Sorry-I had to take a brief leave due to EXTREME health problems-much NEEDED help&venting now

I was new to this form and enjoying all it had to offer as well as all my new fibro family..

when a few days ago about 12 am I start experiencing the strangest symptoms I had never encountered or even heard about happening. The muscles in my mouth and jaw area began tightening up uncontrollably. I couldn't stop my mouth from painfully opening and closing very tightly. Then my tongue would go to the roof of my mouth, or the bottom and push down with such force that I had to use my fingers and force it from pushing down so hard.

I had no idea what to think.. yet alone do.. so I tried to sleep and see if it would stop. But I ended up getting no sleep that night, it only got way worse. By the time it was morning, these muscle spasms, or convulsions had gotten 100xs worse. I couldn't stop my head from violently shaking, my eyes wouldn't stop opening and closing, entire body was spasming and my lips wouldn't could twitching. Every time something on my body convulsed it hurt so badly that I was crying. I got my boyfriend to take me to the ER only to find out that my blood pressure was completely out of control. It was very high, yet I had an extremely low pulse. I had to be given a pill to control that. (Side note, in my entire life I have never had anything except perfect blood pressure.)

Long story short, I was in the ER for over 6 hours and the entire time they had a lot of difficulty controlling my ever worsening blood pressure. I had to be given an IV and they ended up doing a complete blood work up, urine test, chest x-ray, and multiple EKG's and other heart monitors were placed on me. After finally being able to control my blood pressure, (note I was still having the muscle spasms the whole time), they decided to send me home with no idea what had caused it..

So the next day I went to a doctor I had always trusted in town and he found out that the medication (Pramipexole 0.5 substituted for Mirapex), had caused a very violent reaction. I had been taking it almost a month with no severe symptoms other than falling asleep suddenly with no recollection, no matter what I was previously doing. Apparently after the drug built up in my system.. it was too much for my body to handle with all the other medications. So it caused all of this to happen.

I have been off of said drug for a few days now, but I'm still shaking a lot, my blood pressure has been giving me problems daily, I have bad headaches, and my entire body aches worse than what I thought it ever could.

--I was told that I just have to wait for it to completely get out of my system and that everything would return to normal. I was given Trazidone 0.5 to help with the muscle pain and shaking, and told to take benedryl nearly around the clock to help as well. I also have to check my blood pressure several times a day to make sure it doesn't get any higher, or my pulse any lower than it already is.


So my questions are, has anyone else ever had a bad reaction to any of their medications, and what were their symptoms?

And how long do you guys think it will take a drug to get completely out of my system that I haven't taken in several days, yet before I had taken it about 3 weeks?

I would REALLY appreciate some feed back and encouragement.. this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with and it scares me so so badly. I don't know what to do. I just want to cry because this is all so frustrating and beyond painful.

Thank you for you help, fibro family.

I was quite honestly hoping that no one else had gone through anything like this either.. the pain, confusion and quite bluntly the fear of it is enough to scare me from trying anything else for my restless leg syndrome when I sleep. But I do trust my doctor, it's just hard for them to find the right balance when I'm already on so many serious medications. I'm a head strong determined fighter and I will not stop until my fibromyalgia and all the symptoms it causes are under some sort of control. I WILL be better able to function one day.
Thank you for your reply, sir. Every little post of encouragement help me so much.

I was going to ask you something else though, since you're a doctor.. I get chronic kidney stones from my body naturally not filtering out calcium out properly, and they're also hereditary... so is there any other type of vitamin I could take that is similar but wouldn't cause me more stones? And what does magnesium help with?
Thank you in advance. (:

That sounds scary. I hope thigns are getting better. I don't know if it is different for everyone,but it took about two weeks for me to get some meds out of my system the last time I had a bad reaction. I took Savella and my pupils got huge all the time and my heart beat got really strange. It also made my fibro fog look like the workings of a genius...I got lost in my own nieghborhood while on that, I've lived here almost 30 years. Make sure you drink enough water to help get it out,but not too much as that can cause a lot of problems too. Pace yourself and stay around people if you can in case something else happens.

