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AmityKay
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Yesterday I learned a very scary lesson. I take Depakote 250 mg 3x a day. I was out and about yesterday and had to pick up my son from the tutor and take him to baseball practice. When I went to get him I came home to the yard where I live being mowed and my place (and neighbors) being painted. I have the worlds worst allergy problem and of course started getting hay fever. I called the pharmacy since I have only been on the depakote for about 2 weeks now and I asked if I can take benadryl. I was assured it was ok.. there was no interaction problems. Since I take benedryl fairly often I didn't worry about taking it and then taking my son to practice. I took the benedryl at about 5:30. By 6:15 I was slurring words and by 7:30 it was like I was on some heavy narcotics. To make matters worse I had 4 kids with me and no way to get them home and no-one to call. My hubby was 8 hrs away (he works at a sherrif department and had to transport an inmate to department of corrections). I ended up driving the 10 miles to my house. I barely made it inside before I was unable to think anymore... I was able to make it to my room and it was lights out. I woke up about 4am (Fully dressed and thankfully all 3 of MY kids in bed. My daughters best friend lives 2 doors down) scared to death... I have NEVER had anything like that happen before (I have never been a serious drug user and never drink) and I personally feel lucky I didn't hurt the kids driving home. The fact that I took the risk and DROVE freaks me out too.. SO I Googled Depakote and benedryl and at Drugs.com there is a list of about 250 meds to avoid and of course benedryl is listed in ALL forms. It depresses CNS function (duh I figured that out). So when you have a medication question call the doctor or don't take the risk... |
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sistergal2
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I am SO GLAD you made it home safely with your precious cargo! If that should ever happen again, you need now to have the phone nos. of several neighbors or anyone else (church member, etc.) to come help you. I always go to a website called Drug Digest Interactions - you can enter RXs but also over the counter stuff and it is wonderful. The doctors and pharmacists are so very busy that we really must also take our own action by turning to the computers! I pray you will have no other interactions! God Bless! |
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redrose
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This is some very good info from you both. I have never thought to go out and find this info on the web. I have a doc that gave me a book (just printed info)when I was put on meds that list all side effects and also the drugs that they can interact with. I wish that was standard form for docs to do but I know that for the most part patients don't get that. I guess that I just have an awesome pdoc......
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Gypsy
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Thank you Amitykay, I have been wanting to look up Lithium. I am glad you made it home safe. God Bless,Gypsy |
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amom
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Oh AMITYKAY That must have been so scarey Your gardian angel was sure on duty that day! you should definatly let your dr know of this interaction so he/she is aware and can warn others. Have you found out if there are other medications you can use for your allergies that won't interact with your Depakote? |
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AmityKay
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In truth at this point I am scared to take ANYTHING. It looks like I can Zyrtec and since it just came out over-the-counter I suppose that's what I will try. I had no idea so many things interacted with it though... even the basics like Tums and Maylox, the simple things you NEVER think about! |
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norma
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I am so glad you shared this with us. My son is on Zyprexa and we have to be very careful about side effects of any other meds. He doesn't take anything for a cold...just lives with it. Glad you got home safely, bet you had a troop of guardian angels all around...hugs, Norma "In the time of your life, live-so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but, shall smile to the infinite variety and mystery of it." William Saroyan
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carmen33
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 Hi Amity, I'm with the others, so glad you made it home safely, and you really should get the numbers of neighbors to have to call if Lord forbid, that should ever happen again. You said that your daughters best friend was scared too, so you must know her Mom and Dad, it would be a good idea to have their number with you and just call and explain you are having a bad reaction to a medication, and you need them to come and help.I hate that it happened to you, and pray that it never does again, but you have just experienced something that I have been known to preach about on here, never take something with out consulting your doctor or at least looking it up, I use drugs.com also, I like the fact that you can list all your meds, and they keep the list for you, so that when you are thinking about taking something else, over the counter, you can do the check quickly. Vitamins, any over the counter meds, etc.. all need to be checked, just because they are sold over the counter, and the fact that you have taken them before doesn't mean you are not going to have a bad reaction to them, I want to quit smoking, so I bought some nicorette gum, read the pamphlet, that came with it, and found where if you have diabetes and depression you can't take it, I called my pharmacist and asked him about it, he said No, then I asked my Doctor about it, and he said No. Asked if there was anything else I could take with the lamictal and was told basically if I wanted to quit smoking I was going to have to do it cold turkey.. You've shown how important it is to be safe. |
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AmityKay
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Sadly my daughters best friend lives with her grandma who has no phone and can't drive. LOL That would have been too easy. What bothers me the most is my doc always says call the pharmacy... that they are much more up to date on the current meds that come out. So I did what my doctor says to do. I live in a very small area in western North Carolina (in the mountains) where there are few doctors and even fewer who have on-call services. In fact the closest trauma center is over 1 hr drive away so medical services out here can be hard to get. All in all.... I am just glad to have had it all work out ok. Truly someone had to be looking out for us that day! |
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carmen33
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Do you have others around that have phones and cars? if all else fails keep a list of medications with you that you take and then call the police and explain what is going on and that you need help. I am in South Carolina, basically a pretty small town, our nearest hospital is a 1/2 hour away, and the police out here still do wellness checks, they are the ones that came to check on me when I tried to commit suicide last July, I had been talking with my brother, and he noticed that my words were getting slurred and I sounded like I was drunk on my butt, lol, the child never let the thought enter his mind that I might have fallen off the wagon and was plastered.. I have 15 years of sobriety, thankfully he didn't think that, as it was a drug overdose, I probably would not be here otherwise. I am married, but that is a whole different story.. Take all the steps that you can to insure that you have contacts if God forbid this should ever happen again. |
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