Alendronic Acid side effects

I know what you mean about the 'best before' date on spring water Mrs K! Hope you have a great time in Scotland. Referring back to the Alendronic Acid query on this post, I think I've been very lucky. I started taking it in September 2009 and two weeks running I had the most awful pain in my upper chest region. I truly thought I was going to have a heart attack and die in Sainsbury's the second time. However, since then, nothing. No more aches and pains than usual. I haven't really had many side effects from Prednisolone either, no weight gain, no hot sweats and not many sleepless nights, although I do sometimes sport a saucy little moustache! I think maybe my body is quite tolerant of chemicals. I have been taking quite a high dose of Atenolol (blood pressure tablets) since age 36 and statins for several years (I come from a long line of ropey genes!) so maybe that has prepared my body for the onslaught of Alendronic Acid and Prednisolone.

Regards

Lizzie Ellen

Hi Eileen

Thank you so much for your response re the sun and Vit D - a wealth of information certainly comes from you, Eileen. I don't know how you do it but this forum is certainly lucky to have you! Certainly the scientists and researchers help to confuse us all in persistently changing their advice and also the guidelines - think how the goalposts have kept moving re safe levels of BP and cholesterol for instance.

I'm so glad that eggs were taken off the danger list especially as my hubbie decided to try out a new chocolate cake recipe :cake: on Friday with contained 6 eggs! I pleaded with him not to as chocolate is my weakness. He wasn't too pleased with the result so he isn't eating it but guess who is weakening and loving it :roll: I just keep telling myself the Vit D from all those eggs is doing me good!!!

One thought comes to mind when you mention an increase in rickets in children and young adults........the amount of children these days who are glued to their computers and TVs rather than being out in the sunshine!

I must now unglue myself from this computer and get out in the sunshine myself. Hope it's shining in Italy, too, Eileen.

MrsO

If its of any help Mrs O, I'm happy to help out with the chocolate cake :cake: !!!

Lizzie Ellen

Shame you can't send chocolate cake as an attachment to an email isn't it!! :lol: Where did you find a husband who can cook - mine can just about manage bacon to his taste (i.e. half-cooked by my standards! What was wrong with his cake? Too soggy and gooey?? Mmmmmm!

EileenH

LIZZIE-ELLEN - Basingstoke is only about 45 minutes down the road but you'd better get here fast as for some reason my eyes keep wandering to the tin and it's bothering me!

EILEEN - Ah, but I expect your hubbie likes decorating!!!!

MrsO

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You what??????????? Decorating was done by me until I fell off a stepladder, landing against the wall, whilst wallpapering in our bathroom in Scotland. When he didn't even get up from the computer in the study across the landing to see if I was OK I told him he could jolly well pay for a professional to do it in future! I dread needing anything that requires screws as PMR is really not helpful there, is it, and building an IKEA solution requires hawk-eyed supervision by me (otherwise it'll be the wrong way round). You'd never believe he is a world-expert in his field - which includes inventing the blasted equipment!!!!!!! :lol: :roll:

BTW - today we have nearly-joined-up thunderstorms at 21C after a week of really rather nice sun and heat

Hope you feel better once the tin is empty!

EileenH

Eileen

Oh, poor Mr Eileen - his ears must be burning. He can't be brilliant at everying.

Gotta go - hubby's just made scones for tea :lol: !

MrsO

Hello Lizzie Ellen

I had much the same experience as you after taking Alendronic Acid for the first time 3 weeks ago and ended up in our local A & E with a suspected heart attack. I spent 12 hours having different tests! I'd phoned NHS direct for some advice and they phoned an ambulance. The pain was dreadful in my chest and up into my neck and jaw and I was sweating profusely. This was very frightening but all turned out well. My heart is fine. The specialist agreed that it was most probably a reaction to this drug. When I reported it to my GP he said it sounded like an oesophegal spasm and described it as a kind of cramp in the oesophagus. Needless to say I have not taken any more of this medication. It was quite embarrassing too and what a waste of NHS money.

Best wishes

Mrs Wubble-U

PS I love your sense of humour!

Hi Mrs WubbleU!

Welcome! What a horrible experience - but rest assured that if it took 12 hours of tests they were concerned enough not to be saying you were a nuisance!

