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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by bridgey1128 on November 9, 2004, at 14:30:39
In reply to Re: can't stop thinking -Larry H. help? » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 9, 2004, at 12:55:09
Lorilu..have you ever considered Concerta instead of the Adderall? That just worries me. There is just so much negativity around that drug. Concerta is just long lasting Ritalin, pretty much. I am still confused as to why you need something to calm you down but you need a stimulant? Are you ADHD? SOmetimes I guess I think we just all need to wipe our slates clean and start over because our meds have been mixing so much we have no idea how they have been affecting us or each others effectiveness. You know what I mean? Thanks to you guys I started taking a potassium/magnesium supplement. I guess I hadn't really thought about how much I actually needed one until I looked it up online. Most people are walking around deficient and don't realize it. I didn't! Anyway, hopefully after this week...ahem...that sort of week, I will start losing more weight. I had lost 3lbs and gained back 2 but I wasn't really surprised. I always suddenly retain water on the first day. Of course, that Pumpkin Pie frostie thing from Dairy Queen last night didn't help..hehe. OH WHY OH WHY DID THEY HAVE TO COME OUT WITH THAT!!! Alas...a weakness...
Posted by Larry Hoover on November 9, 2004, at 14:38:50
In reply to wuss central and aspartane, posted by rainy on November 9, 2004, at 14:12:02
> Ralph Walton (my ex pdoc, btw, before we moved) has published some studies that you can read on medline, I think, that indicate aspartane makes depression worse.
> Just a heads up. He didn't ask me so I didn't tell him that I was drinking pints of it every day. Maybe the ADs would have worked better had I known.
> Thanks again for your support.
> relieved rainyI think Walton would have wanted to know that. Just a guess.
For those interested in seeing the type of symptoms reported in aspartame-sensitive depressives, see the full text link. The abstract is below that.
Lar
http://www.mindfully.org/Health/Aspartame-Adverse-Reactions-1993.htm
Biol Psychiatry. 1993 Jul 1-15;34(1-2):13-7.
Adverse reactions to aspartame: double-blind challenge in patients from a vulnerable population.
Walton RG, Hudak R, Green-Waite RJ.
Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Youngstown.
This study was designed to ascertain whether individuals with mood disorders are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of aspartame. Although the protocol required the recruitment of 40 patients with unipolar depression and a similar number of individuals without a psychiatric history, the project was halted by the Institutional Review Board after a total of 13 individuals had completed the study because of the severity of reactions within the group of patients with a history of depression. In a crossover design, subjects received aspartame 30 mg/kg/day or placebo for 7 days. Despite the small n, there was a significant difference between aspartame and placebo in number and severity of symptoms for patients with a history of depression, whereas for individuals without such a history there was not. We conclude that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to this artificial sweetener and its use in this population should be discouraged.
Posted by rainy on November 9, 2004, at 14:54:30
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane » rainy, posted by Larry Hoover on November 9, 2004, at 14:38:50
He knew about the alcohol, just not the mixer. As to the former he said, "Stop doing that," and I said, "I want to," which was the absolute truth. I had no idea about the aspartame even though a friend was one of the participants in one of his studies. It just didn't compute. Even now it doesn't. Hello??
Luckily, I drink very little of either beverage certainly no hard stuff, but a swig of gingerale and OJ is hard to beat on a hot day.
Thanks for your back up--that bit about NEOUCOM makes me homesick. I was a "simulated patient" for the medical school for a number of years.
rainy
Posted by bridgey1128 on November 9, 2004, at 16:36:30
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane » rainy, posted by Larry Hoover on November 9, 2004, at 14:38:50
Interesting. Diet drinks have never made me depressed I can honestly say, but I have to avoid them in great quantities for another reason. My body treats artificial sweeteners like real sugar. Whereas it may not treat it as the same AMOUT of real sugar it still treats it as I am drinking sugar. I have noticed that when I drink diet drinks and still drink water my weight loss still slows and I have even gained. That is why I try and stick to water. I also notice that when I drink soft drinks (diet), I don't drink regular ones unless I am absolutely parched and there is nothing else, I am not as thirsty and don't drink as much during the day. Then I tend to retain water and get swollen. It's like it backs up. My body needs lots of water to function. I guess thats why I thought I probably needed a potassium/magnesium supplement. Anyway, That study was quite interesting but I can honestly say I don't believe a Diet Coke ever made me sad. :)
Posted by headachequeen on November 9, 2004, at 20:44:15
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane » rainy, posted by rainy on November 9, 2004, at 14:27:13
> of course, part of that time I was drinking vodka with the diet gingerale, which also may have crimped the ADs just a little. Sheesh.
