Posted by polarbear206 on April 5, 2007, at 9:51:34
In reply to Lamictal made me very sick, posted by metalblade on April 5, 2007, at 8:01:42
> I haven't used this board in a long time, but since it is a good source of information for everyone I thought I would share my recent experience with lamictal.
>
> Around December I started having panic attacks that would cause my blood pressure to shoot up to 189/107. This little problem landed me in the hospital on their phyciatric floor. At the time the doctor seeing me thought the answer was to add Lamictal and Geodon to the Lithium and paxil I was already taking.
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> To sum this up, I left the hospital feeling great on the Lamictal, it was like a controlled hypomania, and who doesn't want that. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to last long. I was up to 50mg when one night I had terrible night sweets and a metallic taste in my mouth along with a soar throat.
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> The next morning my throat was fine so I took my next dose. Around 6PM these itchy bumps started popping up on my arm then sporadically all over my body. The next day I didn't take the Lamictal, but that didn't seem to matter, it got worse. I had what appeared to be a sunburn on my face and arms. I was running a temperature and felt as if I had the flu. My heart would beat fast and hard at times also.
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> I've been two weeks getting over this, and its been a scary experience. I've had to go to three different doctors because my Pdoc waited for two weeks before he would see me and all his receptionist would tell me was if its an emergency go to the emergency room. Well I did that, and as you know emergency rooms like to treat everything as a panic attack, give you a benzo and send you on your way.
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> Then I went to see a family doctor. He did a strep test, and when it turned up negative he told me it was all viral then said it wasn't strep as he walked out of the room. I'm really down on incompetent doctors!
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> Finally, I go see a doctor who has experience with allergies, an Allergist. He was concerned that the prednisone would make me manic so he only gave me four days worth at 10mg and scheduled me for a follow up appointment the next week.
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> After suffering a week and a half, I took the first dose of prednisone, and that night I didn't get a fever plus the flu symptoms started going away. So much for it all being viral.
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> I did experience one other thing and I'm glad I started the prednisone when I did. On the second day of the prednisone the itch bumps where going away, but I had a slight rash on my lips and my mouth had an icy hot feeling. That too went away and finally after about two weeks I feel normal again. With out the prednisone I think I would still be sick or worse.
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>The metalic taste in your mouth was most likely from the Lithium, this is a well known side effect of this drug. I am wondering if you might of experienced some sort of Serotonin syndrome from the addition of the Lamictal. Lamictal and lithium work work well together. I don't think it was a wise choice for your Dr. to add another mood stabilizer, without considering to wein you down or off the Geodon. Combining that many medications is bound to cause interactions.
Maybe Larry Hoover can contribute his thoughts. He is the number one authority here on this board knowing how and what they affect.Polarbear
poster:polarbear206
thread:747160
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070402/msgs/747189.html