Weirdest SIDE EFFECT of a prescription drug

[scrapbookbuzz]

The "What's the weirdest thing you've done in your sleep" thread inspired me to start THIS thread.

 

So, what's the weirdest side effect you've experienced while taking a prescription drug?

 

When I was pregnant with my son, towards the end of the pregnancy I was admitted to the hospital. Doc said I could have a sleeping pill if I wanted. I accepted because otherwise I knew I would be awake all night. They gave me Ambien. The first night, I kept dreaming that someone was sitting in the leather recliner that was in the room or that it WAS someone. The second night after taking it, the black and white print in my book turned pretty rainbow colors! :tongue_smilie:

 

Now my dh is looking forward to seeing what happens tonight when I take a newly prescribed sleeping pill!:lol:

 

So what's the weirdest thing that's happened to YOU?

[Tree House Academy]

Well, there was the time when I thought I took a pill and a half of one med (15mg) only to find that I had actually taken a pill and a half of another med (1.5mg). The only problem is that the 1.5mg med was 3x my normal dose and it knocked me out COLD...for HOURS. I went to sleep with the kids in the house. I couldn't keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried. Dh got home and I went to bed at 4pm and slept until 8am the next morning. Only then did I realize the mistake I had made. OOPS.

[Sara R]

I have perfect pitch. For 4 days after my first chemo everything sounded about a whole step lower: not just music, but the microwave and the phone and such too. Drove me nuts. I was so glad that wasn't permanent.

[muffinmom]

about 16 years ago, I was given Zoloft and I kept semi-dreaming (I was still really awake) that there were bugs crawling on me. I could even see them. I told the Dr., who just thought I was crazy (literally) and couldn't handle it, so he sent me straight to a psychiatrist, lol. It was just a stupid side effect.

 

And so began my frustration with the medical community...

[Tap]

Not too interesting but once I took a med before I started cooking dinner. It made me so tired I couldn't finish cooking, I had to lay down immediately and go to sleep. I turned of the pots fortunately first. It was a simple pasta dinner, and I couldn't make it the last 5 minutes to take the pasta out of the water. LOL It was odd for me because I never take naps and only sleep 5 hours a night. To sleep with such urgency....was very bazaar to me.

[Chelle in MO]

A friend of mine used to see imaginary spiders when he took a certain pain med.

 

*shivers*

 

Chelle

[Margo out of lurking]

Well, there was the birth control patch that totally killed any desire I had for s*x...

 

I figured it was a double duty sort of effect, and I ripped it off after 2.5 weeks.

 

:lol:

[sassenach]

Not me, but my dh. He was on an oral anti-fungal and it made his sense of smell so keen that it was literally making him nauseous. He couldn't be in the car with anyone because he could smell their breath and it made him want to puke. It drove him crazy, he was so unhappy. It's not fun for the wife when her husband has to sleep on the couch because her morning breath is too much to handle. :glare:

[Tree House Academy]

Lexapro makes me have nightmares such that I could later write a best selling horror novel based upon them. They are freaky.

[Margo out of lurking]

On a more serious note, my dh was on an immunomodulator drug, and a side effect was that it ramped up his entire immune system. His blood would kill ticks. We found two on him that had attached and died before engorging; we found another dead one had dropped off in the shower.

 

He never caught any colds with it either.

[joannqn]

I had hallucinations when I was given something with codeine in it. I woke and saw a tall and large man standing next to my bed. I wasn't dreaming and I couldn't go back to sleep for hours because I was so freaked out.

 

My other weird one was when I broke out in hive from head to toe after the hospital switched mt 3 week old from IV cephalosporin antibiotics to a liquid form. It took me 4 days to convince someone that I was allergic to his meds. I was reacting to the residue of medicine in his mouth touching my skin when he nursed.

[dancer67]

Not sure if this counts, but I had morphine in the hosptial ER for a kidney stone, the flowers on the curtains came off and were dancing. I thought it was hilarious. My husband thought I lost my mind because I was talking to them.

