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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote 
        
(Message started by: M8895 on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 4:25pm)

Title: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by M8895 on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 4:25pm

Hi all,

If anyone had info or experience with side effects of this combo please respond.
Verapamil, Prendisone, Depakote. Diagnosed Chronic CH and Migraine sufferer here.

So far I’ve tried Topomax but the small dose of 25mg at night made me feel like I was losing it. Couldn’t put 2 and 2 together and I swore I was seeing trails. Then my Neuro had me on Neurontin but the side effects took me completely out of work. Couldn’t even drive at 300mg a day. No way to live at all… Wow, I was gonna try to make this short. Today he asked me to stop the Neurontin and start Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote combo. Has this helped any one here? Do fill me in…

I'm recovering from 5 real %$#^* nasties kip 9 back to back last night. The hell started at 2am and they just kept coming, ice pack, hot towel, trying anything, holy shit it was bad… resorted to banging my head on the side of the fridge.. Trex didn't even touch it... Then I hit kip 10 and the I can’t do this anymore started to kick in. Just then, I could feel it leaving. Yea, of course right before work…..I missed another day of work today recovering. I've got to get a grip on this thing. Thanks to the kind advise of the folks here, I GOT MY O2 TODAY! I’m ready for the bastard with both barrels tonight. BRING IT ON! I’M PISSED!

Curtis if you read this, I want to thank you! I did tell my Neuro that if he stopped my Trex that I would plant my ass on his desk and the cops would have to remove it unless he gave me another script or better yet SAMPLES… He issued another script and said I understand. Rebound or no rebound I can’t live without my Trex. On a more personal note. I talked with my sweet baby James and he is more aware of what I go through now. He is being so loving and supportive.

Many thanks to all of you who responded to my first post on this site. Take care, Connie

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by Artie on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 4:45pm

My husband uses verapamil (960 mg) and depakote (1500 mg) daily. That worked well for him for several years. He handled breakthrough headaches with injectable imitrex and when there were too many of those he did a prednisone taper. Side effects: leg swelling and constipation with verapamil. Prednisone can cause water retention, immunosuppression and bone loss with chronic use. I am not sure if he has side effects with depakote or not. Best of luck to you. PFDAN, Artie

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by M8895 on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 5:01pm

Is it true that Depakote causes weight gain? I've heard comments about that. I don't know if it is the med that causes the weight gain itself or if the stuff just makes you hungy. I'll take it regardless if it takes care of CH. I just want to know.

Thanks, Connie

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by chronic_chic on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 5:08pm

Depakote can cause weight gain. I'd like to know your reactions to that drug. I took it almost 3 years ago and had horrible side effects. That was the worst med I've ever been on, but I know some others who have done quite well with it.

Verapamil has been a good med for me with relatively few side effects until I went up to 960mg and wound up in the ER from low blood pressure, heart rate, and associated symptoms last weekend. It has done well for me, though. I'm back down on 720mg of it.

Prednisone can also cause weight gain both from the med and increased appetite that it brings along with it. On steroids, I would eat my entire dinner, which is saying a lot for me. I rarely ever finish a plate of food. For me, it made all my features swell, including the fact that my face got puffy and really red (sunburnt looking). The worst side effect for me was that with the lowered immunosuppression of the steroids, I constantly got thrush infections in my mouth.

I was never on all these at the same time, but I was on the verapamil and prednisone together, and IV depacon (like depakote). I always have tolerated IV depacon just fine...only had a problem when I took it as pills.

Did you ask your doc about the DHE? Just curious... Take care!

~Lizz :)

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by M8895 on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 5:42pm

Wow Lizz what happened to you that you landed in the ER. I've already got low blood pressure. Do ya think that my Doc should have looked at that prior to prescribing this drug??? I'm going to call him before I start taking it. I'm supposed to start tomorrow. Did you pass out? I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time. If you don't mind my asking... Do you work a full time job? If so, how do you manage it?

No didn't discuss DHE. I was soo out of it this morning when he called. I was dealing with the aftermath so, I forgot to bring it up. I'm going to talk with him again on Wednesday. Were you taking the Prendisone on a regular basis or was it a temp thing just to stop a cycle?
Also, What do you mean when you say Depakote IV? Do you have an IV set up at your home? I don't understand. Why an IV when you can take the pill?

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by M8895 on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 5:44pm

Oh yea, what were your side effect sot Depakote?

