Tanex

[meli]

Ds is now on tanex alone! this is day 2 and a half. He is starting with .5 mg at 730am and 2pm. Today about 7:00pm he told me that he was feeling dizzy! He actually feel asleep on the car ride to the store! He has not done that for years! Anyone else exsperience this in the beginig or at all? He seems to get all the bad side effects that comes with the meds! This is so frustrating! I just want him to be happy and healthy! Is this too much to ask! HUUH!

[charliegirl]

Adverse reactions noted with guanfacine are similar to those of other drugs of the central a2-adrenoreceptor agonist class: dry mouth, sedation (somnolence), weakness (asthenia), dizziness, constipation, and impotence. While the reactions are common, most are mild and tend to disappear on continued dosing.

According to this, sleepiness or drowsiness (sedation) and dizziness are side effects that should go away once he has been on it for a while.

[puzzled]

That is exactly what happened to chase....he fell asleep in the car for the first time in years when he was first on the guanfacine. He doesn't anymore.

The impotence one....good thing he is only 10! Hopefully by the time that would be a problem, he will be able to contain his emotions and be off it.....

[meli]

Well things have been getting worse! Complaning of severe dry mouth and headach on top of the dizzyness and sleepyness. So I called the Dr's office and they said to put it dont to .25 mg twicwe aday and call the dr monday am!

The 2pm dose was the first .25mg dose and that afternoon he ran a low fever 100.5 and was lying around the house! He was still feeling dizzy all day saturday!

He feel asleep on the couch at 830pm which is so unlike him! Then he woke up when my hubby tried to put him to bed and sat up with the light on and just sat there and said he could not fall asleep. Then he woke up from a dead sleep at 1230 with a bad dream! Talking nonsence! Weird things.


Sunday am woke up said he felt fine! No fever, no headach, no dizzyness! more of a calm body and less agressive! much better day! But very touch and go on saturday! Hard to watch! Did not fall asleep at all today and went to bed fine! then woke up twice tonight disorentated and taking nonscence!

I will be calling the Dr. in the am! Boy it has been a weird few days!

[charliegirl]

Your poor baby. I hope the dr has something up his sleeve to either help him through the adjustment without the nightmares or is able to give him something else. I know as a parent that it must have been really hard on you too. I hope tonight goes better.

[puzzled]

meli the first few days that Chase was on it had me wondering too. He missed school the first morning after he had a dose the night before because he was on the couch with a pain in his stomach and was dizzy. He did complain of the dizziness again each time we raised the dose, but his body did adjust and I can see a definite difference in his behavior on or off the med. Read this and you will understand.... adhdldsupport.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=chit&action=display&thread=1178501338 that day was horrible! And then the next, when I am sure he got his guanfacine, was again a good day, we went bowling, each of the boys invited a friend, and it was a fun time, just me and all those boys!

And as I said, he also fell asleep a lot at the beginning, particularly on the weekends when no stim was onboard. During the week when he was taking the stim, he was not overly tired.

Try hard to give it a chance, maybe you just need to stick with that low dose longer and titrate up more slowly.....

Good luck! PM me if you have more questions....I can ask Chase how he felt when he first started the med, it was only at Christmas time...........

[meli]

School was awful! Ds was up to his same old same old! Man! just a little calmer!

Well I finally got a hold of the daytreatment dr. that persribed the Tenex and will have to wait and see if he can do anything or if Iam left in limbo till ds apt with the new ped! i have been running around like crazy tring to get records faxed to the new ped! They have me running in circles!

In the meantime I have to go to school every day to give ds the meds! The apt is thursday! The new peds office told me on the phone that they can't treat him till they get the records and the day program is not even done signing them! AHHHHHH! I want to just smack them!!

[meli]

Just an update on how things are going!

We went to the peds office on thursday and he refered us to a psycaitrist but of course he is not in our insurance plan. Matter of fact they don't have any with in 100miles. So now I have to get the proff that there sre none in our area then get approval for the one the dr. recommended and then make an apt.!

The Problems never end with this!

We also are going to be sending Robert to a transitional alternative school. We have a meeting thursday to look at the school! Then will be sending him next monday I hope. It will be for the rest of the year and hopefully be back to reg. school by October!

Regarding the tenex ds is on the dr. did not want to do anything. he wants the psycaitrist to handle that. WEll on saturday I went to my mom's house and forgot to give ds his 2:00 pill! So I gave it to him at 8:00. He did not wake up last night at all. So I gave him his 2:00 dose at 6:30 yesterday and he did not wake up last night eighter! So I think I will be trying that all week! I also decided to give him .5mg in the morning on saturday and he was better with his siblings and was not as quick to be angry. I will try that this week as well. The dr. did say that I could try a bigger dose in the morning if I wanted to! He did not know if It would make a diffrence. So helpful hey!

Playing the waiting game with insurance again!

[puzzled]

meli, I am so glad that you are seeing some progress with the tenex finally! In my experience, after about 2 weeks is when I noticed that Chase was so much mellower and calm. He still goes off on his brother at times, but I have noticed that almost every time is in the late afternoon/evening when he has none in his system anymore.....if it gets any worse, I will ask the doctor about a small afternoon dose for him as well.

[charliegirl]

meli said:

Just an update on how things are going!

We went to the peds office on thursday and he refered us to a psycaitrist but of course he is not in our insurance plan. Matter of fact they don't have any with in 100miles. So now I have to get the proff that there sre none in our area then get approval for the one the dr. recommended and then make an apt.!

The Problems never end with this!

We also are going to be sending Robert to a transitional alternative school. We have a meeting thursday to look at the school! Then will be sending him next monday I hope. It will be for the rest of the year and hopefully be back to reg. school by October!

Regarding the tenex ds is on the dr. did not want to do anything. he wants the psycaitrist to handle that. WEll on saturday I went to my mom's house and forgot to give ds his 2:00 pill! So I gave it to him at 8:00. He did not wake up last night at all. So I gave him his 2:00 dose at 6:30 yesterday and he did not wake up last night eighter! So I think I will be trying that all week! I also decided to give him .5mg in the morning on saturday and he was better with his siblings and was not as quick to be angry. I will try that this week as well. The dr. did say that I could try a bigger dose in the morning if I wanted to! He did not know if It would make a diffrence. So helpful hey!

Playing the waiting game with insurance again!

I hope you have hit on the key with the evening and low morning doses. Its about time you got a break and I'm sure he is happier not having nightmares and restless nights.

What do you have to go through to prove there is no approved psych in your area? It seems to me they should be able to look at a map and the list and see that.

You could tell them to find you one and you will go; just dump it in their laps. I don't have insurance so I'm not in a position to give you advice, btw. I have no idea whether you could really do that or not, but it would take some pressure off you.