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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1118 to 1142 of 1838. Go back in thread:
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:31:39
In reply to response to headachequeen's last post, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 7:17:10
> Well, Kat, I have brown hair. I wished for a little of the red head gene yesterday, but again-I don't stay mad very long, ever. It takes too much energy. Righteous anger can be very energizing, though.
>
> About hair. You wrote you lost tons of your hair on tegretol. When it grew back, was it a different texture? I lost mine on Lamictal and it's grown back very curly and wiry--an elderly orphan annie look, shorn short.
>
> FionaJ, you're doing fine--are you a red head? Your name sounds like you might be.
> rainy
Rainy, I am Celtic and I hold a grudge.. forever it seems... I have to have that sense of having been satisfied... as my son says, she doesn't really get mad but she does get even...as for the hair, it grew back same as ever...
after the eye surgery it took ages to grow...
something unusual for my hair as it grows so fast I have to have it trimmed every three weeks since I chose to wear it short...but since this latest escapade something they gave me turned it into straw!!! I was complaining a week or so ago about it being too soft to hold the style no matter how much wax or putty I used and I was really getting annoyed, wondering what the problem was...
tegretol? topomax? something else? as this was a new problem...
suddenly my hair is so dry and coarse it is like the stubble left after a hay field is cut...
went to the hair stylist yesterday in desperation; she did not make me feel any better. The first thing she said was that I was too old to be playing with scissors and taking bits out of my hair I should leave that to the four-year-olds or words to that effect; the second thing was that my hair was like straw. What had happened to it...
well I don't know either but I expect her to fix it and I did not take scissors to my hair, but here and there were great big chunks missing...
someone had to have cut it to attach the electrodes???
and I was not happy...
and still am not... all they had to do was move it out of the way...at this point I am wondering what they gave me that affected it...
I know, I should simply say that I am glad to be alive with no lasting damage, but my hair!!!!!and now to learn that my regular doctor, a man I trust implicitly is leaving the area in a few months and as of yet there is no one coming to take over the practice...
so while I have a neurologist a hundred miles away and a nose and throat specialist a hundred miles in the other direction and an eye specialist a hundred miles away, I shall be without a doctor...
and it is another thing to worry about...
a situation I cannot control... that is frustrating in the extreme...
kat
Posted by iris2 on November 10, 2004, at 13:40:56
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:31:39
Perhaps the medications are affectinf your hormones. That would certainly have an effect of making you rhair dry. I do not knwo if it is the mes themselves but I thought of hormones as a culprit to dry hair.
irene
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:52:03
In reply to I need my anti-depressant back, posted by stresser on November 10, 2004, at 12:51:15
> This is my second attempt at writing, because I got an entire post written and hit the wrong button, then somehow deleted it. I THINK. It may show up somewhere halfway written.
Oh good someone else does these things...
I have done this so often and with such bad timing... a whole chapter that just flowed together... felt so good about it... hit the wrong key and it is gone forever and has never come back...
somewhere in space is an entire children's story, the first of a series I want to put together for children to understand that it is all right to be unique and not to follow the crowd...
the second and fifth and seventh and so on are easy to write; they need a first to stand on as it were...
the first was murder to write...
finally managed to put together most of it...
and lost it...
it is on the computer I am told... but I cannot find it...
hit some key and pouf! it became a toadstool...all the anti-depressants in the world won't bring it back...
I have to learn to slow down...
this is another part of my epilepsy, something I thought was a symptom of my 'depression' and that had nothing to do with depression... it was a hint that no one linked to epilepsy because, being me, I had to choose to have this weird form ....
and we learned too late to save these lost bits of sheer genius LOLand again I am unable to recreate the lost bits...
-L, I was told this morning that we all have stress in our lives...
No kidding, says I...
I would never have guessed that (I have been told that stress can cause another serious t/c seizure)
Who woulda thunk that we all have stress in our lives??? I thought everyone sat on a silk cushion being served strawberries and cream and sewing fine seams and all that nursery rhyme stuff...
I was really angry... and creating more stress for myself LOL...