> What, Kat, we're more interesting?
> rainyOh, rainy, being more interesting is only half of it!!!!!!!
The couple of places I have found have been either totally clinical and cold and technical or inhabited with people who were born with broomsticks stuck in very uncomfortable (*I* think) places...
The one seemed inhabited by people who were interested in information for third parties and no one seems at all supportive or interested in anyone but the great and all expansive MEHere on the topomax board there is so much information and support and warmth...
how on earth could I settle for less?And how could I leave wondering how each of these people who has come to mean so much is managing???
not a chance!
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 9, 2004, at 20:48:34
In reply to wuss central and aspartane, posted by rainy on November 9, 2004, at 14:12:02
> Thank you guys. I'm over the anger--I was where you are now shortly after it happened, but it's been not quite two months and I can't hold to being mad that long. I don't know why I was so apprehensive and cringing--I didn't behave that way in the office, nor did I take the klonopin I sorely wanted to.
> The receptionist nodded stiffly and then scurried into another room when she saw me standing at the window to announce myself. I alluded to the incident during the pdoc visit (where in she refused to rx serzone, even though it's legally available from Canada and is the only AD that's really worked for me) but Ms. pdoc didn't want to talk about it. She did assure me that there is no mention of it in my record (but did not have the letter I had requested absolving me of the crime on hand.) She admitted that she herself had altered the scripts and would be more careful in the future.
> I practiced diplomatic skills and came out rather well, I must say. I did not tell her what I wanted. Instead, I said things like, What do you think of...? Are you comfortable with...? (No to that one) Isn't this a symptom of..? Not intimidating at all. Pdoc's voice got stronger and stronger.
> As I paid, O.M. came back into the little room and I greeted her with a smile and a "How are you?" She took a deep breath and sort of glared and tight smiled at me and replied "Fine" as if her gall stones were hurting a lot. If I weren't a feminist, I might have thought that she is plagued by PMS today, or her meds need to be adjusted. My husband suggests that she's mad at me because I ratted on her to the doc and she got hollered at herself, although the latter is unlikey. Maybe she's on probation?
> Anyway, it's over, I go back in a month to see how I'm doing on 400 mg of wellbutrin (start that dose today--this medicine woman doesn't mess around with gradual) 200 provigil, divided dose, 300 Topamax, and 100 trazodone.
>
> On another note: It occurs to me that we've been talking about body image and stuff. Some of you whose taste for soft drinks hasn't been killed by Topamax might be opting for the diet brew. Ralph Walton (my ex pdoc, btw, before we moved) has published some studies that you can read on medline, I think, that indicate aspartane makes depression worse.
> Just a heads up. He didn't ask me so I didn't tell him that I was drinking pints of it every day. Maybe the ADs would have worked better had I known.
> Thanks again for your support.
> relieved rainy
Wow! you managed to hang in for two months...
I stand in awe...
you are one self-controlled gal and I am really impressed...kat
Posted by FionaJ on November 10, 2004, at 4:29:28
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane » rainy, posted by Larry Hoover on November 9, 2004, at 14:38:50
You guys just keep on overwhelming me with the amount of info I get from following this site. I'mm still new, so i find myself slow in responding to all the interesting and new info about Topamax and mood disorders. Hopfully I'll get around in good time.
Posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 7:17:10
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 9, 2004, at 20:48:34
Well, Kat, I have brown hair. I wished for a little of the red head gene yesterday, but again-I don't stay mad very long, ever. It takes too much energy. Righteous anger can be very energizing, though.
About hair. You wrote you lost tons of your hair on tegretol. When it grew back, was it a different texture? I lost mine on Lamictal and it's grown back very curly and wiry--an elderly orphan annie look, shorn short.
FionaJ, you're doing fine--are you a red head? Your name sounds like you might be.
rainy
Posted by stresser on November 10, 2004, at 12:51:15
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane, posted by FionaJ on November 10, 2004, at 4:29:28
This is my second attempt at writing, because I got an entire post written and hit the wrong button, then somehow deleted it. I THINK. It may show up somewhere halfway written. What a day. I think I may go back on my welbutrin, because I do need an anti-depressant. Going off was stupid, and I should know better. SSRI's seem to kill my sex drive, what else is there that won't pack on the pounds?
