(Didn’t want to make the other Topamax thread into a 4-pager with my gory details, so I’ll start a new one!)
Decided to bite the bullet last night: Finally started my Topamax - 25 mg. Still doing 37.5 mg Effexor, too. I was going to wait until I quit the Effexor before starting the Topa but I got a little desperate.
Sunday I misbehaved :oops: Two msg-laden frozen dinners AND forgot my Effexor dose. Sunday night was horrible - lousy sleep. And as soon as I started moving around Monday morning the dizzy came. It was so bad that I couldn’t stand up, so I decided the world would be safer without me on the roads or at my office. Dizzy subsided after noon yesterday but my ears have been ringing like crazy ever since & my head hurts (of course). (Have had a moderately annoying headache since last Tuesday.) Anyway, I took my 37.5 mg Effexor yesterday morning & the Topamax last night.
Ringing ears - think that’s because of the weaning off Effexor?? (I can hear my neurologist saying “See! The Effexor WAS helping!”)
You like to live on the edge? You’re going to start Topamax while weaning off Effexor?
You’ve heard of the horror stories of Effexor withdrawal as well as the equally bad horror stories of Topamax titration. I’m not sure which have been worse. Effexor has not been annointed Satan’s tic tacs for no good reason.
Unless you’re not drug sensitive and you have no problem going up or down on meds. then you’ll have an easy ride no matter what you do.
okay, no more mommy.
I’ll speak for myself and say, i try to keep the waters as clear as possible. If I were suffering with a food-induced migraine, I would let that settle (topamax wouldn’t help me fast enough anyway). I would load up on Klonopin and/or ibuprofen.
then i would get off Effexor (unless Effexor is doing any good AT ALL, then i would stay on it and add Topamax to the mix). I wouldn’t add Topamax until i was clear of Effexor so I could judge the goings on of the Topamax titration. It’s important to be able to know when to go up and when to go down during my Topamax titration and I wouldn’t be able to do that in the midst of an Effexor withdrawal syndrome.
But that’s just what I would do, because everybody knows, mother is always the LAST person anybody listens to
Yes, Julie Dear, of course I’ll let you play Mommy. Can I borrow a hundred bucks, Mom? And when are you going to get my laundry done? I’ve been waiting to wear my new shirt, like, forever!! :lol:
Before Monday’s MSG thing, my ears were ringing worse than usual. Do you think that’s linked to the Effexor weaning? The headache-since-last-Tuesday is probably an Effexor weaning thing, too. Duh, I knew that.
I jumped onto the Topa-train because I was hoping it would help me through the Effexor-exit. (Oy. My word games are startin to freak ME out. This morning the gyno doc told me I had Osteopenia … I was typing that to a friend & accidentally typed an S at the end of Osteopenia instead of an A … :mrgreen: )
Since I already took a 25 mg tab of Topamax last night, do you think it would matter if I didn’t take anymore? I’m gonna call the neurologist. Dr. Escandon!!! HELPPMEEE!!!
You’re already feeling the effects of Dopamax - that typing substitution - it’s a definite sign to decrease your dose to 0 mg. until that cognitive SE stops
No, it wouldn’t be a problem at all, darlin’, to stop Topa right now.
You sleep tight now, do you have any Valium in the house? Everybody should have some benzo when they’re trialing these drugs. I would ship you some except that’s probably a federal offense. Oh well, who cares, after this election, everything’s going to be up for grabs anyway. It will come in a little black box with a V marked in gold (hint hint).
I can’t believe I’m sending you these instructions over the internet :mrgreen:
Well, Mom, I don’t want you to get mad at me, but you said yourself that nobody listens to “Mom” …
Dr. Escandon called me at home last night & we discussed my situation. I know this goes against what several on the forum have said but Dr. E said it would be safe for me to stop the Effexor completely at this point - I’d moved down from 150 to 75 mg & have been on 37.5 for about 4 days now. So I’m not going to take the Effexor anymore.
Took another 25 mg Topa last night before bed. We’ll just have to see what happens. This isn’t quite the way I wanted this to proceed, but I was the dummy who decided to eat that garbage Sunday & stir all this up even more. Slept a little better last night … I think part of my problem is my husband’s new night job. I use a ‘white noise’ machine but needed to turn it up a bit to drowned out the new fumbling about at midnight.
(You realize, Mom, that if you do get mad at me it could result in life-long neuroses & phobias & the need for intense therapy, right? I could be scarred for life!)
(You realize, Mom, that if you do get mad at me it could result in life-long neuroses & phobias & the need for
intense therapy, right? I could be scarred for life!)
— End quote
Ya know, you really didn’t have to guilt me :!:
Joy, you seem like a sturdy type. Truth is, that when it comes to AD withdrawal syndromes, it’s a continuim. some get it some done. Those who do: for some it’s no biggie for some it’s hell.
I hope you are as you seem, you had no trouble on your way up, and you’ll have no trouble going down. You had no trouble with 25 mg Topa right? And the people who had trouble with Topa had it on their first dose. Now this is interesting, because those same people had trouble with 1/4 of 25 mg. The people on crazymeds.us say that you can have a bad reaction on too much Topa or too little Topa! It’s finding your right dose. I had no trouble with too little or too much.
Anyway, here’s too ya - you’re out of the nest!! You’re on board, A new Topa sister!
Well hey Joy, topo brother here, you can read my story on the stop spinning thread, but any how good luck I had to go up to 125mg over 5 weeks a couple years ago, hope you as good as luck and the better than I.
Hain likes to stop at 100. Did that extra 25 mg really make a difference?
I know it’s a stupid question, why else would you have gone up to 125 unless you needed to, but humor me, 100 didn’t do it, but 125 did?
Julie (Topa-sis)
— End quote
Yes it did :mrgreen: Then as the next several months past I could feel my energy level drop and mild headaches kinda of start to hang around. But that was just me.
Go up and give it a try, if you where an Epileptic they would go up to 400mg or better of topo.
