Sunday 27 December 2015

Drug Side Effects

Jeremy has been experiencing headaches and double vision for the last month or two.  He just told me about these a few days ago.  Not too concerned about recurrence or progression since his last MRI a month ago showed stability, and possibly some regression of the remaining non enhancing tumor, although I accept this as a possibility.  I suspect it is more drug related.  I have taken him off chloroquine and minocycline, the two drugs that seem most likely to cause this.  Has anyone had problmes with disulfiram or prozac causing these problmes?  The other three meds he is on is Celebrex, cimetidine and metformin.  Seems unlikely these would be responsible for double vision, but possibly headaches.  He is also on DCA and Artemether, but I have not found double vision or headache associated with these.

Anyone with any thoughts on this?  He will be going to an ophthalmologist soon and will contact his NO next week.  Thanks for the input.

11 comments:

  1. Hello Michael!

    I do no take these meds, so I can't really help you a lot. I searched for your cocktail on forum, and I saw you don't take CBD/THC (or maybe the list isn't updated). Anyway, while I was taking high doses of it (1g per day) I had some double/blurry vision, especially in the morning. Went to see ophthalmologist, they told me that the problem was that my tears dry up really fast, gave me some kind of eye drops and the problem went away. Hope that everything will be OK!

    Matjaz

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  2. Hi Mike, sorry to hear Jeremy's having some side effects. From personal experience I know Prozac can cause headaches. Apparently any medication that affects neural functions may also affect the eyes. Tricyclic antidepressants and Prozac may cause blurred vision, inability to focus), dilated pupils, double vision and dry eyes.

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  3. Alan and Matjaz, thank you for your input. So far I have taken him off prozac, chloroquine and minocycline. No change in double vision. Headaches come and go and after talking with him it sounds like his headaches might be cervicogenic. He is out of state now so I have not had an opportunity to evaluate this (I make my living treating problems like this) so if it is cervicogenic, it should be easy to resolve. Of course there is the possibility of multiple causes as well. So time will tell. Once its figured out I will let everyone know in case they experience similar problems.

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  4. hi Michael,

    thank you for share with us this symptoms. please keep us informed with Jeremys health issue.

    i wish you and Jeremy very much health!

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  5. Hi Mike!

    I just saw this post. I´m taking cloroquine, Celebrex, metformin AND cimetidine daily and have never had that kind of symptoms. I know every person is different, but that combination, among a myriad of others things I take, never gave me that effect.

    Hope Jeremy got better, keep us updated!

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  6. Hi Matias
    Thank you for the response. Jeremy saw an ophthalmologist and she told him his left eye is not tracking properly and this is the cause of the double vision. She said it is not uncommon to see this with brain surgery. Since I have not heard of anyone else experiencing this problem, I wonder just how common it is. I have been able to resolve his headaches so at this point we will wait for the last piece of information, his next MRI to make certain the problem is not recurrence. Unfortunately we have to wait until mid February.

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  7. Hi Michael, my wife is suffering double vision too in the last week. Also we stopped CBD oil in order to not interfere with immune system and get a full recover on WCC (1.4 3 weeks ago- 3.1 last thursday) because we are travelling to Germany to get some treatment on the Dr Nesselhut Clinic, and they need 3.5 to perform leukapheresis. Since we stopped CBD she started to feel random headaches during the day located mainly in the craniotomy window too. Last thursday she had the 1st MRI post Oct-2015 surgery, so we are anxious for the results.

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  8. and How did you solve the headaches? they were caused by cervicogenic disorder?or just taking some meds off?
    Thanks.

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  9. Sorry for the late response. I have been away on a vacation and had no internet access. I treated Jeremy's headaches with acupuncture. Since they were of a cervical origin it was very easy to resolve this. His double vision continues and we are hoping it is related to the tracking of the left eye as suggested by the ophthalmologist. His next MRI is on the 16th I believe so we are of course hoping the double vision is not related to tumor growth. As we all know too well, the pre MRI trepidation is a a bit stressful.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the reply Michael, happy to hear headaches were solved, I'm sure MRI will bring good news!

      Best wishes for Jeremy and your family!

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  10. hi Mike,

    How Jeremy is doing?

    you made the IRM, in 29 February?,

    Hoping all is good with you all

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