I have been feeling unwell for about a week now and thought I was coming down with the flu. My glands have been up on both sides and very painful, my temperature is up and I have have felt like I am suffering the flu without the cold part. After coming across an old post on here showing that raised glands are quite common with Carbamazepine I figured that I would just leave it. Yesterday I spent most of the day in bed feeling terrible, achy and hot. I finally caved this morning and rang the doctor. She asked me whether I had a sore throat, temperature, raised glands and flu like symptoms. Well that's a big yes to all then. I was told to come in straight away for a blood test to establish whether my white cell count is down AND to come off of Carbamazepine straight away. I now face a whole day at work feeling rough and with no pain relief for the TN. I will be taking ibuprofen every four hours but not looking forward to today. I have a doctors appointment tonight at 6.10pm and should have my blood results back.
So what happens next?
If my bloods are okay can I carry on taking the Carbamazepine?
If my blood are low can they give me something else in it's place to take straight away?
I dread the thought of a whole weekend without pain relief!
If your blood factors are okay, you likely can continue on Carbamazepine. If you're showing indications of suppressed bone marrow, you'll likely be switched to Trileptal or Neurontin. In relatively rare cases, Carbamazepine can cause systemic allergic reactions in a few people, which can be quite toxic. The other two drugs are metabolized differently and do not have quite the same risks if you are sensitive in this way.
Thanks for that Red. Unfortunately I didn't fair well on Neurontin, it gave me concentration problems along with a horrible fairground feeling. I hoping that the blood work comes back okay and I am just having a bad time rather than anything else as the Carbamazepine is working with no other side effects.
Hi NickyO, how did you get on? Were your bloods normal?
NickyD said:
Thanks for that Red. Unfortunately I didn’t fair well on Neurontin, it gave me concentration problems along with a horrible fairground feeling. I hoping that the blood work comes back okay and I am just having a bad time rather than anything else as the Carbamazepine is working with no other side effects.
Yes, luckily my bloods were fine so I was able to carry on with the Carbamazepine. Seems that I just had a viral infection of some sort. Had no other side effects apart from mild heartburn 24/7 which I can live with. It does however seem to be messing with my contraceptive pill, which I will have to keep an eye on!