Posted by Cayman on November 24, 2004, at 15:09:29
It has only been about 40 hours since my last low dose of Topamax (50 mg) for a horrible migraine. I have been on this medicine for three short weeks. However, I believe I can feel relief in my lungs already. At this point, if the research I did on the half-life is accurate, I believe that less than 15% of the medicine would be in my system. With the decrease of the drug in my system, and the increase in the quality of breathing, I am almost certain that it was exacerbating my asthma (which has been fine for the last nine months until the last few days). The shortness of breath was requiring me to use my inhaler every 4 to 6 hours and even then, I felt like I needed to use it sometimes before it was safe to do so again. Whether I had my hands on top of my head, went for cold air, lay down - I couldn't get a deep enough breath. Breathing out - was not an issue though. I have searched through the side effects of Topomax, and can not find such an effect listed. However, if there is one thing I know - it is my own body. If you are searching through this board because you are not sure if you should be listening to yours (body), I would encourage you to pay attention to what yours has to say. Especially if it has to do with breathing.(Hello – a little scary my friends). It is not always easy to do this and I do have to say, that I was a little skeptical as to if it was the asthma or the Topomax when this started happening to me. No one likes to call their doctor and have another "issue" with their "primary - issue" - but I am really glad I did now. I feel it is a red flag that - since I have stopped, the breathing has improved. Additionally - what concerns me is that I had called two pharmacists, after getting my doctors direction to stop the Topamax for a few days , to get their input as to if it could be a side effect. Neither one had information that was a cross reference (Walgreens) between the drug and asthmatic effects. If anyone else is experiencing similar symptoms and is asthmatic you may want to pay attention and measure if they are similar to the effects that I have experienced. I'd also be curious to know if anyone else has experienced these effects.
poster:Cayman
thread:419802
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041123/msgs/419802.html