Larry- I need a miracle drug, and would like to know what it is, and where I can get it. <G>
Rainy- You are one tough cookie, are you sure you don't have RED somewhere in your hair? If you don't, maybe you should put it in, it won't say in mine. (but might in yours, being brown to begin with.)
FionaJ- Nice to have you on the board, I'm pretty new also and still don't always know what I'm doing or saying. :) I'm not a red head, I'm a bronze blond with foiled highlights. I really don't know what my real color is anymore, dirty blond maybe? Some grey? Noooooo
Kat- You're back to your old self again!!! Nice to have you back. I feel secure again.
Bridgey- Where are you? Off singing somewhere, I'm sure? Broadway?
Iris2- How is your stomach? I hope you are feeling better.
Lorilu-I don't recall seeing you on the board much before, so I would like to say hello and welcome. I have a hard time keeping everyone straight, because we all have quite a bit going on in our lives. I try.....
I'm very sorry if I forgot anyone, my mind isn't the greatest at 42. -L
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:22:56
In reply to Re: wuss central and aspartane, posted by FionaJ on November 10, 2004, at 4:29:28
> You guys just keep on overwhelming me with the amount of info I get from following this site. I'mm still new, so i find myself slow in responding to all the interesting and new info about Topamax and mood disorders. Hopfully I'll get around in good time.
Welcome to our merry band, Fiona. We look forward to your input and to what we will learn from you
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:31:39
In reply to response to headachequeen's last post, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 7:17:10
> Well, Kat, I have brown hair. I wished for a little of the red head gene yesterday, but again-I don't stay mad very long, ever. It takes too much energy. Righteous anger can be very energizing, though.
>
> About hair. You wrote you lost tons of your hair on tegretol. When it grew back, was it a different texture? I lost mine on Lamictal and it's grown back very curly and wiry--an elderly orphan annie look, shorn short.
>
> FionaJ, you're doing fine--are you a red head? Your name sounds like you might be.
> rainy
Rainy, I am Celtic and I hold a grudge.. forever it seems... I have to have that sense of having been satisfied... as my son says, she doesn't really get mad but she does get even...as for the hair, it grew back same as ever...
after the eye surgery it took ages to grow...
something unusual for my hair as it grows so fast I have to have it trimmed every three weeks since I chose to wear it short...but since this latest escapade something they gave me turned it into straw!!! I was complaining a week or so ago about it being too soft to hold the style no matter how much wax or putty I used and I was really getting annoyed, wondering what the problem was...
tegretol? topomax? something else? as this was a new problem...
suddenly my hair is so dry and coarse it is like the stubble left after a hay field is cut...
went to the hair stylist yesterday in desperation; she did not make me feel any better. The first thing she said was that I was too old to be playing with scissors and taking bits out of my hair I should leave that to the four-year-olds or words to that effect; the second thing was that my hair was like straw. What had happened to it...
well I don't know either but I expect her to fix it and I did not take scissors to my hair, but here and there were great big chunks missing...
someone had to have cut it to attach the electrodes???
and I was not happy...
and still am not... all they had to do was move it out of the way...at this point I am wondering what they gave me that affected it...
I know, I should simply say that I am glad to be alive with no lasting damage, but my hair!!!!!and now to learn that my regular doctor, a man I trust implicitly is leaving the area in a few months and as of yet there is no one coming to take over the practice...
so while I have a neurologist a hundred miles away and a nose and throat specialist a hundred miles in the other direction and an eye specialist a hundred miles away, I shall be without a doctor...
and it is another thing to worry about...
a situation I cannot control... that is frustrating in the extreme...
kat
Posted by iris2 on November 10, 2004, at 13:40:56
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:31:39
Perhaps the medications are affectinf your hormones. That would certainly have an effect of making you rhair dry. I do not knwo if it is the mes themselves but I thought of hormones as a culprit to dry hair.
irene
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:52:03
In reply to I need my anti-depressant back, posted by stresser on November 10, 2004, at 12:51:15
> This is my second attempt at writing, because I got an entire post written and hit the wrong button, then somehow deleted it. I THINK. It may show up somewhere halfway written.
Oh good someone else does these things...
I have done this so often and with such bad timing... a whole chapter that just flowed together... felt so good about it... hit the wrong key and it is gone forever and has never come back...
somewhere in space is an entire children's story, the first of a series I want to put together for children to understand that it is all right to be unique and not to follow the crowd...
the second and fifth and seventh and so on are easy to write; they need a first to stand on as it were...
the first was murder to write...
finally managed to put together most of it...
and lost it...
it is on the computer I am told... but I cannot find it...
hit some key and pouf! it became a toadstool...all the anti-depressants in the world won't bring it back...
