Posted by headachequeen on February 25, 2004, at 16:40:31
In reply to Re: topomax, posted by sickofmyfatclothes on February 25, 2004, at 11:56:48
> As someone who would be overjoyed at being a size 10, let alone even a 16, I must take exception. When I mean fat clothes, I mean size 26. I DO NOT overeat. I have a metabolism of minus zero. I am a very pretty woman and take care of my appearance, but I CANNOT lose more than a pound or 2 unless I live on an apple and nothing else a day. I walk about a mile aprox. 3 times a week. I am not sedentary.I have 6 dogs and 6 cats. I am busy. I cannot afford, nor would I have gastric bypass surgery. A dear friend died last fall from complications from that surgery. I am slowly building my dosage, as prescribed, with no side effects as yet. Do you still deny that this is a worthwhile try at boosting my metabolism, as the literature has tended to show, given my circumstances? How many meds were discovered for other worthwhile purposes while using for other problems. If I were having adverse side effects, I would stop immediately. NO weight loss is worth that. But I'm not. So is it wrong to try?
>
I am not sure to begin with if this med boosts metabolism. I would check that aspect if I were you before starting to take a medication that has other side effects... intense tingling, so-called, in the extremities, nausea, kidney involvement, hair damage and even fall-out, eye involvement, and I forget the rest...
I am a very active person... I walk a couple of miles every day, often more than that. Yesterday, for instance, I walked a couple of miles before nine in the morning because it is February and I simply have to walk because I do not want to go back onto those wretched anti-depressants and become a zombie again...
I have worked with my dogs for years doing obedience and agility, and that means a lot of running -- weave poles, tunnels, dog walks, teeter totters, and the like and believe me, that takes a lot of moving around... running and the like...
then I do tracking with the dogs as well...
up hill and down dale...
so I am anything but sedentary but losing weight has not been a factor in my life until recently...
some of it came with the topomax that was prescribed by my neurologist and I think some of it may have come when I tossed out the antidepressants while some may even be a side effect of my new-found sense of self direction, I am not sure but would like to think so...
my metabolism has not changed...
I am still the same person...
my thyroid has been thoroughly screened because the opthalmologist thought that it might be causing some of the eye problems...
the metabolism is still the same one I had two years ago, before I began the topomax experience... the appetite has changed...
the food interests have changed...
I wish I could say like others here that Topomax is helping me sleep...
I still find it almost impossible to sleep at night... although when it is time to stagger out of bed in the morning, I am ready to do my best sleeping... ironic isn't it...
Topomax has not helped me sort out that part of living...
I don't know if it has done anything about stabilising my mood... but there is still time...
it has done a good job of stabilising the epileptic part of my life and eliminating the migraines HALLELUIA on both counts...
and the appetite suppressant part has helped me move from the larger sizes to the sizes closer to the me I used to be; I think and hope this means a return to greater energy to do the things I want to do and need to do...
it is far easier I think for a person my present size to run around the agility course or to follow a dog on a track up a rocky hill and down again, or to climb through a river to get a photograph she desperately wants, or thinks she wants, than it was a few sizes ago... and probably safer too...
as for the cost of gastric bypass... it costs me over 400 dollars a month for the Topomax ... over 4800 a year... and that will increase if the dosage must be increased...
this is not an inexpensive medication...
one needs a good medical plan as has been mentioned...no one is suggesting that anyone needs to be unhappy or suffer overweight ... we are suggesting that there needs to be caution exercised in the approach to embracing a drug as powerful as this as a panacea to all one's problems...
it must be monitored... at least the person using it must be monitored...
I see a doctor monthly; there are regular blood tests; other tests are performed to be sure that the meds are not causing problems that make the cure worse than the disease and the disease is bad enough, believe me...
The neurologist kept regular and frequent checks for the first 18 months and then follows up yearly... more often if there is a need...
and he is checking on the medication and its effects as much as on me and the progress of the disease...
the disease is basically controlled now...
it is the medication that he wants to keep under control at this stage...
that is the message that we are trying to send...
kat
poster:headachequeen
thread:50878
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040223/msgs/317631.html