Back from Death and Weak as a Baby

[SassieCat]

My new prescription carrier has changed all of my scripts to generic garbage.  The hormone replacement therapy that I WAS on and it WAS working well had been changed to this 'Estrodial Patch'.  First off, the patch is supposed to be changed every week but I can't get it to stay on for more than 3 days.  I've even taped it on with hospital tape and it falls off. 

The worst of this is any time certain medications are altered, my body reacts poorly and often with excruciating migraines.  This is the case with this new HRT.  The headaches have been going on for about 10 days now and yesterday was the queen mother.  I hurt so much, after maxing out on migraine medicine, I also took 2 aspirin, 1 flexeril (over 24 hrs.) and a pain pill in hopes of keeping my head from splitting open. 

Today my headache is down to mild but my heart went crazy and started beating so hard and fast that I believe I was feeling the mattress vibrate.  All I could think of to describe it would be a large dog panting and how fast their whole body shakes when they are panting.  I opened my eyes and my vision went so crazy that I hurried and shut them again so I wouldn't get sick.  And now I feel so weak and exhausted.

I've had migraines and been so sick with them like I was yesterday but never did I have my heart palpitating and racing like it did today.  I looked up the estrodial and it's has a drug rating of X.  What does that me?

[irish]

sassie, I am a retired nurse. I looked up the estradial in my Nursing Drug Handbook and all I can see is that this drug has a pregnancy rating of X. All drugs have a rating that tells how safe it is to take during pregnancy.

I am by no means a doctor, but it sure sounds like you had too many meds in your body. When you take all that migraine medication and then add aspirin, flexeril (which can really stone a person with just one pill alone) and then add a pain pill I can sure see why you had so many problems. Hopefully, you will not have any long term problems from mixing meds.

I would advise anyone who suffers from migraines to go to their doc or ER if they are still suffering after taking their migraine meds without relief. There are many good generic medications out there. Most of my meds are generic as that is the cheapest way to go. Many times docs will have certain drugs that they want patients to take in the trade name form. When docs want this they need to state it on the drug prescription. The patient ususally ends up eating the cost until they have the doc communicate the appropriate paper work to assure the trade med at a cheaper cost.

I was on a patch at one time for a few months and I battled with the darn thing til I was nuts. I tried all sort of tape plus different body areas and ended up with the worst tape burns. I had to use a very large amount of tape to get it to stick---I was miserable. You need to let your doc know what is going on and ask if he can order generic oral medication. He must have changed the delivery method of your hormone without talking it over with you. The pharmacy would not substitute a patch for a pill without talking with your doctor. (Possibly the oral med you were taking was discontinued and the insurance company replaced it with the patch. The pharmacist should have called and checked with your doc about this.) Call doc and get this straightened out. Also, let him know about your migraine and ask if there the generic meds you are on would precipitate the migraines. Good luck. Irish

[SassieCat]

Irish,

I didn't take the meds all at one time, they were spaced over a 24 hr period.  And I have used the flexeril alot for my fibro problems.  They do change the scripts because I know what I mailed in to the script company and what I get back is not the same.

I took the patch off and threw it away.  Today is Sunday and I woke up with headaches already.  I can feel my heart beating in my ears too.  So I know I'm in for a not so fun day already.

In the past years, when the doctors adjusted my HRT's the change would bring on migraines.  Changing thryoid meds will do the same thing to me.  I haven't started taking the new thryoid med yet as I still have Levoxil left to take.  But I am not going to put that patch back on as I belive this is what's triggering the migraines.

SassieCat

[irish]

sassiecat, You do not have to take meds at the same time to have drug interactions. Drugs all have what is called a half-life. This is the amount of time it takes for half of the drug to be excreted from the body(sort of a simple explaination) and then the 1/2 divides into half and so on. What happens is that even if drugs are taken many hours apart there are times when one of those drugs can enhance the action of the other drug. Taking a pain pill with flexeril can cause this to happen.

I have given Flexeril a lot and my hubby has taken it for his back muscle spasms. Add these 2 drugs to the migraine meds that also are doing the half life thing and a person can run into trouble. This half life thing with drugs is something nurses have to watch for all the time with their patients. It is so easy for people to get "drugged up" from meds. Everyone tolerates and metabolizes meds at a different rate. Some people have livers that "rapid cycle" drugs twice as fast as other people and then there are people who are really slow metabolizers and they can get drugged up easily.