I have to learn to slow down...
this is another part of my epilepsy, something I thought was a symptom of my 'depression' and that had nothing to do with depression... it was a hint that no one linked to epilepsy because, being me, I had to choose to have this weird form ....
and we learned too late to save these lost bits of sheer genius LOLand again I am unable to recreate the lost bits...
-L, I was told this morning that we all have stress in our lives...
No kidding, says I...
I would never have guessed that (I have been told that stress can cause another serious t/c seizure)
Who woulda thunk that we all have stress in our lives??? I thought everyone sat on a silk cushion being served strawberries and cream and sewing fine seams and all that nursery rhyme stuff...
I was really angry... and creating more stress for myself LOL...
I told this mental midget that I knew many people who would love to live with the minor every day stresses to which she referred...
which outfit to wear to the office, what to prepare for dinner, where to go for the week-end, oh the list of stresses she listed for me were such banal little things...
did you know that choosing nail polish is a stress, ladies??????
well, not for me, as I am not allowed to wear it -- it clouds the issue of oxygen deprivation apparently... there is one stress I am saved...Now I do have the stress of which ear rings to wear... that is a major decision for me...
This person is a counsellor trying to help me learn to manage stress so that I can lower the stress levels in my life, thus preventing if possible repeats of last week...
with intellectual hiccoughs such as she, I am destined to have a t/c before our time expires...She has no sense of the real world...
I asked her if she has ever had to cope with an eating disorder and the stress of living with self-image problems? how about a child with bulimia or binging disorders? has she ever been diagnosed as being bipolar, take I or II, it didn't matter? and I just went on and on...
apparently her happy little life has never encountered these things...
so I said when she has encountered real stress I would consider her as being qualified to counsel me on dealing with and avoiding stress, in the mean time I had a therapy group to attend...
and came home to check this board...some times these people with their titles and letters after their names don't have the B.C.S. to tag along with the other letters and that is the most important degree, Bachelor of Common Sense.
Of course you are feeling depressed with all that you have happening in your life, -L... a daughter you love as much as life itself is worried about her weight and appearance and her binge eating...
and doesn't know if this med is helping...
and won't let you into her life enough to let you judge if it is helping...
you feel totally impotent... and no parent wants to feel as if there is nothing she can do to help her child... parents were created to help their children... especially mothers...
just ask mine... there she was, at eighty-plus years of age, barely able to walk, sitting on the floor cradling my head and talking to me the way she did when I had seizures as a child, smoothing my hair and forehead...
and she said afterward feeling as useless as a limp dishrag...
Oh I think you have every right to feel down and depressed, but you are also determined and a mother and going to pull M through this and yourself with her...
"I really don't know what my real color is anymore"
I think you are at least an honourary redhead...
you have to be to have hung in this long...
and I don't know what anti-depressant med is going to help, but I do know that the anti-depressant US is going to help...
we are here ... just lean on us at will
kat
Posted by MKB on November 10, 2004, at 13:54:28
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » rainy, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:31:39
Your hair problems may be due to a thyroid disorder. It's easy to find out with a blood test.
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:54:41
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » headachequeen, posted by iris2 on November 10, 2004, at 13:40:56
> Perhaps the medications are affectinf your hormones. That would certainly have an effect of making you rhair dry. I do not knwo if it is the mes themselves but I thought of hormones as a culprit to dry hair.
>
> ireneI shall call Sherry and ask her if it could be a hormone attack on my hair... and then call the Dr's office and see what I was given and see if he thinks that is it... I am such an egotist about my hair...
I may be overweight... and I may be getting old...
but this red hair has always been my sheer pride...
so many of the techs doing EEGs and other scans commented on the beautiful hair I had...
well now they would comment on the straw field....
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:01:21
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post, posted by MKB on November 10, 2004, at 13:54:28
> Your hair problems may be due to a thyroid disorder. It's easy to find out with a blood test.
Oh no that would be too easy; the thyroid tests have been done recently and were done again before I left hospital...
it has to be something they gave me to stabilise things (as in me <g>) before they could ship me to the other hospital...
or some of the other meds they used during the time I was unconscious and they tried to rouse me...
either that or my hair hates me and that would not surprise me either at this point LOL
kat
Posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:13:27
In reply to Re: response to headachequeen's last post » MKB, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:01:21
someone, way last year, was complaining on this board that her hair was made of straw because of Topamax. I responded that it made mine like oily snakes. If something can make your hair fall out, couldn't it change it's texture?