I told this mental midget that I knew many people who would love to live with the minor every day stresses to which she referred...
which outfit to wear to the office, what to prepare for dinner, where to go for the week-end, oh the list of stresses she listed for me were such banal little things...
did you know that choosing nail polish is a stress, ladies??????
well, not for me, as I am not allowed to wear it -- it clouds the issue of oxygen deprivation apparently... there is one stress I am saved...Now I do have the stress of which ear rings to wear... that is a major decision for me...
This person is a counsellor trying to help me learn to manage stress so that I can lower the stress levels in my life, thus preventing if possible repeats of last week...
with intellectual hiccoughs such as she, I am destined to have a t/c before our time expires...She has no sense of the real world...
I asked her if she has ever had to cope with an eating disorder and the stress of living with self-image problems? how about a child with bulimia or binging disorders? has she ever been diagnosed as being bipolar, take I or II, it didn't matter? and I just went on and on...
apparently her happy little life has never encountered these things...
so I said when she has encountered real stress I would consider her as being qualified to counsel me on dealing with and avoiding stress, in the mean time I had a therapy group to attend...
and came home to check this board...some times these people with their titles and letters after their names don't have the B.C.S. to tag along with the other letters and that is the most important degree, Bachelor of Common Sense.
Of course you are feeling depressed with all that you have happening in your life, -L... a daughter you love as much as life itself is worried about her weight and appearance and her binge eating...
and doesn't know if this med is helping...
and won't let you into her life enough to let you judge if it is helping...
you feel totally impotent... and no parent wants to feel as if there is nothing she can do to help her child... parents were created to help their children... especially mothers...
just ask mine... there she was, at eighty-plus years of age, barely able to walk, sitting on the floor cradling my head and talking to me the way she did when I had seizures as a child, smoothing my hair and forehead...
and she said afterward feeling as useless as a limp dishrag...
Oh I think you have every right to feel down and depressed, but you are also determined and a mother and going to pull M through this and yourself with her...
"I really don't know what my real color is anymore"
I think you are at least an honourary redhead...
you have to be to have hung in this long...
and I don't know what anti-depressant med is going to help, but I do know that the anti-depressant US is going to help...
we are here ... just lean on us at will
kat
Posted by MKB on November 10, 2004, at 13:54:28
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:31:39
Your hair problems may be due to a thyroid disorder. It's easy to find out with a blood test.
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:54:41
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » headachequeen, posted by iris2 on November 10, 2004, at 13:40:56
> Perhaps the medications are affectinf your hormones. That would certainly have an effect of making you rhair dry. I do not knwo if it is the mes themselves but I thought of hormones as a culprit to dry hair.
>
> ireneI shall call Sherry and ask her if it could be a hormone attack on my hair... and then call the Dr's office and see what I was given and see if he thinks that is it... I am such an egotist about my hair...
I may be overweight... and I may be getting old...
but this red hair has always been my sheer pride...
so many of the techs doing EEGs and other scans commented on the beautiful hair I had...
well now they would comment on the straw field....
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:01:21
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post, posted by MKB on November 10, 2004, at 13:54:28
> Your hair problems may be due to a thyroid disorder. It's easy to find out with a blood test.
Oh no that would be too easy; the thyroid tests have been done recently and were done again before I left hospital...
it has to be something they gave me to stabilise things (as in me <g>) before they could ship me to the other hospital...
or some of the other meds they used during the time I was unconscious and they tried to rouse me...
either that or my hair hates me and that would not surprise me either at this point LOL
kat
Posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:13:27
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » MKB, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:01:21
someone, way last year, was complaining on this board that her hair was made of straw because of Topamax. I responded that it made mine like oily snakes. If something can make your hair fall out, couldn't it change it's texture?
Kat, aren't you taking some new and wonderful potion prescribed after your last adventure?
Also, have you decreased your fluid intake sunstantially? You've said you drink lots of water but then got concerned about flushing out K, and tegretol toxicity.
rainy
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:33:38
In reply to hair of straw, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:13:27
> someone, way last year, was complaining on this board that her hair was made of straw because of Topamax. I responded that it made mine like oily snakes. If something can make your hair fall out, couldn't it change it's texture?
