Feedback on Ultram Side Effects and Usage page 8
About Ultram
If you have used Ultram, please help others by adding your feedback. What would you tell your best friend about using this pain medication?
Subj: Ultram for Fibromyalgia
Date: 7/5/2005
I have Fibromyalgia for 14 years. Ultram has been a blessing for me. In order to get out of bed in the morning to goto work or do normal household chores I would have to take 3 Ultram. It takes away alot of the irritability, stiffness, Aches, Pains. However have had horrible withdrawls from Ultram. The first 3 days I became very weak, hot cold sweats to the point my skin feels like a mild cool burning sensation all over my body. Restless legs in bed. Generally when you tough it out and drink plenty of fluid and force yourself to be active to sweat alot, these symptoms clear within 3 days. But because of my fibromyalgia Ultram is the only thing that has worked for me to have a life again.
Paul
Subj: Health information with Ultram
Date: 8/11/2005
Subj: Use Ultram, don’t let it use you. I’ve been taking this drug for 6 years and yes it does have side effects. I am 60 years young. However since I have terrible disc (back) pains I have to do something and over the counter won’t do it. So I’ve learned to work with Ultram. Every once in a while (3 months or so) I slowly start to reduce my dosage. At the same time I use my juicer to flood my body with nutrition from carrot, apple, and others to help fight the withdrawal symptoms. I also use liquid centrum and lots of brewers yeast. Also try to exercise. I get on my bike and ride hard, it seems to help get over it quicker. This is not a cure. This is only a way to soften the symptoms. Ultram is not perfect but it sure helps a lot of people. Its up to us to learn and educate ourselves about our body and how it fuctions. I hope this helps someone.
Joe
Subj: Ultram
Date: 8/16/2005
I have taken ultram for about 5 years now I have had a very hard time getting off it. It’s very addictive and should be made a controlled drug, and doctors don’t realize, or don’t care because it listed a non-narcotic drug.
Joan
Subj: Purchased Ultram online, now look
Date: 8/17/2005
Hi, everyone. FYI, my brother’s loser girlfriend had a baby on 8/4/05. She was taking Ultram purchased online…the baby is going through severe withdrawal, will be in the hospital until September and is now on methadone. If you’re going to have a baby get off this crap!
Leena
Subj: Ultram prescription while pregnant?
8/25/2005
I’ve been taking Ultram for several years due to severe migraines. I recently found out that I am pregnant and stopped taking Ultram immediately (I was 4 weeks pregnant at that time). I am now 8 weeks pregnant and have had a normal ultrasound showing a fetal heartbeat. The pregnancy appears to be going fine but I am worried that the Ultram may have harmed my unborn child. My doctor told me not to worry, but I can’t. Additionally, my headaches have gotten much worse and my doctor told me to continue with the Ultram as needed for my migraines. What are the risks to an unborn child?
CW
AskDocWeb: Unfortunately Ultram is listed in the risk category “C” meaning there is a possible danger to your unborn child. The drugs in category “C” have not been tested in pregnant women and may not have been tested in animals. Those drugs in category “C” that have had animal testing done have shown a chance of harm to the developing child.
Until this drug is reclassified it will be up to patients to tell their doctor that they do not want to be used as a guinea pig. Many doctors have no idea of the traumatic withdrawal that patients go through when discontinuing Ultram.
