rapid muscle loss!

[gabgab]

has anyone experienced this with paxil withdrawl? I just came off about three weeks ago. Had to come off due to seratonin syndrome but came off on my own. hospital thought i was just having a panic attack. anyway my muscles are tearing rapidly along with other things like blue toes, shortness of breath, hair loss, water in my lungs, rashes, anorexia, dizziness and other things. someone please tell me i'm not going to deteriorate and die. I am looking skinnier by the day since my muscles are "melting".

[SareBare]

welcome.
sounds like you had to go cold turkey which would explain the w/d symptoms.
how long were you on paxil for and what dose did you have to c/t off?

[ray34iyf]

Are you eating enough?

[carolyn]

Most of it sounds like normal cold turkey except for the blue toes. Did you mention that to a doctor?

[Lucy]

Just my opinion --- if your toes are blue, and you have water in your lungs, you need to see a doctor.

[scotty]

Originally Posted by Lucy

Just my opinion --- if your toes are blue, and you have water in your lungs, you need to see a doctor.

Exactly!

[LCrawford67]

Originally Posted by gabgab

has anyone experienced this with paxil withdrawl? I just came off about three weeks ago. Had to come off due to seratonin syndrome but came off on my own. hospital thought i was just having a panic attack. anyway my muscles are tearing rapidly along with other things like blue toes, shortness of breath, hair loss, water in my lungs, rashes, anorexia, dizziness and other things. someone please tell me i'm not going to deteriorate and die. I am looking skinnier by the day since my muscles are "melting".

Blue toes, tearing muscles and water in your lungs has nothing to do with Paxil w/d and needs immediate medical care, I would think.

How do you know you had serotonin syndrome? What dose of Paxil were you on and were you taking anything else besides Paxil?

[gabgab]

i am eating as much as i can. I was diagnosed with seratonin syndrome at a different hospital after it already happened. I read somewhere that seratonin syndrome turns into rhabdomylosis. The reason why is because when there is too much seratonin in the brain, the brain tries to protect itself by spilling the extra seratonin into the spinal cord and body. now when i do simple things, my muscles tear. The extra seratonin is reecking havoc in all of my body systems. I keep going to the doctor and they are saying it is all in my head when my husband and family see me go through this. my toes turn blue sometimes and i get uncomfortable when i drink water as it later makes me choke. I was never suppose to be on this drug in the first place..... long story. they run tests on me and tell me everything is coming back fine. this is because they are looking for diseases. I don't have a disease. I have an overload of seratonin all throughout my body.

[gabgab]

does anyone know if i'm going to be okay? will the seratonin get flushed out of my body? i was on 20mg and I couldn't take it anymore. I went cold turkey several times because i was vomiting so much that i couldn't keep it down. Then i was hospitalized and they gave me 100 of zoloft. I had a huge rash from it so they gave me paxil again to counter act symptoms of zaps. that went away but now i'm dealing with severe problems.

[scotty]

Originally Posted by gabgab

i am eating as much as i can. I was diagnosed with seratonin syndrome at a different hospital after it already happened. I read somewhere that seratonin syndrome turns into rhabdomylosis. The reason why is because when there is too much seratonin in the brain, the brain tries to protect itself by spilling the extra seratonin into the spinal cord and body. now when i do simple things, my muscles tear. The extra seratonin is reecking havoc in all of my body systems. I keep going to the doctor and they are saying it is all in my head when my husband and family see me go through this. my toes turn blue sometimes and i get uncomfortable when i drink water as it later makes me choke. I was never suppose to be on this drug in the first place..... long story. they run tests on me and tell me everything is coming back fine. this is because they are looking for diseases. I don't have a disease. I have an overload of seratonin all throughout my body.

Serotonin has nothing to do with rhabdo. Rhabdo is from lysis of muscles and release of proteins from the muscles rapidly resulting in kidney and tissue damage. I have never seen, nor heard of any cases of rhabdo resulting from ssri use. It is commonly seen in crushing injuries and can be a problem in the use of statin drugs.
Rhabdo is easily diagnosed, so if your blood work isn't showing it, then this isn't the cause of your current symptoms.

If you are no longer taking the drug, then this isn't serotonin syndrome either. It sounds like withdrawal and alot of anxiety related to it.

[gabgab]

i don't think i have seratonin syndrome now, but I was told that i did have it and it was left untreated. what happens when it is left untreated? where does that extra seratonin go?

[gabgab]

I found a few scholarly articles with ssris causing this as a result of seratonin syndrome in acute cases. I have not found someone like me though. I want to believe that everything will be okay but seeing what is happening to my body is difficult to ignore.

