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OT Meds and swift weight gain

Needalifeboat's picture

I'm so frustrated today!!!!!! I started having issues with blood pressure, step life will do that to you. It got to the point where it was spiking. The doc put me on a beta blocker, telling me the main side effect was a feeling of less energy. Ok, I work at home and can rest a bit at lunchtime, no problem.

So I realize last month my pants are getting kinda tight. Weigh myself, up 4 pounds. Hmmmm...weird, I'm not eating any different. So I start watching better. Another 3 pounds creeps on. Start watching even more, no night time ice cream, really barely anything processed. Try to be more active when I can since I sit a lot for my job. At this point I'm wearing my daughter's jeans because I can't even button mine. She's taller and has a completely different build. While they're chowing down on pasta and bread I'm eating veggies and black bean burgers. I don't eat meat. Step on the scale today and up another 6 pounds!!! What.the.fuck.

Crying to my mom and she asks what I've changed recently? The new meds!!!! A little Googling and I've found my culprit. Now, I take antidepressants as well and a lot of people have issues with weight on those but I don't. I can keep myself stable with an 85% healthy diet. I'm honest about when I'm shoving too much crap in my mouth I shouldn't be eating. At this point I'm up 13 pounds in under two months! Call the doc and the nurse calls me back and says it isn't a known side effect of that drug and to keep taking it until my next appointment. I'll be up another 5 pounds by then!

It's so annoying how they just blow you off. Yeah, it's not that, must be something else. I'm going to write down what I eat and bring it in, along with the articles I found. Not a known side effect my ass!!! Tell that to my boobs, I can't even keep them in my bras any more!!! I'm incapable of bending over and still being a lady!

Comments

Needalifeboat's picture

Yes, exactly! Weight gain is such a mental downer. It should be seriously taken into consideration by doctors so their patients are healthy all around, physically and mentally.

That's where I'm gaining most of it, in my middle. Which is very unlike me. Usually if I'm hitting the desserts too hard it goes right to my thighs.

Sports Fan's picture

A lot of drugs cause weight gain. Some doctors refuse to believe it if the medicine isn't known for it. If you feel it is causing the weight gain, I would ask them to switch you to an alternative. There is almost always something else that you can take.

Gaining weight is not going to help your overall health and is just as dangerous as the other issue you are taking the medicine for.

I am diabetic and have taken a few medicines that have had both effects-gaining weight and losing. The ones that caused me to gain weight were horrible. It completely discourages you.

Maybe call and try to get in to see the doctor sooner.

Needalifeboat's picture

That's what I'm taking. It does make you exhausted right? I get up, drink coffee and can literally be back asleep by 10am if I didn't force myself to keep going. On the plus side of that I have insomnia issues and I was able to stop Ambien lately. But it's not worth the weight gain, definitely need to try something else. BP that high is scary! If you don't feel better then keep asking to change until you get it right! I think I'm going to start weaning and see what happens, I monitor my BP at home so I'd catch an increase.

thinkthrice's picture

No antidepressants for me either. My stepHELL happened to coincide with perimenopause, a double whammy! That and a more sedentary job to boot! Now that I'm in full blow menopause, I've had knee pain and really am watching those calories!!!

I must add that men are sickening. They stop having a couple of beers and WHAM they've dropped 20 lbs!!

Glassslipper's picture

Quick question or 2? Are your ankles swelling at night and then down again in the morning? Is your weight gain mainly in the abdomen?
I'm wondering if your retaining fluid, fluid retention might be a sign of something more than just high blood pressure. You might have more heart issues going on

thinkthrice's picture

Good point, glassslipper! And wow I feel old. You are a year younger than my oldest!!

Needalifeboat's picture

No ankle swelling but the weight is mostly in my middle. The doc had me do an echo just to be sure and that came back normal. Smile

Class of '96, go us!! 20 year reunion in the works for next year, I feel old.

ChiefGrownup's picture

Call the manufacturer and report the side effect. Also call the FDA and do same. They have an easy process for that. You may find it IS known, after all. A lot you can learn in a few calls like that.

Glassslipper's picture

^^^ good point!
Metropolol would have been FDA approved before the post approval study mandate.
So the drug would have been approved based solely on the original study data.

Needalifeboat's picture

Good idea!! I'm going to do that. Doctors need to be aware and discuss it before prescribing.

