Killer Drugs (y en español)

There are plenty of street drugs that can kill, but what about prescription meds? More and more drugs cause medical consequences endured by people who take them. More doctors are prescribing meds for off-label uses, resulting in complications not revealed to the patient.

I give you my travels through the prescription drug realm.

As I have gotten older, my body has become more susceptible to side effects. I have implored doctors not to give me drugs that impact blood sugar and blood pressure. This has often fallen on deaf ears.

Doctors have striven to control my anxiety through medications. I can be stricken with paralyzing fear over the minutest of events. It’s a result of extreme trauma I suffered as a child followed by institutional trauma.

I am grateful that doctors wish to help, but the pen can be mightier than the sword when it comes to that damned prescription pad. I have sought out behavioral modifications to engage in creating new neural pathways. But trauma is often treated with the prescription pad rather than the pursuit of these changes. I have suffered at the hands of this mindset. Many drugs create problems rather than solve them.

Trauma is often misdiagnosed as bipolar. Hypervigilance resembles mania. A reasonable assumption is that if trauma can be mistaken as bipolar, why not treat for bipolar?

One drug I have been put on was Lamictal.

I started on a low dose. Twenty-five milligrams. I had a doctor's appointment four days after I started the drug. My blood pressure had jumped 20 points on each end. I googled Lamictal and there it was--high blood pressure.  I stopped the drug immediately, and my blood pressure went back to my normal.

There were a few drugs I was put on that boosted my blood pressure. I cannot remember them all.

There have been some drugs that I have tried that boosted my blood sugar. Doctors seem to love these drugs. I keep telling them, “I have Multiple Sclerosis. I don’t need another major disease (Diabetes).” Most doctors agree, but they still pull out that prescription pad.

The most recent catastrophe was a drug by the name of Aricept.

The brain slowly atrophies as we age, and it does so faster with MS. Ian Weinberg can probably tell me if I’m wrong about this. I noticed some cognitive issues in my last semester at school. I brought it up to my neurologist, and she slung a prescription for Aricept off to the pharmacy.

Aricept is an Alzheimer's drug. Some doctors have told me it’s not much good for Alzheimer's—never mind MS. It’s being

promoted off-label for a myriad of things. God help patients that have this drug thrust upon them.

Aricept was a wild ride. I should have known better when my pharmacy called me and refused to fill it until they spoke with the doctor about interactions with other medications I take. One drug I had to stop was for anxiety. The other,

Trazadone, treats my insomnia. Sleep is important to me, so, at first, I did not give up the Trazadone. That was a mistake. I took my Trazadone at night, and my heart practically walloped out of my chest. Yes—Aricept and Trazodone interacted with each other and impact the heart. The interaction can be life-threatening. I doubt my neurologist even checked on what I was taking.  CVS notes: "Major Drug to Drug Interaction

Trazodone 100 Mg Tablet and Donepezil Hcl 10 Mg Tablet

Trazodone Hydrochloride (Trazodone Hydrochloride) and Donepezil Hydrochloride (Donepezil Hydrochloride)

Do not take these drugs together without approval from your prescriber. Discuss possible alternative treatment options with your health care provider. Taking these drugs together can increase the risk of a dangerous change in heartbeat or heart rhythm. Contact your prescriber immediately if you experience chest pain, dizziness, fainting or falling spells, palpitations, shortness of breath, or a change in your heartbeat (such as a fast or irregular heartbeat)."

I backed off the Trazadone until my heart stopped screaming. Sleep went with it. But what I didn’t know was that Aricept could cause a pretty damned intense insomnia.

I had one Nurse Practitioner who lied to me and told me a drug would not cause blood sugar spikes. I looked it up on web MD and lo and behold—it causes diabetes. It is a drug that is often used for PTSD, but trading PTSD for Diabetes is not the direction I want to go in. My blood sugar spiked 20 points in just four days. I stopped the drug. The PA told me Web MD was wrong. But the truth lies in the results.

