Hot Flash Forum!
Comments
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Trejoli2 - my h/f's start with an increasing heart rate, then the heat spreads from around the chest upwards and downwards. My head starts sweating, and that spreads downwards to the whole body. I cant stand for my fingers to even touch each other. My onco tried me on increasing dosages of effexor but I could not tolerate the side effects. Im off the effexor now and feeling a little better about having h/f's instead of effexor side effects. I think you should let your doctor know about anything unusual that occurs immediately after an infusion.
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I'm not there yet with h/f's but thought I'd chime in on Effexor. I have anxiety and depression, clinical, so I've been/am on meds for the past 20 years. I've tried many. When I see Effexor, I cringe. This imo was the worst one out of the many I've been on because for me, if I missed taking the dose within a certain time frame that day, it would let me know. If by 3pm I didn't take it, I'd start feeling a little flu like symptoms. Took awhile to figure out the correlation, but there it was. I decided this was bull crap and asked my doc to slowly wean me off of it and do a lateral switch to Pristiq which this particular med would have the least se impact until the Effexor was out. From there I went to Celexa, which is great for me.
However, even with the slow weaning and transitioning to Pristiq, a similar drug to Effexor but not with such nasty se, I felt like I had the flu constantly for such a long time. It was awful. From there I swore never to go back to Effexor even if every AD stopped working for me at some point. No way. That was hell.
Just my experience but I've heard this from many other folks as well.
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My ex husband had that same experience with Effexor too. By 3 pm, he would think he was coming down with the flu, and then realize he had forgotten his Effexor that morning. My GYN has suggested Effexor to me and I'm like, no way! Rather deal with the hot flashes.I might suggest Peridin-C. I take the full dose, 2 tabs 3 times a day, and it seems to make the HF's less often and less intense. I still have them, but when I run out of this, it seems like they come back worse than when I'm on it. It is just a Vitamin C supplement with bioflavonoids. It "improves capillary strenght" and "alleviates hot flashes associated with menopause". It has good reviews on Amazon, so it could work for you. Might be worth trying a bottle. I just ordered more!
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MO put me on Gabapentin for HF's. It's a 2-fer since it also works on the nerve pain.
Scottie
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true, date, Scottie,,, forgot to mention that I'm also taking gabapentin at bedtime for nerve pain, and it also seems to reduce the nighttime sweats for me as well. Between that and the Peridin C,, it's almost bearable.0 -
glennie19---I'm taking the Peridin-C as well. I started on that with full dose and did get some relief but not as much as I'd hoped for. When my MO suggested iCool I decided "what the hell" and started on that. I didn't quit the Peridin altogether but added the iCool. I take both but I take one Peridin in the am and one in the pm and I take 1 iCool in the am. I've gotten alot of relief. Don't know which one helps more but at this point I'm not willing to experiement to see! Normally I'm up for something like that (it's just my nature to want to know how/why/what works) but when it's for something that interrupts my sleep, I tend to be a chicken! It's 4:30 in the afternoon here and I've only had 1 HF today....and that's even with an hour workout at the gym so for now I won't mess with what's working.
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agree, lala,,, don't mess with what works!!
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tres, I have my last Taxol Tuesday (WooHoo!) and I've noticed the HF's are worse than they were with AC.
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great info in here! Glad to hear some have found med's to help!
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How long does it take for the effexor to get out of your system? Ive been having body aches much like those you get with a fever. Is that what you mean by flu symptoms?
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Yes blownaway. I had the nausea and dizziness benefits too. For me it took I think a few weeks. It depends on the dose you are on and how long you've been taking it. I was on it for 5 years at 225mg dose, so if you aren't on it like I was, maybe a couple weeks? So hard to say for sure unfortunately.
I'd rather boil over than to go back to even a low dose of it again after that nightmare.0 -
I have tried a variety of things over the 2 years since diagnosis/off hrt ... adding gabapentin which I take at night seems to be the most effective. I do 37.5 of generic effexor in the morning also. I had been on a higher dose but it didnt seem to be helping the hf enough that I freaked about getting off it later. I still take the one little on cause I do think it helps just make me feel better in general. Im going to look in to icool now also, cant hurt to add one more layer of effectiveness.
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I'm taking notes on all these things that can help with hf. Anyone worry about any adverse effects, mixing all these otc stuff with chemo meds, meds, etc? I know with herbs they say just because it's a herb doesn't mean it won't cause internal se and cancel out another rx med you may be taking some. I'm no expert and can see myself buying everything that people are saying it helps, and making one big mondo cocktail out of them! lol
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Artista - I was on the 225 mg dose but only for a couple of months.