Kat, aren't you taking some new and wonderful potion prescribed after your last adventure?
Also, have you decreased your fluid intake sunstantially? You've said you drink lots of water but then got concerned about flushing out K, and tegretol toxicity.
rainy
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:33:38
In reply to hair of straw, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:13:27
> someone, way last year, was complaining on this board that her hair was made of straw because of Topamax. I responded that it made mine like oily snakes. If something can make your hair fall out, couldn't it change it's texture?
> Kat, aren't you taking some new and wonderful potion prescribed after your last adventure?
> Also, have you decreased your fluid intake sunstantially? You've said you drink lots of water but then got concerned about flushing out K, and tegretol toxicity.
> rainyHmmm now that you mention it, my hair was all right in the hospital... really easy to cope with... and it was when I left they gave me the script for the new anti-seizure stuff and then my doctor prescribed the stuff for the pain above my eye...
duh....
and I have quit drinking water...
I have been forgetting...
me, who preaches the gospel according to water...
have to get back on my firehose attachment...
because that is not good and I know it...
thanks rainy...
shall call the pharmacist and ask if either of those things affects hair... at least then I will know...
and shall start hitting the water counter at the grocery store again...
water stocks must have dropped drastically....
kat
Posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:35:22
In reply to hair of straw, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:13:27
> someone, way last year, was complaining on this board that her hair was made of straw because of Topamax. I responded that it made mine like oily snakes. If something can make your hair fall out, couldn't it change it's texture?
LOL I just said that my hair was easy to manage in hospital ... it was a disaster... stuck to my head with the EEG glue most of the time and the rest of the time with perspiration... I looked like a cross between one of the three stooges and Alfalfa...
but it did not have this texture...
kat
Posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:45:12
In reply to Re: hair of straw, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 14:35:22
As Doug McKenzie said, "Beauty!"
rainy
Posted by merry on November 10, 2004, at 15:05:25
In reply to Re: hair of straw, posted by rainy on November 10, 2004, at 14:45:12
You guys crack me up.
I had long thick flowing brown hair with red highlights. It was my best feature. I loved my hair. But now it's dull and thinning and I have to wear it up to hide it from the world because it looks like I never wash it.
The depakote I used to take was the culprit. My hair started to fall out in chunks. And I gained 20+ pounds on that stuff too. That's why I switched to topomax. My hair has never been the same. But it's not falling out any more.
merry
Posted by PoohBear on November 10, 2004, at 15:59:05
In reply to Re: I need my anti-depressant back » stresser, posted by headachequeen on November 10, 2004, at 13:52:03
Kat:
Inspirational as always, thanks!
Tony
Posted by bridgey1128 on November 10, 2004, at 16:03:12
In reply to Re: hair of straw, posted by merry on November 10, 2004, at 15:05:25
It's interesting..I wonder if it's the Topomax that has caused my hair to darken so much. It hasn't changed texture. IT's still really thick. I shed like a freaking sheepdog but I have always done that. You would think that I would be bald if you looked in the shower after I was done. Gobs of hair in the bottom of the drain but yet, no bald spots. Also interesting, I forgot I had dyed my hair but I did notice that the blonde high lights I had put in are growing out a little...so if I was going to have some roots they would be showing by now. Apparently my hair also forgot it had been dyed and has decided to stay this color because it has been more than 3 weeks and it has yet to show any dark roots as of yet. I guess I jogged it's memory. "Oh YEAH! I'm SUPPOSED to be this color! DUH!"
Posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by RES on June 10, 2002, at 18:56:54
I was just put on Topamax solely for weight loss. I was on celexa for 1.5 years and gained 20 pounds. I weened off celexa over the last 9 weeks and my Dr. gave me Topamax to speed up my weight loss. What does anyone think if this??
Posted by stresser on November 11, 2004, at 7:17:29
In reply to Re: Topamax: weight loss/mild depression, posted by Sheley on November 10, 2004, at 21:00:11
Hello,
Nice to have you on the board. I haven't been on here too long, and have asked the exact question you are asking. The others can probably answer with more knowledge than I can, but I will tell you that my daughter was put on topamax for binge eating disorder, and because she gained weight on Lexapro. She has been on it for seven weeks, and is just now up to 225 mg per day. We have no seen any weight loss yet. I don't if it's because she needs a higher dose, or if it's just not going to work. Keep us posted. Gotta go to work. -L
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