CVS--a pharmacy--notes: "Severe Drug to Drug Interaction

Donepezil Hcl 10 Mg Tablet and Ziprasidone Hcl 40 Mg Capsule

Donepezil Hydrochloride (Donepezil Hydrochloride AKA Aricept) and Ziprasidone (Ziprasidone Hydrochloride)

Do not take these drugs together. Discuss possible alternative treatment options with your prescriber. Taking these drugs together can increase the risk of a dangerous change in heartbeat or heart rhythm. These changes may result in chest pain, dizziness, fainting or falling spells, palpitations, shortness of breath, or a change in your heartbeat (such as a fast or irregular heartbeat)."

There is a desperation entwined with trying to keep your thought process. I did not look up side effects. I only knew my blood pressure and blood sugar was fine so I was happy. I attributed my insomnia to having to back down on the Trazadone, but there was a tickle in the back of my mind this insomnia was more intense. I attributed it to Hypervigilance and wrote this: https://www.bebee.com/producer/@joyce-bowen/staying-safe-in-english-y-en-espanol.

Doctors sought to alleviate my insomnia with more drugs. One was Remeron. It is also used to treat Depression. After six weeks on that drug, I woke in the morning to find I could not read anything on my computer. My vision would clear up after a few hours, but for about three hours upon awakening, I was legally blind. I thought my MS had finally taken my vision initially. After three days, I thought about what had changed in my life recently. On a whim, I googled Remeron and vision and came up with something like this. The piece I found was more specific in that it can cause blindness in my age group. I dumped Remeron and recovered my vision. I brought the article into my doctor, and he said,

“Oh my; I have a lot of people on Remeron.”

Other drugs were added to no avail—with no consideration that my difficulties may have been a consequence of another drug.

By this time, I had dumped my neuro and found a new one. He continued the Aricept. He left that practice, and I was forced to find yet another neurologist. By this time, I was experiencing severe muscle spasms all over my body. I had had spasms for years, but the rising intensity was more than I could bear. I had informed the dwellers of my building that if they heard me screaming they were not to call 911.

I was put on Baclofen for spasms. The relief was welcome.

My first visit to my new neurologist brought with it the message that Aricept could be causing my spasms. By this time I was thinking, brain be damned. I cannot take the pain.

Now that I was off the Aricept, I could increase my Trazadone to treat my insomnia. I called the doctor treating this condition, and he ordered increases in small increments to start immediately. When I increased the dose, I noticed my heart racing straight away. The Aricept is not out of my system, I thought. I wandered back to google and discovered Aricept does not leave the body for 16 days. I wondered why my doctor did not know this. I waited the 16 days.

As I waited for Aricept to wean out of my system, I found myself passing out in the most inopportune places. I was exhausted. It had been a wild ride for eight months. It was over. I feel like a fool for trusting that a doctor would give me helpful medications rather than hurtful ones. It is disturbing that the several doctors I saw for the myriad of difficulties Aricept introduced did not know that simply removing a drug from my repertoire rather than adding more would be more helpful.

Sleep comes easier now. I am relieved. A part of me misses that energy I felt. But I don’t miss all the problems that came with it.

Whether we like it or not, we live in a drug culture.  Street vendors sell drugs that kill, and so do doctors.

I've spoken to a few people with Parkinson's who have said their medications hurt rather than helped.

Do you have a story to tell that might help others?

Disculpas Mi primer idioma es el inglés. Yo uso un traductor para traerte esto.  Saludo a los que son multilingües, porque está más allá de mí.

en español

Hay un montón de drogas callejeras que pueden matar, pero ¿qué pasa con medicamentos recetados? Más y más drogas causan consecuencias médicas soportadas por las personas que las toman. Más médicos están recetando medicamentos para usos fuera de la etiqueta, resultando en complicaciones no reveladas al paciente.

Le doy mis viajes a través del reino de la droga de la prescripción.

Como he conseguido mayor, mi cuerpo se ha vuelto más susceptible a los efectos secundarios. He implorado a los médicos que no me den drogas que afecten el azúcar en la sangre y la presión arterial. Esto a menudo ha caído en oídos sordos.

Los médicos se han esforzado por controlar mi ansiedad a través de los medicamentos. Puedo ser golpeado con miedo paralizante sobre el minutest de acontecimientos. Es el resultado de un trauma extremo que sufrí como un niño seguido de un trauma institucional.

