What's the worst side effect you have experienced taking a prescribed medicine?

[`OhanaHare]

Horrible hives and anaphylaxis.

 

[crazylady]

I'm guilty of not always reading the rx information but one time I did and one of the side effects was a "croupy cough" and as I already had that, I three it in the drawer for a couple weeks and started it after the cough was gone. It caused joint pain and swelling all over my body. I couldn't figure out what was but remembered the rest of the complications and figured it out at a meeting that night. I honestly didnt think I would be able to walk to my car. Luckily I only took one look dose.

 

[lifesavacation]

I took a sulfa antibiotic before bed and woke up about 2 hours later with itchy tingling swollen lips.

 

[lifesavacation]

Sulfa drug reaction. It was so bizarre...I lost like 10 pounds in 2 days (I wasn't heavy to begin with, either...went from 135 to 125 pounds). I also got terrible muscle aches in my back, neck and legs that lasted almost 3 weeks. I had a terrible headache for a week and just felt fatigued and awful. I thought my symptoms were from the infection I had, but the doctor was alarmed when I mentioned them a week into a two week treatment and told me those are serious, but rare side effects and I should never take sulfa drugs again. Turns out, my mom and sister are both allergic to sulfa antibiotics as well.

Interesting that your mom and sister are allergic too.

Both my sister and I are allergic to sulfa.

 

[disykat]

My mom and my son are both allergic to sulfa. I don't seem to have any issues with it.

My worst was estrogen. I took it ONE day and the next day couldn't get out of bed. I was home at the time and called my husband hysterical at work and he had to come home and take care of our young kids. I never took it again and the next day I was fine. Dr. kept wanting me to try it again with a different dosage and I refused - even though I know that many women take it and that hormone levels are hard to adjust. Scariest thing I've ever had happen to me. DH was pretty freaked out too because I was really out of it. I had never understood what it meant to "not be able to get out of bed," but I did after that! I think if I had known that the extreme fluctuation was a possibility I wouldn't have been so frightened.

 

[wenrob]

I have all the terrible side effects to prednisone, so I try to avoid that one as much as possible.
I once took meloxicam to deal with a particularly bad bout of costochondritis and I had the most horrible vivid disturbingly violent nightmares.

Prednisone destroyed what little health my dad had left. Every bad side effect listed he had but we could NOT get the doctors listen to us. They insisted he had a condition that would cause a stroke, blindness etc. if he didn’t remain on it. A biopsy finally showed he did not have what they thought (for the life of me I can’t remember what it was called but it’s common in young kids and women in their 50’s not men in their 60’s) but they wanted him to keep taking it. My stepmom refused to give it to him but the damage was already done. I won’t get into the details but if you can take anything else, do.

Lexapro gave me a flulike ache. It’s a shame because it really did help me but I couldn’t take feeling like that anymore.

DH is allergic to Sulfa drugs. Hives and swells up like a balloon.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Some muscle relaxer gave me uncontrollable shaking and hallucinations. I didn't put it together immediately because this was on maybe day 5 of taking them, and I didn't understand that the effect was cumulative, and didn't necessarily have to set in right away. Plus the primary doctor had said just don't do anything crazy on them like sky diving but otherwise I could do everything normal. The ER doctor said it was an uncommon and very strong one. I had the choice to get fluids there or just go home and let it wear off, so I just went home (once I knew the cause and that it would resolve I felt a lot better).

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Anaphylaxis to an antibiotic and a pain killer. I don’t know which was was worse. Going in to shock and starting to lose consciousness or trying to wake up from surgery while still convulsing.

 

[low-key]

CODE BLUE was called! Happened after open heart surgery a few years ago. Cardiologist ordered a new med (Tikosyn) to regulate my heart and it went wild. Seriously close to dying.

they just wanted to see your chest

 

[kimblebee]

Hives because I turned out to be allergic to codeine.

The worst withdrawal was from a super high dose of steroids. I need a long taper because if I stop cold turkey I get the shakes, and itchy, and cold sweats, and paranoid, but the worst was the hallucinations. I’ve seen bugs crawling on walls and this last time I saw rats in our house. I assure you they were fake lol

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Heat stroke was pretty nasty. And so was the panic attack that landed me in the ER once.
Bloodwork, surgery, and the dentist all set off all my nerves completly though.

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

I was on a medication once that made my fingernails separate from my fingers. I didn't lose any of my nails and they eventually grew out but it happen after I finished the prescription. I was told then by the doctor who prescribed it that it was not uncommon for this to happen.

 

[Jennasis]

Topamax...for migraines. Got the typical "dope-a-max" side effects of stupidity, memory loss, and messed up taste buds. Seriously I would be driving places and forget where I was going or why I was going there. Drop 10 pennies on the floor and it would take me half an hour to count them.

I was also on some drug, whose name I forget, for prolactinemia, and it made me violently nauseous...when taken by mouth. So my doc made me take it as a suppository instead.

 

[potterfanatic]

I've had side effects for nearly everything I've taken. I also get hives from Sulfa drugs. I had a daily panic attacks, vertigo, and leg cramping from one med but tried to wait it out, and in the end couldn't handle it. I was recently put on Topamax and it made the whole left side of my face tingle (like when a limb falls asleep but in my face) I stopped taking that immediately.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Kidney damage, caused by a statin med prescribed for borderline high cholesterol. The side effects were complicated by taking advil for the muscle cramping/wasting & pain caused by the statin.
Was in the care of a Nephrologist for 2 years until the damage was reversed & full kidney function returned.

As a result of that severe reaction, any kind of cholesterol med, advil & other NSAID’s or anti inflammatory meds are off my list permanently.

 

[AMW86]

Rhabdomylosis from an antibiotic. I was already in the hospital and they caught it early and took me off right away. Then severe vomiting from the next antibiotic. It was so bad that they had to call in palliative care to find a cocktail of drugs that would be stop the vomiting, and I was pretty much sedated and tube fed for 10 days. Thank god the side effects for the last known antibiotic to treat the antibiotic resistant infection were manageable (though I still had nausea for the 1.5 years I was on it).

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Rhabdomylosis was the cause of my kidney issues. The kidneys couldn’t handle the amount of debris in my blood from the wasting muscles caused by the statin, they were dumping albumin in massive amounts. If I hadn’t had routine blood work for my annual physical, I would have never known anything was going on. When they found the problem I was very close to my kidneys failing... no kidney pain, no stones, no UTI, I thought the muscle cramping was an injury caused shoveling snow. smh.

 

[ronandannette]

Kidney damage, caused by a statin med prescribed for borderline high cholesterol. The side effects were complicated by taking advil for the muscle cramping/wasting & pain caused by the statin.
Was in the care of a Nephrologist for 2 years until the damage was reversed & full kidney function returned.

As a result of that severe reaction, any kind of cholesterol med, advil & other NSAID’s or anti inflammatory meds are off my list permanently.

Was it Crestor? Your's would just be yet another anecdotal horror story I've heard, in addition to my own experience.

 

[OnceUponATime15]

Was it Crestor? Your's would just be yet another anecdotal horror story I've heard, in addition to my own experience.

Zocor, the smallest dose available.. heaven help what it would have been on a higher dosage.

 

[McDISer]

I take a medicine for my stomach when I eat something that makes me very nauseous and I feel like throwing up. It works, but within 24 hours the side effects is diarrhea, I have the same reaction after I take Tylenol.