kid i've seen (N > 50) who is on it has majorly decreased appetite. who knows...maybe it will next get marketed as a diet pill!
Reply
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I'm also mildly craving wine. (Maybe I'll have some later) In my searching, I noticed that this drug is used to treat alcoholism. I don't know how that works (makes the booze taste bad? or makes you feel extra sick? just makes you not want it?) but i wonder if my craving is at all related to lack of drug. (Probably not, but interesting to think about.)
It seems like this drug does far too much to do anything effectively. Snake oil anyone?
I'm glad that it's effective for seizures though.
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And while certainly not pleasant, if after a short time things improve and the migraines subside, then you might be much better off in the long run. Unless your doctor tells you that these symptoms are highly irregular, you're probably not doing any harm to your body in continuing for at least another few days.
Especially if you're supposed to ramp up your dosage, that suggests that the drug won't be working entirely properly until you're running on the full dosage. But these are great questions to ask your doctor, perhaps s/he'll tell you to get off the meds right away, or maybe tell you to give it more time.
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I agree that I'd need to take it for a lot longer before seeing results. In reading more, it takes 3 months before most saw results (though some noticed improvement in only 1 month!) and it's not up to full effectiveness until 6 months. Even then, their test shows a very convincing-looking bar graph that shows that their study participants started at 5.5 headaches/month and were down to 3.5 at the end of 6 months. You'd probably enjoy looking at that marketing:
http://www.topamax.com/html/ptop/about-topamax-safe-effective.jsp?
Reply
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