> Kat, aren't you taking some new and wonderful potion prescribed after your last adventure?
> Also, have you decreased your fluid intake sunstantially? You've said you drink lots of water but then got concerned about flushing out K, and tegretol toxicity.
> rainyHmmm now that you mention it, my hair was all right in the hospital... really easy to cope with... and it was when I left they gave me the script for the new anti-seizure stuff and then my doctor prescribed the stuff for the pain above my eye...
duh....
and I have quit drinking water...
I have been forgetting...
me, who preaches the gospel according to water...
have to get back on my firehose attachment...
because that is not good and I know it...
thanks rainy...
shall call the pharmacist and ask if either of those things affects hair... at least then I will know...
and shall start hitting the water counter at the grocery store again...
water stocks must have dropped drastically....
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:35:22
In reply to hair of straw, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:13:27
> someone, way last year, was complaining on this board that her hair was made of straw because of Topamax. I responded that it made mine like oily snakes. If something can make your hair fall out, couldn't it change it's texture?
LOL I just said that my hair was easy to manage in hospital ... it was a disaster... stuck to my head with the EEG glue most of the time and the rest of the time with perspiration... I looked like a cross between one of the three stooges and Alfalfa...
but it did not have this texture...
kat
Posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:45:12
In reply to Re: hair of straw, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:35:22
As Doug McKenzie said, "Beauty!"
rainy
Posted by merry on November 10, 2004, at 15:05:25
In reply to Re: hair of straw, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:45:12
You guys crack me up.
I had long thick flowing brown hair with red highlights. It was my best feature. I loved my hair. But now it's dull and thinning and I have to wear it up to hide it from the world because it looks like I never wash it.
The depakote I used to take was the culprit. My hair started to fall out in chunks. And I gained 20+ pounds on that stuff too. That's why I switched to topomax. My hair has never been the same. But it's not falling out any more.
merry
Posted by PoohBear on November 10, 2004, at 15:59:05
In reply to Re: I need my anti-depressant back » stresser, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:52:03
Kat:
Inspirational as always, thanks!
Tony
Posted by bridgey1128 on November 10, 2004, at 16:03:12
In reply to Re: hair of straw, posted by merry on November 10, 2004, at 15:05:25
It's interesting..I wonder if it's the Topomax that has caused my hair to darken so much. It hasn't changed texture. IT's still really thick. I shed like a freaking sheepdog but I have always done that. You would think that I would be bald if you looked in the shower after I was done. Gobs of hair in the bottom of the drain but yet, no bald spots. Also interesting, I forgot I had dyed my hair but I did notice that the blonde high lights I had put in are growing out a little...so if I was going to have some roots they would be showing by now. Apparently my hair also forgot it had been dyed and has decided to stay this color because it has been more than 3 weeks and it has yet to show any dark roots as of yet. I guess I jogged it's memory. "Oh YEAH! I'm SUPPOSED to be this color! DUH!"
Posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by RES on June 10, 2002, at 18:56:54
I was just put on Topamax solely for weight loss. I was on celexa for 1.5 years and gained 20 pounds. I weened off celexa over the last 9 weeks and my Dr. gave me Topamax to speed up my weight loss. What does anyone think if this??
Posted by stresser on November 11, 2004, at 7:17:29
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
Hello,
Nice to have you on the board. I haven't been on here too long, and have asked the exact question you are asking. The others can probably answer with more knowledge than I can, but I will tell you that my daughter was put on topamax for binge eating disorder, and because she gained weight on Lexapro. She has been on it for seven weeks, and is just now up to 225 mg per day. We have no seen any weight loss yet. I don't if it's because she needs a higher dose, or if it's just not going to work. Keep us posted. Gotta go to work. -L
Posted by rainy on November 11, 2004, at 7:18:25
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
Hi, Sheley. I don't know if Topamax is FDA approved for weight loss per se, but it seems to be prescribed off label for a number of maladies besides seizure control. It's possible for some people to lose SSRI weight without Topamax but it does take a long time, and changes in diet and exercise and all the painful stuff that eventually can become second nature. Topamax has helped me lose and keep off an aditional 10-15 pounds, maybe--but there are so many variables involved in the whole 45 pound weight loss that it's hard to say exactly how much is Topamax. No more than 15 pounds. (I think) Word here is that when you stop taking the stuff, all the weight comes right back, which I find very unfair.