I do hope either your GP or the hospital consultant reported your response to alendronic acid - the pharma company claimed there were very few occurrences of severe side-effects during their clinical trials and it wasn't until it got used widely that the nasties started to turn up. I posted a bit back about how it was the company who make the stuff who created their market, even turning a part of aging into an indication for using it without there being evidence that using it BEFORE the bones become osteoporitic prevents any fractures in the longterm.

cheers,

EileenH

Hi Everyone, especially Mrs. Wubble-u,

First I must give you just a little bit of background. Have a family history of osteo-porosis and to stop my mother from going on about it I went to get checked for cholesterol, osteoporosis et al in the summer of 2002. The doctor suggested HRT which at the time was the latest thing for treatment. As I wasn't happy with this, she said there was a bone scan available but the nearest one was a hundred miles away and expensive so they only gave it to people they thought would show positive, but if I would consider HRT if shown to be positive would I consider it. I agreed and duly found out that at the age of 51 my hip was at a stage where it was likely to be easily broken and the base of my spine was already passed that point. So I went on the HRT and as requested went back for another scan two years later. The second scan showed little or no change, go back in three years and take calcium. The third scan (2007) showed the same so the doctor put me on chewable calcium tablets and Bonviva the once-a-month osteoporosis pill (ibandronic acid) part of the biphosphonates group. I took the first one at the end of December - no apparent ill-effects, the second at the end of January - I began to feel really lousy - achy, flu-like symptoms etc. and freezing cold right through from the inside out. By the end of the February when I was due to take the next one I said to my husband I'm not taking any more of those. I gradually began to feel better, I told the doctor the next time I saw him. At the end of March my husband had to phone the out-of-hours service. Severe pain in my left arm, profuse cold sweating shivering etc. etc. I was rushed into hospital and I had had a heart attack, causing damage to two separate parts of the heart. While in hospital I was off the calcium tablets so I didn't bother taking them when I got home. The next scan (2009) again showed little or no change, my hip was by this time osteopenic due to my age, take the calcium and go back in two years. As my father died last year I didn't get round to going so went a couple of weeks ago. As there was an increased loss in both my hip and my back I should re-start the calcium and also take alendronic acid. I explained the problems I had had with the Bonviva and that I had always had, at the back of my mind, the feeling that it had been a contributary factor in my heart attack (they couldn't find a cause for that). The nurse said that it would be fine, all sorts of patients with all sorts of conditions took it with no ill-effects, but if I started that first and the calcium a few weeks later I could be certain that it was OK. I took the first pill on Monday morning. By lunch time I felt terrible - flu-like symptoms, extreme nausea, severe heartburn, you name it I seemed to have it. When I went to bed I found that my legs and feet had swollen badly, especially my feet. Tuesday, I felt worse and the symptoms all seemed to be getting worse. Wednesday morning (yesterday) I went to the doctor and told him that I thought the pills were to blame, it couldn't be anything else, and he said well there don't seem to be many serious side-effects other than nausea, heartburn etc. but if I thought it was making me feel ill, don't take it again. Now, lets have a look at these swollen fee. I had had a problem getting my boots on, now I couldn't get them off!. He took one look at my feet and said "I'm not having you taking any more of them, I'll contact the hospital today and see if there is anything else we can do instead". Last night I began to feel a little better, and this morning my feet were a little less swollen. Today I have felt quite a lot better, but I still get the symptoms coming over me in waves, so roll on next week when it will be out of my system. As the doctor said, you wouldn't expect one little pill to have such a quick and extreme effect, although people with allergies to penicillin, prawns and strawberries do. So now I'm waiting to hear again. But it makes me think, was I right about the Bonviva?

Barbara

Hi Physical wreck - what a name but you'll fit in fine with us

"As the doctor said, you wouldn't expect one little pill to have such a quick and extreme effect" - well, you're left to wonder what school of medicine HE went to! They are rare - but allergic reactions are known and once you have developed the requirement for that allergic reaction to happen just one little pill is all you need! You CAN'T have an allergic reaction the first time you meet a substance unless you are allergic to something very similar but once you have taken that substance you might react the second time - or the thousand and second time. It is rare, but it happens.

And as for that nurse: "The nurse said that it would be fine, all sorts of patients with all sorts of conditions took it with no ill-effects" - saying that after being told you had had problems the first time is really not very clever. I despair sometimes.

The MRHA includes this warning:

Atrial fibrillation

The intravenous bisphosphonates disodium pamidronate and zoledronic acid (Aclasta and Zometa) had ‘atrial fibrillation’ (abnormal or irregular heartbeat) added to their list of possible side effects, following a Europe-wide review in 2008. Speak to your doctor straight away if you experience any changes or problems with your heartbeat while receiving bisphosphonate treatment."