I am not passing judgement at all but just to let you know that things can happen that we don't expect. I am so careful about my drugs that I don't take any tylenol or ibuprofen unless I absolutely need to. I just don't want to put too much stress on my liver cause it is the only one I have!!! Hope you can get into the doc soon to find out what is wrong.

Also, I would imagine if you get your drugs mail order that you don't always know about the change in a drug until you get it. Whenever we have a change in our generic drugs our pharmacist always talks to us or pastes a note on the bottle. I was thinking you meant when you were changed from a trade name drug to a generic. Hope I didn't confuse you too much.  ;DIrish

[SassieCat]

Irish,

Thank you.  This I did not know.  I do get drugs via mail order and I take a pen to write what they were substituted for.  Many of my drugs I have been on for years due to my chronic pain from FM.  I do not take pain pills unless I'm hurting so bad I just can't deal.  I am not used to them and they ususally cause me to sleep.

Flexeril I used to take daily for the FM but I quit taking it about 3-4 months ago as the FM flare was letting up.  My RA diagnosed me with SjS last December and I was taken off of Lyrica and I told her I was going to wean off Flexeril too.  She put me on the Plaquenil (generic) and it was helping and I was going into remission from the FM. 

I started the Estradiol about 3 weeks ago and after the first week the headaches began.  Then the headaches started turning into migraines around the 2nd week.  I will take Axert when I start having a migraine and it usually will take most of the pain away.  So Friday morning around 8 am I took one.  Nothing!  I know that I can take 2 in a 24 hour period so around noon I took the second and went to lie down.  Around 1 am the pain was so intense I was throwing up and lying on the bathroom floor.  I then took the flexeril and aspirin and went back to bed.  Some time in the middle of the night my head was still hurting so much I thought I would take a pain pill so I would fall asleep as this is my usual reaction to taking one. 

I have not taken anything since Friday night and it's Sunday evening and I still have a bad headache and it's progressivly getting worse.  I can hear my heart thumping in my ears and the vibration of it is making my head feel worse. 

I know I need to contact a doctor for this as it isn't normal for me.  But my question is this, Which one? 

The cardio because of my heart?
The internest becasue of the migraine?
Or the RA because the headaches, body pain, electrical sensations and SJS?

Any suggestions?

[irish]

Sorry you are having so many problems. If it was me I would call and try to get into one ASAP because it is possible that you could be having some elevated blood pressure. Also, do you have an ER or urgent care that is available. I don't know if you have had problems with your blood pressure before, but I know that some people will have a pounding headache with an elevated blood pressure. I am for sure not a doctor, but I know if it was me I would be getting to the doc ASAP. Headaches are nothing to mess around with. It is possible you have a headache that is not a migraine.

Go for the internist, GP or Cardio---whoever will see you. Sure hope you can get this resolved as soon as possible. Irish

[harrigan]

How have you got on Sassie?  Been thinking of you.  I've had the occasional migraine that doesn't respond to usual meds and it really is vile.  Hope you have managed to get an appointment with someone who can help.  Let us know how you've got on, worried about you xx Ailsa

[Chickpea]

SassieCat - I'm worried about you too and hoping that no news is good news.  My heart goes out to you.  I've also suffered from migraines since early teens and there is no way of describing the pain.  My migraines have changed in nature over the years with varying levels of pain and aura/vision issues.  Sometimes I get ones that no pain meds touch, and that includes the morphine that I'm on daily.  I think at times that they are connected with 'new' SjS symptoms developing so there's definitely a cns connection.

I hope you take Irish's advice and get them checked out asap, especially because of the possible heart symptoms.

Thinking of you - Chickpea

[SassieCat]

 

Saw my primary care doctor as heart doctor wasn't in and I didn't want to go to ER. 

Express Scripts wanted me to change from Vivelle Dot to a generic script.  He did that.  They just changed the generic to a more generic and put me on a medicine he would not recommend me to take.  This is what is causing my blood pressure, heart palpatations, racing pulse, migraines, dizzy, and overall feeling terrible. 

My choices are:
Stay on the med and wait and see if it gets better  (NOPE)
Go Back to Vivelle Dot or the generic he wanted me to take in the first place.  (Have to call Express Scripts to see what they want so I am not throwing more money down the drain.)
or.... go off hrt cold turkey and see if my body adjusts.

[harrigan]

Those are not 3 easy choices Sassie - stuck between a rock, a hard place and a brick wall!  Hope you work out what's best for you and start to feel some relief from the headaches and palpitations soon.  Keep posting xx Ailsa