That said, Let me ask you a couple of questions. Have you read the package insert that comes with Topamax? I mean the one for doctors, not consumers. This is a powerful drug that has a lot of unpleasant, to say the least, side effects. Cognitive impairment is one that I've had the most trouble with at doses over 250 mg which is where weight loss begins for most people. At 350-400, I was disoriented, couldn't remember names, nouns, lost my train of thought in the middle of a conversation at a party etc.
It has other neurological side effects including balance problems, tingling etc. Loss of eyesight is another biggy.
What dose are you on and how fast are you going up? Some members of this board will be very clear with you that slow is good, fast is bad as far as increasing your dose, in order to avoid side effects.
It tends to make me jittery, other people will tell you it's soothing to them.
I guess what I'm saying is, inform yourself about the drug, make sure you're drinking lots of water, fruit and vegtables blah blah blah,
exercise which will help with the depression--don't you hate that, the depression?--and then, armed with information, make up your mind.
This board is pretty supportive, so keep posting and keep asking. I'm only one voice, and it's still early.
rainy
Posted by bridgey1128 on November 11, 2004, at 12:16:44
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression » Sheley, posted by rainy on November 11, 2004, at 7:18:25
Personally, I think it's rather wreckless of a Dr to prescribe a medicine for weight loss that isn't used for weight loss that has so many other side effects when there are so many other drugs out there FOR weight loss. I just don't get it. Honestly, weight loss is a POSSIBLE side effect, so don't get your hopes up. I am on 200mg and still not losing weight because of the Topomax. I am only losing weight because I got back on the Atkins diet. I take it because I am bipolar II. It's true that Topomax is used for many different things but they are legitimate medical conditions. Not that weight loss isn't, I just mean that Topomax isn't prescribed FOR weight loss because it isn't a weight loss drug. THere are too many other side effects to the drug to worry about and I can't imagine it would be a first line drug for weight loss. There are SOOO many other weight loss drugs out there I would really question your Dr as to WHY he decided to go with Topomax and ask him about the numerous side effects. Also, how quickly is he having you go up on it? If it's any more than 25mg every 2-3 weeks, he really doesn't know much about this drug. As for the depression, I guess everyone can have different side effects. By going up too quickly, I lost my eyesight for a few days. NOT FUN!! If you go up slowly enough, you usually don't have too many side effects. I did have the tingling but it went away. I think the weight loss is around 150mg IF you are even going to have it. But then again, I think that depends on the person as well. I don't care if it doesn't make me lose weight, as long as it doesn't make me gain. At this point, that is all I care about. I know it has to be really frustrating to carry extra weight around from taking a medication. I thought mine was from having our second child, but now that I look back, I wonder if it was really from taking all those stupid antidepressants that I shouldn't have been taking to begin with! I am not an overeater. I mean, I can pack it away when I WANT to, but who can't. I can't sit down and eat a whole thing of ice cream or a whole box of crackers or whatnot. Frankly, that makes my stomach hurt to think about it. I guess that is one reason I never had a problem with eating disorders. I do like to eat, so the anorexia would have never been an issue with me. And I absolutely HATE throwing up, so bulemia would have never been an option with me, no matter how bad I felt about when I had actually pigged out. I think I have just come to the conclusion that carbohydrates are not for me. My body does not like them, nor tolerate them well. My tastebuds on the other hand.....that is another story! They say MMMM!!!!! The MORE THE MERRIER!! Of course, they don't have to look at my thighs and butt afterwards, so what do they know! Anyway, 20 morelbs to go for my first goal.....