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blownaway- 2 months isn't a long time to be taking an AD. Typically if you weren't taking any AD before this, it takes 2-4 weeks to feel a difference. These meds need to build up in your system before it can work, unlike most others where you pop a pill and relief is on it's way shortly. So I would guess you'd be looking at a week or so just going by the 2 months thing, but then 225mg plays a factor too.. I don't know, wish I did. I was counting down like crazy, while going crazy! Effexor and Paxil are tooted to be the worst ones to go off of, even slowly with the guidance of your doc. Good luck. Hope it's over soon for you!
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Glennie - can you describe the nerve pain? I am having all over body aches
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Artista - Thanks, I hate to seem overly concerned but another factor is that I just had a colonoscopy 1 week ago today. Can't decide if I have a real problem or not. I hate to call the doctor when I haven't bothered to take my temp but have flu like achiness. I'm actually hoping its just more effexor punishment.
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I too had to give up my beloved estrogen patch. I had a hysterectomy and BSO 2 years ago to reduce my risk of cancer (mom and grandma both survived BC) and dr said a low dose of estrogen with no ovaries would make my risk normal. Well 2 years later I have estrogen positive DCIS. Bye bye estrogen. So far I've been ok. My two complaints are I can't sleep very well, not even related to hot flashes, I just don't sleep well period any more and second, I get hot flashes with any exertion. Walk up the stairs, flash, make the beds, flash. It's short but annoying. I also flash out of the shower. I'm hoping it calms down as my body adjusts. I had similar issues right after my surgery when I was a hormonal mess. I do take celexa and just bumped up my dose in preparation of tamoxifen. Which my Pdoc told me causes depression. Wonderful. I'm guessing because it keeps the estrogen from binding in the brain as well as in the breast.
Now if I could just sleep again. Pdoc said I could take Xanax to sleep or melatonin.
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Kayb: I was on the Peridin-C before I started the gabapentin. I think, even alone, it was helping reduce the number and the intensity of the HF's. Adding the gabapentin at night is giving me a better night's sleep, for sure. I would recommend trying the Peridin-C,, it is only Vitamin C,, so I figure,, it can't hurt.
Blownaway: my nerve pain is from carpal tunnel and a couple of herniated discs in my neck. Not cancer/chemo related. But neuropathy in general feels like burning pain. I was waking up at night with my hand burning,, like I wanted to dunk it in a bucket of ice water. It honestly felt like it was on fire. I have the all over aching body pain from the fibromyalgia, which I've had for years. The Effexor withdrawal could be doing that for you. No idea how long that would last until it is out of your system.
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Blownaway. . .my nerve pain is from a degenerated L4/L5 disk and from BMx. Nerve pain feels like a burning knife.
Scottie
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glennie19- I was looking at the Peridin-C on Amazon and one of the reviewers there commented on how it has soy. I've been told to avoid soy and anything with soy since I am ER+. Is there like just such a low amount that there's no concern? I would love to try anything and everthing as I have running high heat issues and I haven't started any tx yet. Thanks-
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hmmm, i do not see soy on the label. And soy is one of those allergen that are supposed to be separately listed too. So not sure about that review. I would have to investigate further, but I didn't think it had soy.0 -
Check out the first review from this RN on it:
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i think that is the review that convinced me to try it.0 -
How long have you been taking it, and how much per day?
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i take the maximum dose, 2 tabs 3 times a day. If I take less, it is less effective for me. I just started my 5th bottle. But there have been gaps in taking it,, I would run out,, and find out how much better I feel on it, and then order it again. So maybe if I take it consistently for a few months, then maybe I'll be able to lower the dose as the directions say.0 -
So the label says take 6/day and yet the bottle has qty 100??? Why do they do this?? Give us the # of tabs so we can do take the max dose in 1 bottle. IMO this is a trick to get some folks who think it's not working to keep buying because they get to the last dosing and find 2 tabs left. Uh oh. Even though this isn't working, I should give it a try and see if it will eventually because the last dose wasn't complete! JMO. I know how these drug companies work, and not just with rx stuff. grrrrr.
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Agree,, a nice 30 day supply would be great. Probably why I run out and forget to reorder in a timely manner.
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Camommy - I stopped sleeping well at menopause (over 10 years ago) but I'm afraid to get addicted to sleep meds (like some of my family members) Ill google Xanax. I used to sleep 8-10 hours a night without waking till morning. What I could accomplish with a decent night's slep.
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Thanks Glennie - you are most likely correct. I had read about the difficulty of stopping effexor and went into it with my eyes wide open. The hot flashes are not fun but neither are the s/e's of effexor (either while on it or stopping it).
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