yeah your right I had not thought of that Laura, god when I was on La Evil`, I could not get enough water and that did cause me to go more often I forgot about that, may not be uti Erin i forgot totally about going so much, cause that med makes you so dang thirsty

Brain i have talked to a few that had no troubles either, and liked it, another one of those meds might or might not help, you are right trust your insides they know

I looked it up again, and yeah, using it for insomnia is an off-label use.

No more for me. Now that I think it's wearing off, I'm not running to the potty every two minutes, and my eyes dont feel so dry, and I dont feel quite as weird as I did last night.

I'm tired as heck tho! I hope we're not at the apple festival too long today.

I also read about another side effect the ami has. Weight gain. THAT explains a LOT!

I thought that the Copaxone I was taking was causing my problems. (the potty stuff, and the gaining weight) Now, I'm wondering if I was wrongly blaming the C. Maybe both the C and the ami were doing it together?

I'd taken a nice vacation (for a month) from the C to see if it was causing my problems with some of the weird side effects that I've been feeling. Things didnt change too much during the break. I started back up with the C last week, and noticed that there was an increase in problems.

I wasnt noticing all the weirdness until I started taking the ami, so maybe that was causing most of it. I guess I'll find out if some of the weirdness quits bugging me in a few days since I'm stopping the ami.

I'm just going to take 1/4 of a pill to wean off instead of a half pill. Most of the time that I've been taking this stuff it's been at half strength anyways. I'd only upped it to a full pill (10mg) because the insomnia was worse.

After reading the list of side effects, things are making a lot more sense. There's a lot of things I've been noticing this summer. I wonder if I'm one of those people who are strangely sensitive to this stuff.

I looked at the pile of pop bottles and water bottles in my room, and now I realize that I've been sucking down liquids for quite awhile now.

That might explain the CONSTANT potty breaks.

What worries me more, other than the possibility of impending kidney failure, is the vision changes. Blurred vision, some extra special double vision, and a serious sensitivity to the sun. (I go outside and the light is so bright that I cant open my eyes sometimes) I hope that's not a permanent symptom.

Hopefully this wasnt what was causing the numb right foot the other day. Read that numbness in the extremities is a symptom.

Oh boy does that sound familiar. I HATED Elavil. Hated it. It was given to me for nerve pain and the doc said right up front it was an AD. No w/drawal effects, but I had almost all the above side-effects in addition to:
dizziness
loss of balance

And I have low blood pressure too. I'm usually 90/60, so a drop isn't good. Sets me right up to feeling like I'm going to faint, which is also another side effect of the Elavil. I didn't, but boy felt like it a lot!

I had cotton mouth so badly with Elavil it wasn't funny. And I always had mints around because of the weird taste in my mouth. Blech. Drank tons of water but I also gained weight. Ick. Yuck. Grrr. And all those good descriptive type words.


And that's what happened to me. It stopped. I just stopped getting anything beneficial for it. So they put me on Pamelor then, which took the pain away almost instantly after it was in my system. And none of the side effects either.

Right? Same here! I thought Copaxone was the reason my hair continuously fell out. Guess what? It's not falling out like that now!

Gaztastic, I hear ya girl. Mine was down to 80/60 when I saw my doctor, just after going to 20mg of La Evil, and I wondered why when I had been in the drug store, kneeing down and stood up, I almost fainted. Not to mention almost fainting a couple times at home.

Yeah, I no longer feel like this when I stand up now!

My neuro prescribed Elavil for me at my last appt. in April for depression. He told me the most common side effect for it was urinary retention. ( Well. after I pressed him on it. At first, he told me it didn't have side effects.) I haven't taken it for that reason ( I have bladder symptomms related to neurogenic bladder already) and because I usually am real sensitive to side effects and the side effects are usually worse than what I'm taking it for.

Erin, do you think you weren't emptying fully thereby causing you to have to urinate more often?

Thanks Laura for listing the side effects. I've been having hair loss too and have been on Copaxone 9 years next month so, I definitely don't want to take any other meds with that as a side effect.

I really think it all depends. Each medication we take has side effects. Some people get lucky and don't experience them. Others do. But you have to weigh the good with the bad in most cases.

Take for example, Clonazepam. It's done what no other drug has done for me, to date. Dulled the pain of my burning mouth. It also dulled the heck out of the burning pain I experience elsewhere with MS, and has actually made me 'headache free' as a result.

Clonazepam carries a list of side effects: http://bipolar.about.com/cs/sfx/a/sfx_klonopin.htm

It can also be habit forming. Thing is, this is the risk versus return for me. It's made me feel as a person "Without MS" (my symptoms are mild, mainly sensory which includes a pain aspect). For me so far at a very small amount, it's honestly a wonder drug. I take a very tiny amount at night, and it also helps me sleep peacefully.

Is it for everyone? Certainly not. It's wonderful in my case. I haven't experienced side effects thus far, thankfully.

Oh we would have been a GREAT pair together if we'd been on it at the same time and out somewhere. Add that to my forgetting to eat, which makes my blood sugar dip, and


I used to drink about a 2 litre bottle of water during an 8 hour work day because I had cotton mouth so badly from the Elavil. Believe me, I urinated much more often because of all the liquid. You could say my bladder wasn't emptying fully--each time I gave it a little more space, more went INTO it! But maybe Erin's experience is different.