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by chronic_chic on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 6:19pm

Hiya,

Well I had taken my 480mg dose of verapamil on Saturday night (I split my verapamil so that it is 480 twice a day), and Sunday morning I woke up with this huge pressure in my chest. I was really nauseous and just didn't feel right. I took my blood pressure and it was 74/44 and my heart rate was 58 (slow for me...I am normally tachycardic around 100). When I was walking around the apartment, my vision kept going black. I tried just laying down and drinking fluids to bring it up on its own, but I kept feeling worse and worse until my roommate dragged me off to the hospital a couple hours later. At the ER, they didn't do anything besides monitor my heart, do an EKG, check blood pressure several times, etc. Eventually it rose up on its own as the verapamil was metabolised by my body. I didn't take any more that day as per the advice of the ER doc who I saw. Then on Wednesday morning, I had another attack (after working back up to the high dose), but I decided not to go to the ER because of the fact that they didn't do anything the last time. I figured I would just try to ride it out. Well, the flu hit me at the same time, and I spent the whole day getting sick and feeling absolutely horrible. I couldn't even get out of bed. But I think the worst parts of it were from the flu.

That afternoon, my doctor's office finally called me back (I had called on Monday and then they called while I was at school on Tuesday..so I called them again on Wednesday regarding the problem...I told them it was URGENT as I felt awful...they called me back about 3-4 hours later...nice!) They told me to lower the dose back down to 720mg (split 360 twice a day). I am not experiencing any of the same blood pressure problems on this dose. In fact, I never even had blood pressure problems on any dose of verapamil. My blood pressure is all over the place (sometimes very high and sometimes very low), and I think the verapamil has actually helped stable it out. I would say just take notice if you start to not feel well. Maybe get a blood pressure monitor if you are really concerned that it could be a problem. Traditionally, verpamil was not successful as a blood pressure med, so it generally doesn't lower people's pressures too much.

IV depacon....I got it while I was in the hospital for new daily persistent headache and this last time for clusters as well. The depacon was really to bring my baseline headache back down to at least a 4. It did help me, but my doc only wanted me to be on it for 3 days. They do the IV form for me when my headaches get out of control and I can't manage it.

To depakote in pill form, I gained a lot of weight, slept ALL the time...I would sleep thru 4 alarm clocks and my mom calling me to get up. I would literally sleep through them for an hour! I fell asleep in classes...no matter what I was doing, I fell asleep. I couldn't eat because it gave me horrible acid reflux which is now a permanent problem for me...managed by nexium. I got upset about having to take another drug to treat the side effects from a med. My skin started peeling and got very dry, especially on my face and around my mouth. My hair fell out. Basically...it was a BAD drug for me. My doc put me on the extended release form after having so many problems on the one you take 3 times a day, but I still had massive problems. I wound up stopping it on my own until he got me on neurontin..which I proceeded to also have problems with. It wasn't all that long after that that I switched to a new doc.

I've always had the prednisone either IV in the hospital or as a taper outside the hospital to try to stop clusters and bring down the severity of the daily headaches. I've never been on it more than a week or so.

I'm a full time college senior at Penn State Univ. I manage by forcing myself to get through the days and to get out of bed in the morning...no matter how awful I feel! I'm graduating this semester, and that drives me to keep trying. I no longer am in any activities at school, and I get by on the minimum amount of work I can do! The rest, I just deal with by being very stubborn and trying to keep my goals in mind, despite all the pain. Every day I wake up and say to myself that today will be better. I will never stop hoping that the pain goes away someday!

Take care!

~Lizz :)

Title: Re: Verapamil, Prendisone and Depakote
Post by M8895 on Feb 2^nd, 2004, 7:38pm

Lizz, You are one tough cookie! Good for you for being so driven. I do have a challenging full time job which requires full clarity of mind. I can't afford to walk around like a zombie... None of us can. I pray that the O2 works and that my use of Trex will be less often. I'm so frustrated that I thought about applying for full time disability. I've decided to put that out of my mind and give the o2 a chance to work. I don't even know if the company that I work for would even consider this a disability. I am ashamed to think of applying for it being 37 and an employee of the same company for 15 years. Just whining and tired I guess. Thanks for talking with me. I wish you well and I'll let you know how the next mix of drugs goes for me. If they don't work, I don't think that I will experiment any longer.

Take care of you, Connie