 

Morphine was great!

[KidsHappen]

The "What's the weirdest thing you've done in your sleep" thread inspired me to start THIS thread.

 

So, what's the weirdest side effect you've experienced while taking a prescription drug?

 

When I was pregnant with my son, towards the end of the pregnancy I was admitted to the hospital. Doc said I could have a sleeping pill if I wanted. I accepted because otherwise I knew I would be awake all night. They gave me Ambien. The first night, I kept dreaming that someone was sitting in the leather recliner that was in the room or that it WAS someone. The second night after taking it, the black and white print in my book turned pretty rainbow colors! :tongue_smilie:

 

Now my dh is looking forward to seeing what happens tonight when I take a newly prescribed sleeping pill!:lol:

 

So what's the weirdest thing that's happened to YOU?

 

I take Ambien and I have heard tell that I have done some really weird things when I have been asleep. My children have learned to say mom, you are asleep go back to bed. This med really should not be given to unattended people. There have been incidences of people driving while asleep on this med. Apparently eating while asleep is not uncommon either. I never remember the things that I do until someone tells me but once I get enough details I can remember it perfectly (which is better than I do when I am awake). I have read that Ambien really doesn't make you sleep any better it just makes you forget that you weren't asleep.

[Melissa in Australia]

I was given sleeping pills in hospital after I had been in labour for 3 days with no sleep. I went to sleep alright, I was still in labour, every 10 minutes I would have a contraction, then apparently I would jump up on the bed and start yelling that the cave men under the bed were coming, my husband would lay me back down until the next contraction. I remember none of it.....my husband found it really unnerving.

[Margo out of lurking]

I take Ambien and I have heard tell that I have done some really weird things when I have been asleep.

 

Okay, it's a little embarrassing to have my third post on this thread. My dh has been taking Ambien. He began hiccuping so loudly the other night, literally shaking the bed, every 20 seconds. It went on and on, and I wondered how I would ever fall asleep. I didn't realize he'd taken anything to sleep, and I asked him several times, "Can I get you a glass of water?" "Would you like a cracker?" He mumbled a few times, but honestly, I figured he was just really grumpy and ticked at the whole situation. At one point, he rolled over toward me, still hiccuping, and I had to tell him to, "CLOSE your mouth!!" because the hiccups were so loud. After 20 minutes of hiccups, I fell asleep.

 

He had zero recall of the entire thing the next morning. That was too weird for me. It obviously bothered him too, because this is the second night in a row that he hasn't taken anything to sleep (will take it for chronic pain). I'm sure when I finally go to bed, he'll wake up and be unable to sleep for hours.

[Slartibartfast]

Morphine makes me lose my perception of reality. I will become convinced something is entirely different than it actually is.

 

Only had it a couple of times but WOW that stuff is WEIRD

[Lolly]

Weirdest: tetanus vaccine gives me local paralysis.

 

Narcotics make me claw myself until I am bleeding. I mean, intense itching.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Lolly

[Pippen]

I once took an antibiotic that cause hallucinations. Big, colorful, moving hallucinations that made the wall look like a kaleidescope image had been projected onto it.

[clarkacademy]

I fell and busted my head when I was 18 and the hospital doc gave me vicodin for the first time. I had never even heard of it. I had never taken anything up to that point besides some of the PMS pills over the counter and I freaked. I was told I walked into walls, sat in the floor crying talking to people that were not there and became convinced I guess that the cat we had ate my car keys so I could never leave. I kinda remember the crying but everything else is a huge blur. I had heard that ambien can cause major hallucinations though in some people.

[RoughCollie]

I had an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug. It was like I had a sudden onset to extreme arthritis throughout my body. I stopped taking the drug immediately, but it was several days before I could move due to the severe pain I was in. I had to lie in bed the entire time. OTC pain relief didn't help one bit.

