Pramipexole and serious side effects

[badnights]

The journey has begun! You'll let us all know how things are as you progress, of course.

[jakesmom]

Wow!!!!!!

I slept 8 straight hours.

[rthom]

[debbluebird]

Wonderful !!!

[Polar Bear]

Fabulous. What a wonderful night.

[jakesmom]

I, obviously, am either way too optimistic or way too naive.

I figured, slow taper, no issues, no side effects. OMG was I wrong. Week 1, day 2. I dropped my morning and afternoon dose from 1.5 mg each to 1 mg each. I expected discomfort, I did not expect to want to jump out of my skin. It's like a part itch, part mania. I first experienced this at work yesterday, now I am wide awake now with the same issues. My brain says you're tired, go to sleep, but my body is a jumble of nerves and crawling skin.

I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I feel like and am acting like a junkie you see tv who needs a fix.

Is this normal? How long does it last, how do I make it stop?

[ViewsAskew]

I, obviously, am either way too optimistic or way too naive.

I figured, slow taper, no issues, no side effects. OMG was I wrong. Week 1, day 2. I dropped my morning and afternoon dose from 1.5 mg each to 1 mg each. I expected discomfort, I did not expect to want to jump out of my skin. It's like a part itch, part mania. I first experienced this at work yesterday, now I am wide awake now with the same issues. My brain says you're tired, go to sleep, but my body is a jumble of nerves and crawling skin.

I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I feel like and am acting like a junkie you see tv who needs a fix.

Is this normal? How long does it last, how do I make it stop?

We weren't kidding when we said it can be awful. For me, it was like the most insane anxiety coupled with my body being out of my control. I was literally crazy.

A high enough dose of an opioid will likely take care of it - no guarantees, but it works for many of us. Do you have an email for your new doctor so you can tell her how hard this is and ask her what she thinks? She won't have gone through this before, so isn't going to know what to expect, but she may have read enough to have some ideas. I was emailing Dr B tonight about my meds and he reiterated that he's happy to talk to your doctor. I know you don't want to second guess her; if you ask her what to do and she isn't sure or she tries a thing or two that doesn't work, maybe you can suggest she does talk to him.

How much oxy do you have to take each day? She wrote oxy for pain, but it's really needed get you through the augmentation. Only opioids can do this as far as anyone knows - they make it tolerable. One of the things I did, when in your position and with a low potency opioid, was to take my entire daily allowed dose at one time (it was within safe limits). When that worked and took away symptoms for 2-3 hours, I knew that opioids would work, if I had enough of the and the right one. The sustained release oxy might work better than the regular. While many of these opioids are supposed to last 4-6 hours, I found they only worked for about 2.5 to 3. I had to have a longer-lasting one to allow me to get any extended relief.

Hang in there.

As for how long? That's one of the reasons some docs recommend cutting it off immediately. It's tough to get through and prolonging it can be terrible.

[badnights]

Hang in there. I can't improve on Ann's advice. Do talk to your doctor and let her know what's happening. Ask her the same questions you asked us, so hopefully she will look into it.

[jakesmom]

My oxycodone dose is 5mg twice a day. The thing is, I can't take it and work, and I can't take time off work. She also wrote me .5 mg of Ativan for anxiety, because I knew I was going to need it. I haven't wanted to take it at work, but I think I am going to have to.

Yesterday was a majorly stressfull day at work. Between the stress of trying to multi task 2 demanding tasks, mentally not being able to apply common sense and logic and not being able to focus, and add to that the inability to sit still because my anxiety was through the roof, all made for a horrific day.

I will call her if I can't stand it, but right now, I'm not making full use of what she gave me. 2 more days until a 3 day weekend. Since she has never taken someone through this, I may journal it for her.

Basically, I just wanted to know if this was withdraw or adverse reaction to the oxy.

I was hoping you guys were kidding about how bumpy the ride would be and I was hoping I was going to avoid it by tapering.

Thank you both for answering and for the input.

[badnights]

I hope it's encouraging for you to realize it's probably the withdrawal causing it. At least you know it will end! And after a few days, you should see improvement. I tend to think you'd be better off going cold turkey, but perhaps would need 20 mg not 10. What happens that you can't work when you take oxy? Do you get foggy?

[ViewsAskew]

I hope it's encouraging for you to realize it's probably the withdrawal causing it. At least you know it will end! And after a few days, you should see improvement. I tend to think you'd be better off going cold turkey, but perhaps would need 20 mg not 10. What happens that you can't work when you take oxy? Do you get foggy?

Agreed with Beth - and also wondering why you can't take the Oxy at work. The Clinical Management of RLS book suggests the range of 2.5 to 10 mg of Oxy every 4-8 hours. It doesn't list a max dose, but I'd guess it's 30 mg a day. In the beginning, some people do experience some drowsiness issues and I wouldn't take it and drive. in a few days or a week, that usually stops. Also, you might find that you could take it just as you got to work, let it work over the 8 hours you're at work, then take another when you get home.

Another option might be to reduce the Mirapex ONLY at night for now, replace with Oxy and see how you tolerate it. In a week to ten days, when you're more familiar with how the Oxy affects you, then you can know how you'll react during the day when you take it. Many of us take opioids around the clock. Maybe because of the alerting properties of WED, we usually find we have no sleepiness taking them.

[jakesmom]

Right now I'm not used to the oxy and it knocks me on my rear end. I may drop my dose of pramipexole over the long weekend since I can take the oxy as needed. I am having trouble functioning at work as it is. Something is making my blood pressure drop and I can barely keep my eyes open.

[cornelia]

If it were me I would stop the DA cold turkey, because when you taper the horrific time lasts much longer: the sooner it is over the better. It is very hard to do this when you have to go to work. I can't even imagine doing this, hard as it is even when taking opiates.

Better times will come and that is what you have to try to keep in mind. I feel for you.

Corrie

[jakesmom]

Actually, since I have the 3 day weekend, I was thinking about doing that. During the day is the worst for me since I started to taper. My blood pressure is dropping while I am at work and it's making it very hard to function. I think I am going to stop the pram today.

I will call the doc today and see if see of my labs are back. I am curious to know my vitamin D and ferritin levels.

[debbluebird]

Eat something salty and that will help the blood pressure. When I have tried to tapper in the past it was just too miserable. Sorry you are having to go through this.