Hello all,

Cautionary tale.

At my last visit, the neuro renewed my script for verapamil. I didn't notice it was for sustained release and had it filled by mail (3 mos worth). Upon receiving I realized uh-oh, this is not good.

Being in "regular" cycle I figured well, ok, I KNOW SR is considered less than effective as reported MANY times here. But, I'm doing ok now and it should be alright. BIG mistake (call me dumb, I qualify).

Real soon I went to 6-8 hits per day, some bad ones too despite going to 720 mg/day. That's when I went back to the regular verap (had a stash, dumb but not a moron). Within 1 week I was back to my "normal" 2 hits per day.

This is all anecdotal, no science involved, just my experience. I will NEVER use SR again...lesson learned... As Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues said, "Be CAREFUL out there".

Best

Jon

Really, two lessons in your experience:

1. Use the correct med and,

2. Don't walk out of the doc's office without scanning what he has given you.

Given the pressures of contemporary medicine on docs we must change our assumptions that they will be effectively protecting us. I've spent years with my clients coaching on the need to write notes, be assertive in asking for needed time, and not trust memory in a situation which is too pressured.

im on sr now and wondered at the time the doc wrote it if i shouldn't ask for regular instead and i didn't. kicking myself now as i would love some relief.

MPMIII wrote on Sep 18^th, 2008 at 9:48am:



Malcom,

Don't mind at all, that's why we are here.

I am chronic. My maintenance dose is 480 mg/dy taken in three divided doses. Up it to 720 when in "high" cycle, again three divided doses.

After many years I detect virtually no side effects. Have seen it reported of the mental fog but only experienced THAT with Topomax.
I control constipation with 500-1000 mg/dy magnesium (taken with an equal or larger dose of calcium citrate -other reasons for that), lots of water and fruit. Higher doses above 720 do reduce my blood pressure, sometimes very low so I need to be careful and monitor bp with home unit. At 480-720 there is some effect (normal 120/80) down to 115/70.

I monitor my dosage with a pill box which has compartments for each day of the week. No forgetting with that.

I have no stats on sr vs regular but have seen many times here anecdotal reports and articles from Bob re relative effectiveness. From personal experience I detect a SIGNIFICANT difference. If your doc says there is no difference he should have no problem changing your script to regular.


Best,

Jon