 

I don't like morphine much. First, I sleep for a minute, wake for a minute, over and over for hours (there is always a clock right there, helping me time this).

 

Second, I'll be talking and I cannot control what I say. I'll be saying a normal sentence and will interject something completely unrelated right in the middle of it, like "You do know that horses have fleas". I won't have been talking about horses or even thinking about them, much less fleas.

 

One time, my DH and a friend were in the room, and I asked her if DH had ever shown her his behind. Right in the middle of nowhere that question popped out, and it made no sense and is totally unlike me to think it or ask it.

 

I was on morphine when the docs and nurses wheeled me out of the recovery room, planning on taking me into the NICU to see the boys, who had just been born at 27 weeks. I freaked out because I wasn't wearing makeup and I didn't want my babies to see me for the first time until I looked my best. No one could reason with me because I was convinced it was not the "proper" thing to do. This, too, is totally unlike me in my usual drug-free state.

 

The worst was magnesium sulfate, or at least I thought so at the time. Paralysis and extreme thirst were 2 of my reactions to it. I wasn't permitted to drink water or to suck on ice, and I was desperate for water, in the strongest sense of desperation.

Edited February 1, 2010 by RoughCollie

[K in MI]

Zoloft --- couldn't stop yawning.

[Hedgehogs4]

this thread reinforces my reason for NOT taking drugs of any kind. i take ibuprofen or tylenol for a headache, but that's about it.

[HayesW]

I opted for an epidural with my last babe due to some bleeding and the risk of an emergency c-section. The "test dose" they give to be sure that the needle is in your epidural space, well, it wasn't in the epidural space. I got a small bolus of pain meds right into my spine. It made me SO HAPPY! It was like being drunk but totally in control. My DH asked if I could get one of those every day!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Nitrous oxide makes me hostile. The dentist and his hygienist thought it hysterically funny - until I refused to pay the bill! (I was still drugged). Then - as a friend was taking me to the car to take me home, I decided that she was kidnapping me and started to make a huge scene out in the parking lot. It's amazing that no one called the police.

[Parrothead]

Ambien is so much fun. Try having teA when on it. Yeah, I don't remember, but dh laughs if I ask him to tell me again what happened. I also have problems with my eyes. If I fight the Ambien too long I get double vision. Dd and dh laughed at (about) the evening I talked to our dogs Heidi and Baxter and Heidi and Baxter.

 

I did not have bad side effects when on the Chantex. But some of the dreams were really cool.

[Carrie12345]

Adderall makes me suck my teeth. :confused:

 

Stadol made me so high I spent most of the time trying to tell my husband that the drugs were making it hard for me to talk. ;)

[TravelingChris]

Other than allergic reactions, I have not had any strange reactions to drugs except if you call getting lighter colored hair a strange reaction. It didn't bother me. Ambien didn't work for me but didn't give me a strange reaction. It was just annoying that first it made me tired but not asleep then I slept and woke up early morning as usual. (I tend to have early rising insomnia).

[chiguirre]

OTC MUCINEX!!!! AAAHHH!!!!

 

It gave me severe dry mouth for a week. I'd wake up every 2 hours with my tongue adhered to the roof of my mouth and have to chug a tumbler of water. It also caused me to skip my period for 2 months. I've never had such an awful reaction to anything else.

[swellmomma]

When I was having my c-section with my first, I started having nausea so they gave me Maxeran. It made me have a panic attack, and I thought I blacked out. Apparently I didn't, I have no memory of that time past a certain point, but apparently I was talking, screaming at the doctors while the stitched me up that they were doing it wrong, and told some lady in the recovery room that she was too fat to fit on the bed. I don't remember any of that, I remember telling them there was something wrong with my legs and making them move them, and then waking up in extreme pain in my room.

 

Now whenever I go to the hospital they put an allergy to Maxerane band on my wrist.