Further study has left the situation as being that they aren't sure about the connection but it is impossible to know how many yellow cards have been filled in and returned (that is the way adverse events are recorded once a drug is on the market). Did your GP complete one for you? I doubt he did - nor do the majority of doctors meeting such experiences. If it isn't reported no one will know.

Who knows how many similar events occurred during the clinical trials but weren't mentioned - because of all the Big Pharma, I'm afraid I wouldn't trust Roche as far as I could throw them. In fairness though, there are others with as bad a history of "losing" such records.

There are other approaches to osteoporosis. Bisphosphonates are the first line, they are cheap and for many people they don't cause problems taken properly (the sitting up and drinking a large glass of water with them on an empty stomach is VERY important). However, there are other things when that is a problem - including an annual injection formulation. And if bisphosphonates make you ill, as in your case, then there are second and third line treatments which work in very different ways but which are only approved for use on the NHS when the previous drugs have been ruled out - most of them are new and therefore pretty pricey.

On a slightly different tack - last year I was given intravenous valium as a muscle relaxant as part of a treatment for severe back pain. I was fine the first time - it was given last thing at night. The second night I felt a bit dodgy about half an hour after the infusion had finished and called the nurse - my pulse was very high and they spent quite a while trying to get it down. They assumed it was the methyl prednisolone that was part of the rest of the treatment, a perfectly routine one, and I wasn't given it the next day. But I was given the valium again - with the same result, only worse. I had a pulse of 230 (normal is about 70!) and they were absolutely sh*^^%$£ themselves. I would have been in ICU but there were no beds. I suggested the next day I'd not have that again thank you - my husband had done the online research and discovered this was a rare but known effect of iv valium. It took him 5 minutes to find it - but noone on the ward had come across it before. As a result I spent 3 weeks in hospital instead of the 3 days it was meant to be - and have a suitcase of tablets now for the atrial fibrillation etc.

Not everyone reacts badly to a given drug (thank goodness) but it happens and must be acknowledged - anything else is silly and runs the risk of leading to something nasty.

Hope you feel a LOT better very soon!

Eileen

Hi Eileen and physical wreck

Havent been on here in an age! I see I started this thread many moons ago.

What are the 2nd and 3rd line treatments for osteoporosis, Eileen? When I was told to stop the Alendronic Acid and NEVER to take anything in that family ever again, they did not offer me anything else. Well, what a surprise if the alternatives are expensive. I have recently had another Dexascan and am awaiting the results. Last time my hip was ok but I was osteopoenic in the lumbar spine.

How are you Eileen? I am now retired and being run ragged by our Golden retriever puppy.

Beev xx

Hi Beev! You can say that again - where have you been other than walking the dog!? Do you like being retired? I do although we aren't totally retired - if someone offers us work we take it but mine seems to have gone down the drain with the austerity state

If they didn't offer you anything else that almost certainly means they didn't really think it was necessary! I also have osteopenia in my lumbar spine - was like that 3 months into pred and is still near enough the same 3 years later. Taking calcium and vit D tablets seems to have kept things stable. I too was offered AA and abandoned it after about 5 tablets! My GP didn't think it was a problem and here in northern Italy they only offer calcium/vit D tablets. I've supplemented the vit D myself courtesy of H&B and managed to get it up from 21 (requiring treatment) to in the mid-50s. I will get a vit D test in March. But if only a couple of vertebrae are a bit wobbly it is not much point taking nasty drugs to prevent a hip fracture is it? My neighbours cousin fell of her bike and fractured a vertebra - and they weren't even osteopeneic.

If you go to the parent site for this form, i.e. patient dot co dot uk, and search doctor osteoporosis you should get to the professional page for osteoporosis which tells you the various 1st/2nd/3rd line anti-osteoporosis drugs. You may find it a bit complicated but ignore the bits inbetween and it tells you what the drugs are. I'll put the link in a separate post - it might get left as it is their own site :D

But basically it is ordinary bisphosphonates (tablets), injected bisphosphonates (deals with gastric problems), risedronate and etidronate, strontium, denosumab in that order. And probably order of increasing price as well!

Hope this helps

Eileen

Here's the direct link:

patient.info/doctor/osteoporosis

Eileen

i took aa at the start of pmr suffered it for 3 months never again it made me so ill carolk