When I had an allergic reaction to penicillin it took about a month for all of the side effects to leave me.
I hope you feel better soon.

I have had reactions to several different drugs. None for fibro. After years of taking amoxicillin for infections, I suddenly got a rash on both legs. Dr said it was amoxicillin that caused it.
I took clarinex that the dr had given me samples of and I had 2 seizures. They were so severe, they cause a bad fracture in my back. I have osteoporosis so it did not take much. When they xrayed my back they found several older fractures that i never knew i had. I was told not to take any meds that start with clari
The worse med i am sensitive to is morphine. Both me and my mom have almost died from it after surgery. They gave it to me when my dd was born and i went to under a breath a minute. years later my mom did the same thing.
I never take a new medication unless my husband will be close by for the next several hrs and cks on me. Not that it does much good. Took new med the other day and told him i was going to lay down, to please ck on me in an hr. he got caught up in Farmville and when i woke up 3 hrs later he had not cked on me. When i had the seizure from them med, he did not call an ambulance. He said he took our small dogs out of the room and watched to make sure i was ok.He said it just did not occur to him. None of us have let him forget that he should have called an ambulance. After the last health scare, that should not be a problem.

Laura, I just knew when I started reading your post that it was going to turn out to be a drug reaction.  So sorry it happened to you!

Suzie, I had an awful reaction to Compazine as well.  Had to be hospitalized when first pregnant decades ago, now.  Couldn't keep anything down and they hooked me up to IV.  Kept throwing up and they gave me Compazine.  My head drew all the way back and I could not move it.  I could not close my eyes.  Finally they gave me something that relaxed it and me and told me to never let anyone give me that again.

Many years later, I was nauseated and vomiting to the point that my daughter took me to the emergency room.  I told them, as I always do any doctor, nurse, whatever to red flag it in my file. I cannot take Compazine it causes severe motor reactions.  They gave me a shot.  After I got home, My neck drew back again and same thing all over again.  When my daughter called the hospital, they told her I was psychotic, that could not happen.  The admitted giving me Compazine and it was noted on the sheet that I brought home.  The next day me daughter took me back to the hospital.  My eyes were so dry, even though they had been keep wet cloths across my eyes.  The doctor that time treated me like dirt.  Wrote down that I was psychotic and gave me a shot.  Shot did nothing.  My daughter looked at the sheet and saw that the injection itself cost $1.00.  Figured it was water.  The bill of course was $100.--1982.  Anyway later, I told my daughter that a lady I worked with took valium. She called the lady and asked if she could spare a couple.  She did.  After the second dose, it relaxed and began to come around again.

A few days later I talked to my druggist and he said that it was quite common--these horrible reactions to Compazine.  He said that in some cases it was permanent.  (Shudder!)  Looked it up in a PDR and there werer SEVERAL PAGES of side effects for Compazine. 

I cannot take any of the newer drugs. 

By the way, I refused to pay that emergency room bill.  I went down and talked to one of the nuns and explained why.  She got it removed for a while and then it showed up in collections.  I did not ever pay it though. 

Thanks, AK Angel.  I wonder if they had a drug like that in 1982?  If so, they should have cared enough to administer it to me.  Since I received no help from the doctors, I was lucky to remember that Dot took Valium and was generous enough to give me a couple.  Thankfully, it did work and I didn't have to spend another night and who knows how much longer with my head drawing back and my eyes wide open, unable to control that part of my body.  In the state I was in, I don't think the valium even made me feel dopey.  I just slowly returned to my normal self, thanking God for each small step along the way.

I have never been back to any ER.  I have never taken anything for nausea since.  Nausea is so much better that the side effects that drugs can cause.  

But, thank you so much for alerting me to this drug that can reverse this type of reaction.