Posted by redscarlet on November 11, 2004, at 12:47:20
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss and side effects, posted by bridgey1128 on November 11, 2004, at 12:16:44
I don't think there is any doctor out there prescribing Topamax as a weight loss drug to anyone. However if someone is on psychotropic medications and they are/have gained weight from them it is not that uncommon to be given the option to try Topamax or Zonegran. It is important to know with any drug the side effects or possible side effects before you decide to take it.
> Personally, I think it's rather wreckless of a Dr to prescribe a medicine for weight loss that isn't used for weight loss that has so many other side effects when there are so many other drugs out there FOR weight loss. I just don't get it. Honestly, weight loss is a POSSIBLE side effect, so don't get your hopes up. I am on 200mg and still not losing weight because of the Topomax. I am only losing weight because I got back on the Atkins diet. I take it because I am bipolar II. It's true that Topomax is used for many different things but they are legitimate medical conditions. Not that weight loss isn't, I just mean that Topomax isn't prescribed FOR weight loss because it isn't a weight loss drug. THere are too many other side effects to the drug to worry about and I can't imagine it would be a first line drug for weight loss. There are SOOO many other weight loss drugs out there I would really question your Dr as to WHY he decided to go with Topomax and ask him about the numerous side effects. Also, how quickly is he having you go up on it? If it's any more than 25mg every 2-3 weeks, he really doesn't know much about this drug. As for the depression, I guess everyone can have different side effects. By going up too quickly, I lost my eyesight for a few days. NOT FUN!! If you go up slowly enough, you usually don't have too many side effects. I did have the tingling but it went away. I think the weight loss is around 150mg IF you are even going to have it. But then again, I think that depends on the person as well. I don't care if it doesn't make me lose weight, as long as it doesn't make me gain. At this point, that is all I care about. I know it has to be really frustrating to carry extra weight around from taking a medication. I thought mine was from having our second child, but now that I look back, I wonder if it was really from taking all those stupid antidepressants that I shouldn't have been taking to begin with! I am not an overeater. I mean, I can pack it away when I WANT to, but who can't. I can't sit down and eat a whole thing of ice cream or a whole box of crackers or whatnot. Frankly, that makes my stomach hurt to think about it. I guess that is one reason I never had a problem with eating disorders. I do like to eat, so the anorexia would have never been an issue with me. And I absolutely HATE throwing up, so bulemia would have never been an option with me, no matter how bad I felt about when I had actually pigged out. I think I have just come to the conclusion that carbohydrates are not for me. My body does not like them, nor tolerate them well. My tastebuds on the other hand.....that is another story! They say MMMM!!!!! The MORE THE MERRIER!! Of course, they don't have to look at my thighs and butt afterwards, so what do they know! Anyway, 20 morelbs to go for my first goal.....
Posted by iris2 on November 11, 2004, at 12:59:55
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
I have strong feelings about this type of thing. I think it is an abuse of medication use, taking a medication that has effects on your body like all mediactions they are poisons to our bodies and should be taken only if absolutely needed. If you only "need" to loose 20 pounds I think it is obserd to take any type of drug for this. I think a lot of people on this board and elsewere are taking medications too lightly and simply to modify their lives instead of taking them for "real" diseases. This whole country has a terrible mindset about taking drugs. They are routinely advertised on TV. It is not that we should not be well informed it is that these advertisements are not informing us at all. They are simply selling us a bill of goods. For instance remember not too long ago when there was a lot of advertisements about acid reflux disease and meds on TV. Did you know that almost all "acid reflux" is caused by having too little acid in your stomach.
Question, would you take a diet pill to loose the weight? A diet pill probably has less side effect profile than the Topamax .
It dos appear that you have mood roblems too as you were on Celexa and your post heading includes "mild depression". Do you think your doctor gave you the Topamax for your mood and knows that a commen side effect can be loosing weight? This would make a lot more sense.
If you are only taking it absolutely to loose weight I suggest to you that you should not be taking this drug and you should taper slowely off of I tunder doctors supervision.
I do not mean to sound depressing but you really hit a nerve and probably most of the people you hear from on this site will think it is fine to take it for this reason. I am thinking you must have doubts else you would not have posted the questionGood luck.
