Before a childhood tonsilectomy, I was given a pre-surgery sedative that produced the exact opposite of the hoped for response. It made me so hyper that I could not sit still, much less lay down. I had to be physically restrained to get me to the OR. Luckily the ether that was used as an anesthetic in those days put me out, but they had to use such a large amount that I was groggy and nauseous for several days after.
Was it a benzo or antihistamine? I believe those can have the opposite of the intended effect for some people.
Lisinipril. I took my first dose, went to work. A few hours later, I felt that I had bugs under my skin, my heart was pounding, and I had a horrendous headache. Instead of going to the ER, I went home, took some Excederin, and went to bed. After I woke up, I called my doctor, who yelled at me, stating I was lucky I woke up.
The dye used for CAT scans. Makes me extremely nauseous. Technically, due to nonfunctioning kidneys, they’re not supposed to use the dye anyways, but they keep trying. The last time I had a CAT scan, I unfortunately hurled all over. And then said “Told you so”.
I got akathisia (severe restlessness) from an antipsychotic, Solian. I spent an entire night just alternating between sitting/standing/lying in bed for a minute or two (I remember I couldn’t sit still long enough to finish a cigarette and I’m a fast smoker). It was pure torture.
I was given zyprexa for a psychosis. In combination with being a fucking horrible drug that left me in a constant apathetic depression while also amplifying my anxiety issues, it ended up having the great side effect of giving me a pulmonary embolism.
Penicillin gives me an itchy neon-pink rash all over my skin.
Destroying 26 years of sobriety by insisting I take Celexa for three days made me want to kill myself. Of course, that was a “psychological reaction” and didn’t count.
I was prescribed lisinopril to control my blood pressure. Doctor told me it can cause a mild cough in some people. For me it wasn’t a mild cough, it would have raging fits of coughing. Some would happen while driving, all I could do is stop and cough up a lung or two before I could continue. And tons of mucus especially at night while trying to sleep. Went back to the doctor, she did a chest x-ray and found my lungs were filling with body fluids, I was basically drowning in them. She told me to stop taking the medication and put me on something else. I’m finally start to feel normal again.
My reumatologist once had me try methrotrexate to help control my arthritis. All seemed fine for a few weeks until I started having severe coughing fits, productive tasting of blood. I didn’t relate that problem with the drug for a few weeks. Then I looked up the drug interactions on it and saw that one of the rare side effects reported for it were lesions in the lungs. Xray confirmed… I was a winner! My lungs are all healed up now and methotrexate is a major no-no for me.
I have also discovered the hard way that tramadol (ultram, ultracet) makes me puke very suddenly and without warning.
Last one is very strange. I have done predisone tapers several times in the past with no problem. The last time I did one, as I was nearing the end of the taper, I got very bizarre swelling reactions. First the last two fingers of my right hand swelled up to the point I was seriously considering having one of my rings cut off before I lost a finger. The swelling went down before we did that, but then the left side of my lips and cheek swelled up. I felt like a cartoon character with random parts ballooning out. The swelling went down and no harm was done, but it was freaky.
Compared to everyone else’s stories, mine is on the tame side.
About 15 years ago I started to notice some lactose intolerance. Not bad - some days a DQ cone would send me over the edge other days I could eat pizza, a cheese sandwich and a bowl of ice cream and I’d be fine. Someone told me to try Lactaid. So I did. I took one tablet before I ate some sort of dairy product. This was around supper time. It seemed to work. Around 9pm I started to feel like I was going to throw up. So I did. From that point until 2am I threw up steady. It was like a timer would go off. I’d fall asleep and in exactly a 1/2 hour I’d wake up and start throwing up again. After the first 3 or 4 bouts of vomiting my stomach was empty and from then on it was dry heaves. It was horrible. Thinking that maybe it was just a coincidence and I really had a stomach bug, I decided I’d try Lactaid again about 3 months later. Sure enough, the exact same thing happened. I read the box to see if there were any warnings - there were none. I looked online to see if there was any info about side-effects but I found nothing there either. I kept looking and came across a website (don’t remember what it was called) where people would post their weird side-effects of different drugs. A woman posted a story about her husband. He was lactose intolerant. He took a Lactaid before they left for the airport where they were going away for a long weekend vacation. She said that he was sick for the entire flight and spent the long weekend recovering. Coincidence? Maybe he was just sick, but she didn’t seem to think so.
I read somewhere that it’s possible to be allergic or sensitive to whatever is used to coat the medication or whatever is used as a binder. I think that’s where my issue is. I drink lactose-free milk all the time which has lactase in it, the same product that’s in Lactaid.
All I know is that I will NEVER take a Lactaid again!
Well, you said it. For everyone else, this is your too much information warning.