Amber Miller's picture

I know your pain. I have a rare auto-immune disease. I had the pleasure of taking prednisone for 4 years. I gained 25 pounds in 3 weeks. It was terrible. Over 4 years I gained 50. It destroyed my self esteem and taking that crap is worse than the disease itself. I also lost half of my hair. It would fall out by the handfuls and what didn't fall out would just break off at the scalp. All the weight you gain on this terrible drug is in your face, neck, upper back and around the middle. Your hands and feet swell and you retain massive amounts of water everywhere. I went from a size 6 to a 16. I would cry everyday. I stopped looking in the mirror. I wouldn't leave the house. I didn't even want my family to see me. I wanted to die.
Oh yeah, it also ruined my skin, now I have dark brown blotches all over my face. Finally after suffering for 4 years, my doctor took me off of it. I lost 30 pounds in 4 months without diet or exercise. I'm too weak to exercise and eat approximately 800 calories a day. I barely eat and I still ballooned up. I would complain to family and they would tell me I should be GRATEFUL that there was a medicine that saved my life, that I could always wear a wig and that it's just what I have to do to get better. I hated that. How would they feel? There is no cure for what I have but I will never take that garbage ever again. I looked like I was 8 months pregnant.
I forgot to mention, it raised my blood pressure up to the 180/120 range and increased my blood sugar to diabetic levels. It kept me up all night and made me mean and grouchy.
My DH likes to remind me that it saved my life (he's a physician). After trying and failing every med/treatment available, I am now getting IV infusions. I get them at home every month, 5 days in a row for 5 hours a day. The good news is that weight gain isn't a side effect. I wish I would've been given this when I was diagnosed but it's expensive; $190,000 a month. Yes, you read that correctly. Prednisone is cheap, that's why it took 4 years and almost dying to finally get the insurance to authorize it. I am in my early 40's. I fell ill when I was 35.
There were a lot of other side effects but I don't want to bore you all. Just wanted to share my story and let you know that I know and understand your pain. It's terrible to gain weight when you didn't do anything other than take a medicine.
Good luck. I hope you find a med that works. High blood pressure is serious and needs to be treated. Don't stop your meds without talking to your doctor.

Aniki-Moderator's picture

Just because they say it's not a "known" side effect, doesn't mean it isn't one. Google the drug name and Side Effects and read up on it. I've had RARE side effects to meds that the doctor/nurse didn't know about, but were listed on the drug web site.

Needalifeboat's picture

Exactly! And there are a ton of articles online with a simple Google search with theories as to why this drug makes people so tired. I'm going to print some out and bring them to my appointment.

Shindie15's picture

I had a similar issue, I was never a very big eater and I ate healthy. At 23 I started gaining weight fast and nothing could stop it. My blood pressure spiked, my sugars were high, as well as cholesterol. Most my weight was in my face, neck, shoulders and torso. Oddly enough I also started with stress fractures and eventually classic fractures in my feet. I was a medical asst., firefighter, and emt. I worked for a Dr who was also my family Dr for years by that time, she blew me off that I was just "fat" with high B/P, borderline diabetic, with strange breaks in my feet. The Ortho Dr would cast my foot and weeks later when my cast was cut off the bone next to previous fracture would be broken, it was like a domino effect and being completely immobilized some how the bones broke inside the cast. Finally the Ortho stepped up and fought my insurance company to pay for a bone density test most 23 year old women don't need one. The results showed I had Osteoporsis at 23. ODD, VERY ODD. Some blood tests were ordered and I was immeadately sent to a hospital with a top rating nationally. I was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease which is rare, often misdiagnosed as being fat, diabetic, high b/p which all of these are cause by cushing's. Cushing's is caused by a tumor usually a brain tumor on your pituitary gland but can be a adrenal and even more rare a lung tumor. the tumor makes a large amount of ACTH, a hormone that is a stimulant to your adrenal glands and tells your adrenal glands to make more cortisol which is where the weight gain comes into play. Mine was a pituitary tumor which was removed but often once the gland has a trauma it usually never works correctly again which is difficult because your pituitary controls your endocrine system in example diabetes, thyroid, & menopause just to name a few. Cushing's also weakens your muscles not just skeletal but your heart as well. The Dr's always paint a perfect picture of normal life will return, but only if its caught in time, its usually not malignant but it has a high mortality rate. Recurrance is likely I myself had 7 years before it came back, its inoperable because of damage left behind from the previous brain surgeries so my only option was to have my adrenals removed but a person can't live without steroids which is made by your adrenals so now I have to take steroids for life but this way it is a controlled amount my body has. Stress affects Cushing's and Addision's so it's rough being a stepmom, but that's why I'm here. I did'nt mean to write a book as I'm just trying to help give some insight to a illness with similar symptoms, I hope whatever you're going through isn't even close to Cushing's I wouldn't wish this on anyone, I hope you get answers and get to feeling better.