Keep us posted, I would be interested to know what your doctor says about it all if you ask him/her,
Irene
p.s. I am a terrible speller and my spell check is not working. Sorry!
Posted by iris2 on November 11, 2004, at 13:14:11
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by stresser on November 11, 2004, at 7:17:29
Remember that loosing weight on Topamax is only a side effect of this medication. it is not a diet pill. Do you think your daughter should be taking a diet pill?
Is it helping with her binge eating? Is her mood better?
This medication is an anti convulsant used off label for mood disorders and sometimes for eating disorders.
If she wants to take a diet pill no doubt there are a lot more effective pills out there on the market both OVC and by prescription. Do you think your daughter is so overweight that she is in need of such a strong intervention?
I have read a lot of your posts and it does not sound like it.
I hope the Topamax helps with the mood and binging and if not then she needs to change medications. I do not know how long she needs to take it for it to be considered an effective drug trial or at what dose.
I know it is hard being a teen (or any age for that matter) and being overweight.Would you take a medication for other slight faults you might have? Like for instance talking too much or having big hips or the wrong color hair? This is about as much sence it makes to take medication to loose weight not causing morbidity problems.
I hope all of you start feeling better. I feel like he** today.
irene
Posted by rainy on November 11, 2004, at 13:20:13
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression » Sheley, posted by iris2 on November 11, 2004, at 12:59:55
Sheley, Bridgey, Redscarlet and Iris have just said what I was reluctant or too muzzy to verbalize this morning since I'm adverse to giving outright advice, but I'm in agreement with the three of them. They are much less wishy washy about the issue than I was. Stresser's daughter's experience isn't very encouraging, either.
On the other hand, you have to make up your own mind with as much hard and cold information as you can gather, not just our opinions.
The prescribing information would be enough to keep me away from the pill, if I didn't need it for other reasons.
rainy
Posted by headachequeen on November 11, 2004, at 13:21:22
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by stresser on November 11, 2004, at 7:17:29
> Hello,
>
> Nice to have you on the board. I haven't been on here too long, and have asked the exact question you are asking. The others can probably answer with more knowledge than I can, but I will tell you that my daughter was put on topamax for binge eating disorder, and because she gained weight on Lexapro. She has been on it for seven weeks, and is just now up to 225 mg per day. We have no seen any weight loss yet. I don't if it's because she needs a higher dose, or if it's just not going to work. Keep us posted. Gotta go to work. -L
You have 'seen' no weight loss yet...
does she tell you her weight?
has she needed a change of wardrobe?
has her self-esteem changed?there are subtle changes that indicate weight loss and not always read in pounds...
I know without getting on the scale that I have lost weight this past few days...
the blue suede slacks I was about to give up on fit me again... although I had not realised how short they are...
now I have to find a way to let them down sigh... without leaving the tell-tale marks...
and without my usual leave-it-for-another-day attitude of course...how does she feel about herself??? that is key...
and is she helping you work toward that exam for that course??? helping you overcome that chocolate urge???
remember, include her in your being a human and it will help her so very much....kat who wishes she had known these things when her kids were teens
Posted by headachequeen on November 11, 2004, at 13:27:02
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
> I was just put on Topamax solely for weight loss. I was on celexa for 1.5 years and gained 20 pounds. I weened off celexa over the last 9 weeks and my Dr. gave me Topamax to speed up my weight loss. What does anyone think if this??
I was put on Topomax because it would deal with migraine at the same type it would back up my first-line anti-seizure med (it is actually an AED)... the neurologist warned me it was known to cause weight loss...
well, it did...
I have lost weight taking it...
at the moment I am again losing weight... because two of the other meds I am taking cause weight loss as side effects...
I can tell the doctors that I don't want to take them because they may cause weight loss... and suffer the risk of increased seizures... or I can lose the weight...
personally I will take the Topomax and the other stuff and eliminate the pain and the risk of seizures...
I have had few side effects from Topomax...but you have to increase dosages by 25 mg and no more often than every two weeks as long as your body has adjusted...