Azathioprine for ulcerative colitis. As it may cause nausea, they gave me some metaclopramide to take ahead of dosing. To cut to the chase, after a few days my morning routine was this: Up at six for metaclopramide, back to bed. Up at 7.30 for breakfast and azathioprine. Then by about nine the vomiting would start - actually, the buildup was almost worse, getting sicker and sicker and knowing what was going to happen next. Constant bouts of vomiting, exacerbated by the fact that I do not have peristalsis/reverse peristalsis (achalasia of the cardia), so these bouts of vomiting were agonisingly painful.
Then the shits would start. Basically shitting coloured water, which was a side effect of the drug and not to do with the colitis, but when you have the two together, boy does that smart. And of course, there isn’t a clean handover from puking to shitting, so there’s a happy period where you’re doing both, often simultaneously. There was no point in even trying to leave the bathroom for a couple of hours. I would take reading material, and two litres of coke and some sweets for when the nausea and vomiting stopped, to cope with the dehydration and to get some sugar inside me. It’s a routine that has a certain amount of exhaustion associated with it.
The story with azathioprine is that it may initially cause some nausea (Hah!) but if you stick with it, that goes away and after that you’re fine. Well, I wasn’t. I stuck it for about two weeks before they took me off it.
Odd fact: I was self employed, and through that period I just adjusted my hours and carried on working (from home). Being self employed does strange things to your mind.
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A BP medication; I believe it was called Monopril ----- ballistic diarrhea, shortness of breath, agitation and a few other things. I ended up doing a pass through the ER at my doctors request and doing a steroid pack to clean it out and get my system back to abnormal so he could try a “Plan B”.
I’m can’t remember which medicine exactly or why it was prescribed, but cipro medications cause a terrible reaction for me. It felt like my skin was sunburned and my lips got chapped very badly. I remember feeling like I’d been poisoned. I forgot after the first time I took them, but after the second time, I’ve never forgotten again.
I’ve posted this before.
After skin cancer surgery, the dermatologist prescribed some codeine for any pain. After I took some, I went to bed, but was awakened at 2 a.m. with horrific upper abdominal pain. It wasn’t in my stomach - I had had issues with gastric distress in the past and knew what that felt like. It was somewhere deep in my chest/upper stomach region, with a band of bad pain going around to my back and between my shoulder blades.
Off to ER for me, and I was tested for a heart attack, which I feared. Nothing. After several hours of unvarying pain (which morphine did nothing for), it subsided, and I went home. The pain never returned. ER doctors had no explanation, nor did my GP when I asked about it.
I did the forbidden and consulted Dr. Google, and eventually turned up what I think it was. People in their 50s who’ve had their gall bladder removed in the past (that was me) can react to codeine by getting a spasming of the “Oddi sphincter”, which is right near the pancreas. This is an extremely painful event, and when I question people who’ve had pancreatic pain, they describe a pain which is exactly what I felt that night.
So, no more codeine for me. And how do you pronounce “Oddi”?
I got a rash from Bactrim also, which as far as I know is the only time I’ve ever had an allergic reaction to anything. I didn’t make the connection at first when the soles of my feet started itching, but I sure did a couple of days later when the rash spread over my entire body.
Unless you mean that the Celexa led you to drink alcohol or take other drugs, you have an odd definition of “sobriety.”
I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that hospitalized me for several days and wiped out my immune system. My white blood cell count was 200 (normal is 3000-4000). I had several doctors ask me about my sexual practices (thinking I might have AIDS). I had a bone marrow biopsy (they drive a huge-ass needle into your hip bone) to see if I had leukemia. I couldn’t eat anything uncooked for weeks. I picked up a hospital acquired infection that took me months to finally defeat. It took me over 8 months to fully recover.
Topamax - anaphylaxis, so a rush to the Hospital in an ambulance. Sucked even more because I was on a military course.
Gravol - gave me weird, auditory hallucinations, and made me crazy jittery. I was twitchy and could not sit still.
Amoxy-Clav - crazy, full-body hives and auto-immune hepatitis for a year.
As a child I was forcibly medicated with Tofranil. It caused chest pains. I was taken to the ER and the EKG recorded tachycardia of 180+. The ER doctor dismissed my complaints of pain. The forcible medicating* with Tofranil continued.
Known side effects of Tofranil include ventricular arrhythmias and AV block. Tachycardia and palpitations are known common side effects of Tofranil.
Now that I am an adult my cardiologist treats it seriously if I say I am having chest pain. Gee. Imagine that.
A trial of Losartin dropped my blood pressure enough that, in combination with other known medical issues, caused dizziness and fainting. Switching to a different medication got blood pressure controlled without falling over.
Much more recently a combination of Tramadol and Amitriptyline caused extreme emotional lability. Doctor recognized it as a known side effect of that drug combination and switched my meds. Much relief ensued.
*Hold the kid down, force pill in mouth, pour water in mouth until he swallows. Thanks Vanderbilt!
What caused the lisinopril to do that, and why would the doctor think it was fatal? Were you allergic to it?
Are we talking about “medicine that had unexpected results even though it was used properly”, or are you counting things like accidental wrong doses?