[Chris in VA]

While in labor with ds20, I had a little Demerol. About 3 o'clock am, I casually told Hubby the clock was moving so slowly. He said, yes, time is moving slowly! Then I said,

"NO. THE CLOCK IS MOVING ACROSS THE WALL.":lol:

 

Had natural cb with all the rest of the kiddos.

 

Oh, and Wellbutrin made me clench my teeth.

[mom2jjka]

Topamax made Coke/Pepsi taste different.

 

I was at Mc Donalds and I kept taking my sodas back to the counter telling them that their 'mix was off'.

After the third one - my DH tasted it and said "it's fine."

 

I later read that was a side effect of the meds....:blushing:

[littlebug42]

When I was a little girl (about 8 years old), I took medication for bedwetting issues. It caused me to have hallucinations. At the time, I shared a room and a bed with my older sister. I would be wide awake and see our next door neighbors come into our room and try to murder my sister. One night, it was with daggers and one night, I saw them dump a bucket of rats into our bed. Fortunately, my Mom figured out quickly that it was the medication but it took a few days for it to get out of my system. I am very careful about what meds I give my children and I refuse to medicate for bedwetting.

[scrapbookbuzz]

Much to my dh's disappointment, my first dose of Temazepam (last night) didn't result in any hilarious side effects. It simply helped me sleep, thankfully! I was getting tired of coughing all night due to this darned bronchitis!

[AnitaMcC]

The "What's the weirdest thing you've done in your sleep" thread inspired me to start THIS thread.

 

So, what's the weirdest side effect you've experienced while taking a prescription drug?

 

When I was pregnant with my son, towards the end of the pregnancy I was admitted to the hospital. Doc said I could have a sleeping pill if I wanted. I accepted because otherwise I knew I would be awake all night. They gave me Ambien. The first night, I kept dreaming that someone was sitting in the leather recliner that was in the room or that it WAS someone. The second night after taking it, the black and white print in my book turned pretty rainbow colors! :tongue_smilie:

 

Now my dh is looking forward to seeing what happens tonight when I take a newly prescribed sleeping pill!:lol:

 

So what's the weirdest thing that's happened to YOU?

 

Well I have lots of weird reactions to different medications.

 

One time when I was having surgery on my jaw: The doctors said at one point I must have started coming out of the anesthesia because I went nuts. I pulled out some IV's, kicked one of the surgeons so hard in his side that he had to leave. All I remember was that in recovery I was in restraints and they wouldn't take the restraints off until I could talk coherently (as coherently as I could with my jaw wired shut and all swollen-LOL). :lol:

 

When I was back two months later to have my jaw unwired: Doctor gave me valium while I was being prepped... I hallucinated big time. Saw spiders crawling all over the place and fire around me.

 

One time when I was taking a prescription decongestant/antihistamine: I kept losing my balance and ended up falling flat on my face. I acted like I was drunk off my butt-LOL. :D

 

Oh and there are more.... I do not react very well with many meds. I am told to stay away from decongestants, valium, codeine, alcholol, and other narcotics. I can't take pain meds other than extra strength tylenol and motrin.

[KidsHappen]

Topamax made Coke/Pepsi taste different.

 

I was at Mc Donalds and I kept taking my sodas back to the counter telling them that their 'mix was off'.

After the third one - my DH tasted it and said "it's fine."

 

I later read that was a side effect of the meds....:blushing:

 

Some anti-biotics do that to both me and my hubby. They cause a slightly metallic taste all the time and cause sugar to taste horrible. Oh, and Lunesta leaves a god awful taste in your mouth.

[AnitaMcC]

The worst was magnesium sulfate, or at least I thought so at the time. Paralysis and extreme thirst were 2 of my reactions to it. I wasn't permitted to drink water or to suck on ice, and I was desperate for water, in the strongest sense of desperation.

 

Yep. magnesium sulfate is horrible!!!! It is so weird being unable to move but feel everything and the worst headaches.