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 11, 2004, at 13:38:34
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression » Sheley, posted by rainy on November 11, 2004, at 7:18:25
>> That said, Let me ask you a couple of questions. Have you read the package insert that comes with Topamax? I mean the one for doctors, not consumers. This is a powerful drug that has a lot of unpleasant, to say the least, side effects. Cognitive impairment is one that I've had the most trouble with at doses over 250 mg which is where weight loss begins for most people. At 350-400, I was disoriented, couldn't remember names, nouns, lost my train of thought in the middle of a conversation at a party etc.
> It has other neurological side effects including balance problems, tingling etc. Loss of eyesight is another biggy.These side effects are generally found when the dosage is increased too fast...
and I forgot to mention that it is best to start it at bedtime... achieve half dose then start the other half in the morning...As for cognitive damage... the cognitive risks are short term... a few days and it is back to normal...
and from my point of view a minor thing...
this morning I stood at the Cenotaph for Remembrance Day, something I never miss, no matter how cold and rainy and I could not remember the words to our national anthem, in EITHER LANGUAGE... I never sing it in English... the words in English are pathetic and change every other weekend it seems, but I have sung it in French since I was a child...
and it upsets the local yokels to have someone with a voice as powerful as mine drown out all of them en francais <evil grin>
this morning I got to O Canada and then nothing... not a word...
when I came to in hospital I could not remember a word of English...I knew there was something odd, but I was francophone to all intents and purposes...
at times I am not sure how to pronounce a word, or I don't know what a word is... I have a hard time with the 'r' in my own name at other times...
these cognitive problems out do any problems I had with topomax...
I am now going to a speech pathologist.. have my voice back but have to learn to speak properly, to learn the mechanics of speech ...
that is cognitive problems...
Topomax side effects are minimised and can be avoided if one is careful...
and it can be effective if one is careful....I suppose this is a continent of people who are obsessed with weight and appearance, but then again there is a serious self-esteem issue to be addressed and that is important...
not something to slough under the table...so many of the so-called diet pills are plain dangerous, amphetamines, and the like...
some of them are downright lethal... most of them are illegal up here in fact...
this is available through a doctor only and therefore controlled and guided...
to whatever degree it is safe, whether one approves or not, it is a measure of return of self-esteem for people who need it...
for those whose wiring is badly crossed putting them at risk of severe and constant migraine or worse, it is survival....
so we live with it...
kat
Posted by rainy on November 11, 2004, at 15:41:26
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 11, 2004, at 13:38:34
And we are all different. I'm so weight obsessed I would be sorely tempted to take Topamax for weight loss only and am delighted that weight loss was one of its serendipitous side effects for me, so I don't have to compromise my values and make the decision that Sheley is facing. I'm remaining on it (if the insurance company obliges, we seem to be having a bit of a problem there) because it's controlling the stupid eating disorder and my maybe still extant tendency to self medicate with alcohol.
Also, I don't want to gain back whatever weight Topamax helped me lose. So it seems like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth. I think the drug is more poisonous than other stuff I'm taking--maybe, maybe not. I don't want to stop it. It's a trade off I've decided to make.
And you're right, at least according to the neurologist I saw recently who had such bad things to say about the drug--all the adverse effects (except loss of eyesight, I think) are dose related and reversible.
But if it's used only for weight loss and the the happy loser stops and the weight returns, what then? That's why I haven't given away my "fat clothes", even though they're miles too big--I don't trust this skinny me.
I'm not sure Topamax is doing it's mood stabilizing job here in rainyville. Both therapist and pdoc think I'm in manic mode--not hypo but the big M. Point being insurance may not pay and this drug is not cheap. If I have to go back to work, and it may come to that, I will have to stop the medicine. It may be to my benefit.
Your cognive impairment sounds wild and wild, Kat. What a rich experience you are having and I'm not saying that in jest. I hope you're writing it down.
good luck here, Sheley--we've each had different experiences and have different opinions. I would also be tempted to use OTC diet pills but they are murder on our bodies, too. I'm going to shut up for awhile now.
rainy
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