Estoy agradecido de que los médicos quieran ayudar, pero la pluma puede ser más poderosa que la espada cuando se trata de esa maldita almohadilla de prescripción. He buscado modificaciones conductuales para participar en la creación de nuevas vías neuronales. Pero el trauma se trata a menudo con la almohadilla de la prescripción más bien que la búsqueda de estos cambios. He sufrido a manos de esta mentalidad. Muchos fármacos crean problemas en lugar de resolverlos.

El trauma es a menudo mal diagnosticado como bipolar. La hipervigilancia se asemeja a la manía.  Una suposición razonable es que si el trauma puede ser confundido como bipolar, ¿por qué no tratar para bipolar?

Una droga que me han puesto es Lamictal.

Comencé con una dosis baja. Veinticinco miligramos. Tuve una cita con los médicos cuatro días después de que

comencé la droga. Mi presión arterial había saltado 20 puntos en cada extremo. Busqué en Google Lamictal y ahí estaba - presión arterial alta. Paré la droga inmediatamente, y mi presión arterial volvió a mi normal.

Había algunas drogas que me pusieron que aumentaron mi presión arterial. No puedo recordarlos todos.

Ha habido algunas drogas que he intentado que aumentaron mi azúcar en la sangre. A los médicos les encanta estas drogas. Sigo diciéndoles: "Tengo Esclerosis Múltiple. No necesito otra enfermedad importante (Diabetes). "La mayoría de los médicos están de acuerdo, pero aún así sacan esa receta.

Tenía un ayudante de médico que me mintió y me dijo que una droga no causaría picos de azúcar en la sangre. Lo busqué en la web de MD y lo y behold-que causa la diabetes. Es una droga que se utiliza a menudo para el TEPT, pero el comercio PTSD para la Diabetes no es la dirección que quiero ir pulg Mi azúcar en la sangre aumentó 20 puntos en sólo cuatro días. Paré la droga. La AP me dijo que Web MD estaba equivocado. Pero la verdad está en los resultados.

La catástrofe más reciente fue una droga con el nombre de Aricept.

El cerebro se atrofia lentamente a medida que envejecemos, y lo hace más rápido con la EM. Ian Weinberg probablemente puede decirme si estoy equivocado sobre esto. Noté algunos problemas cognitivos en mi último semestre en la escuela. Lo traje a mi neurólogo, y ella lanzó una receta para Aricept a la farmacia.

Aricept es una droga de Alzheimer. Algunos médicos me han dicho que no es muy bueno para la enfermedad de Alzheimer, no importa la EM. Se está promoviendo fuera de la etiqueta para una miríada de cosas. Dios ayude a los pacientes que tienen esta droga sobre ellos.

Aricept era un viaje salvaje. Yo debería haber sabido mejor cuando mi farmacia me llamó y se negó a llenar hasta que hablaron con el médico sobre las interacciones con otros medicamentos que tomo. Una de las drogas que tuve que dejar fue por ansiedad. El otro, Trazadone, trata mi insomnio. El sueño es importante para mí, así que, al principio, no dejé el Trazadone. Eso fue un error. Tomé mi Trazadone por la noche, y mi corazón prácticamente salió de mi pecho. Sí-Aricept y

Trazodone interactuaron entre sí y el impacto del corazón. La interacción puede poner en peligro la vida. Dudo que mi neurólogo haya comprobado lo que estaba tomando.

Retrocedí el Trazadone hasta que mi corazón dejó de gritar. El sueño fue con él. Pero lo que no sabía era que Aricept podía causar un insomnio muy intenso.

Hay una desesperación entrelazada con tratar de mantener su proceso de pensamiento. No miraba los efectos secundarios. Sólo sabía que mi presión arterial y azúcar en la sangre estaba bien, así que estaba feliz. Atribuí mi insomnio a tener que retroceder en el Trazadone, pero había un cosquilleo en la parte posteriora de mi mente que este insomnio era más intenso. Lo atribuí a Hipervigilancia y escribí esto: https://www.bebee.com/producer/@joyce-bowen/staying-safe-in-english-y-en-espanol

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About the Author:  Joyce Bowen is a freelance writer and public speaker.  Inquiries can be made at crwriter@comcast.net

Sobre el autor: Joyce Bowen es un escritor independiente y orador público. Las consultas pueden hacerse en crwriter@comcast.net

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