[carolyn]

I don't know the answer to the question of where the "extra" serotonin goes (I'd imagine it just gets reabsorbed into the body), but the first page of the Mayo Clinic's page on serotonin syndrome says "Serotonin syndrome usually goes away within a day of stopping the medications causing symptoms".

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ser...ndrome/DS00860

Honestly, it sounds like your current issues are due to going on and off and back on Paxil in a (presumably) short amount of time, plus adding the Zoloft to the mix.

What meds/doses are you on currently?

[scotty]

Originally Posted by gabgab

i don't think i have seratonin syndrome now, but I was told that i did have it and it was left untreated. what happens when it is left untreated? where does that extra seratonin go?

Serotonin syndrome is caused by taking two or more drugs that elevate serotonin levels. It is a medical emergency that requires medical support. High fever, muscle spasms, delirium,hallucinations, coma are the symptoms and this would require hospitalization.There is no treatment, other than stopping the offending substances which will stop the serotonin syndrome.
Rarely is serotonin syndrome caused by one drug alone, unless it's an extremely high dose.
The bottom line is that if you have been examined by a doctor and nothing was found, then it's not rhabo. Rhabdo is a medical emergency that would be easily diagnosed by a doctor.

Now, cold turkey can create a host of symptoms that can go unexplained and this is what it sounds like you're experiencing, more than anything related to serotonin syndrome.

[gabgab]

i'm not on anything as of three weeks ago. looking back, my first symptoms of seratonin syndrome were in sept, but i did not stop the drug as the hospital told me I was just having anxiety. So i was on the drug for another drug even though i had all this going on. And yes going on and off didn't help along with the zoloft. Now i don't know where i'm going to end up.

[gabgab]

back in sept i had bloody urine. I was having shivering, sweating, elevated heart rate etc.

[scotty]

Originally Posted by gabgab

i'm not on anything as of three weeks ago. looking back, my first symptoms of seratonin syndrome were in sept, but i did not stop the drug as the hospital told me I was just having anxiety. So i was on the drug for another drug even though i had all this going on. And yes going on and off didn't help along with the zoloft. Now i don't know where i'm going to end up.

I think you've been given some very bad information on serotonin syndrome. What were the symptoms that you were having when this was diagnosed?

[gabgab]

i was let go and was told i was fine. I don't like my health insurance

[scotty]

Originally Posted by gabgab

back in sept i had bloody urine. I was having shivering, sweating, elevated heart rate etc.

This sounds like a urinary tract infection or kidney stone. Serotonin syndrome doesn't cause bloody urine.

[scotty]

Originally Posted by gabgab

i was let go and was told i was fine. I don't like my health insurance

If you were well enough to be discharged, then it wasn't serotonin syndrome. What specifically did they tell you?

[gabgab]

oh. the blood in urine was I think from rhabdo early on. my urine was the color of coke. I went to another dr, and he said i did indeed have rapid muscle loss. he said he has never seen so many stretch marks. i want to believe that i am not having rhabdo but i have lost soooo much muscle and it hurts. it feels like my muscles are tearing. I use to be a ballerina with strong muscles on the curvy side. Now i look like a world vision child. I lost my body form as i keep losing muscle. I don't know what to do. I tried working out a bit, and my muscles just kept tearing. I'm stumped and frusterated and scared.

[gabgab]

well they only checked my cbc they did not give me a ck test. and the urine they said was something i probably ate.

[scotty]

Gab, this just makes no sense to me at all. Both conditions would be easily diagnosed and you wouldn't be posting on the internet during either. These are major health problems that would have you hospitalized.
The fact that doctors are telling you that nothing is wrong is what points me to withdrawal.
Cold turkey withdrawal can result in psychosis, nausea, dizziness, anorexia etc.....so don't discount this being the situation, since no medical testing has definitively determined anything else going on.

How long were you on Paxil and at what dose?

[gabgab]

well the seratonin syndrome was in sept. Everything else going on now happens throughout the day. When it happens, i rush to the ER (blue toes,unable to breathe etc), then when i get there, it goes away. It only happened once in front of the dr, and he said "Oh you are just prob cold", and told me my sob was fron anxiety and they wanted to give me ativan! I was mad! I am also wondering if it is withdrawl, effects from ss, or both. I was on paxil starting 10mg in early sept. I went up to 20mg after two weeks, that is when i felt different. I felt sick. I was on it until second week of oct. I was put on 100mg of zoloft on oct 31 and was taken off a couple days later. experienced zaps after that so i took paxil again for about five days (psych orders). went from 10 down to 5 in five days

[gabgab]

i rush to the er so much when things like this happen that my fee is now only 26 dollars because we have met the deductible