Subj: What is Ultram
Date: 9/12/2005
Please be careful about this drug and if you’ve never taken it, don’t! If you have, don’t take it all the time for it’s far more addictive than doctors give it credit for being. I am like another who posted on this board…I had horrible withdrawals from removing the Ultram from my system. My withdrawal symptoms are as follows:
sleeplessness
anxiety
depression
irritability
nightmares
profuse sweating
cold chills
profuse sweating *while getting* cold chills
nausea
the runs
shaking
weakness
lack of ability to focus
horrible increase in pain
cramping in muscles
My symptoms of coming down off of the Ultram are much worse than coming off of say Loratab or Hydrocodone. I can be on 80mg of Oxycontin and 10mg of Percocet and still experience nasty withdrawals from Ultram, which was supposed to be a break-through pain med. If you get off of this drug, do it slowly. I plan on doing just that as of tomorrow (my next refill.) I am going to take myself down from 1 Ultram at a time each week. I take 8 50mg pills a day now, so I would be cutting that in half in a month and hopefully totally removing it after 10 to 12 weeks. You must go *very* slowly with this drug. I also highly recommend a good antidepressant and something else to help with pain. I will update this board again once I have successfully removed this drug from my life. I have been dependent on it for over a year now, and it is very frightening how addictive Ultram really is. Be well,
CJ
Subj: Ultram drug
Date: 9/25/2005
Hi…It’s 2005 and I am just reading all these responses about ultram. Well in 2003 I was put on ultram because of chronic pain and my life changed for the worse. A lot of people talk about bad symptoms while withdrawing from ultram but my symptoms started when I started taking the drug! The first thing that happened was I became depressed. I don’t know why. I just know I became a different person and when I told my doctor they put me on prozac. The prozac and ultram really damaged me. The depression got worse and I became numb to any stimuli…stimuli such as a nice sunny day, not interested, going out, not interested, receiving calls from family and friends, not interested, talking to people, not interested, getting out of bed, not interested etc.
It got so bad that I took myself off the prozac and continued on the ultram. After that, I still had depression, couldn’t sleep and would actually stay awake until the next morning. I started to feel a lot of pressure in my head…it was like an orange growing inside my head and terrible, terrible pounding headaches, my mouth became dry and I felt like I was dehydrated. I became chronically constipated and then I felt crawly sensations inside my head and body that made me feel somewhat insane. I had to stop working, became paranoid and suicidal.
Now these are very serious symptoms and I can only say that they started when I took the ultram…and continued only when I was on the ultram. I do know that when I came off the ultram, my anxiety went down as did my paranoia and feelings of depression. I have to say that no other painkiller did this to me. Could it be because I took prozac with it initially? although for a very short time? I will never know and the doctors aren’t interested either but I do know that before you take any medication you should ask your doctor about side effects. If you have had a similar experience you can write to me at (address removed for your protection) or I would just like to know what you think of my own experience with it.
Cheryl
AskDocWeb: My main concern is that you stated your doctor was not interested in hearing about your serious side effects! We suggest you find another doctor. One who shows empathy with his patients.
Subj: Quitting Ultram addiction
Date: 11/5/2005
I have only been on ultram for 4 months, 2 to 3 tabs per day…I quit “cold turkey” 2 days ago and have been miserable. My nighttime symptoms are exactly as others are describing…night sweats/cold, restlessness, on and off sleep, feeling tormented, wringing my hands, pacing, horrible feelings. I began to think I was having withdrawal symptoms but didn’t realize how addictive these wonderful little pills are until I began reading this forum. Thanks to all of you who have already posted here. So, should I had back a half tablet for awhile or just stay with it and hope I feel better soon?
Evelyn
AskDocWeb: Others have reported success by cutting back slowly by one pill at a time over several days. That way you should be able to quit with minimum side effects.
Subj: Quitting Ultram
Date: 11/9/2005
I have been on 100 mg. Ultram per day (2 pills per day) for over a year following surgery. I have a liver disease and hemachromitosis and the Ultram has helped with the lack of energy. However, I have to return to work to supplement my income and pass a drug test. I need to wean myself off of it. I tried for one day cold turkey and cannot handle the misery. So, I need to cut back to one pill per day and then every other day until I am drug free. My question is how long should I stay on each cycle to circumvent the terrible withdrawal symptoms I suffered for 27 hours? The drug test will probably be administered sometime mid-December. It is now 11/09/05. Please help. Thanks you.
Marty
AskDocWeb: You need to be completely off Ultram 14 days before it will no longer show up on a specific test for that drug. However, employment drug tests typically don’t test for Ultram. There are reports that others have used Ibuprofen 800mgs or extra strength Tylenol to help ease the transition when coming off of Ultram.
Subj: DO NOT TAKE THIS DRUG!
Date: 12/23/2005
I have experienced withdrawals from all the typical opiate drugs such as vicodin, percocet, and so on when I took them. Let me tell you, the withdrawals I’ve experienced from Tramadol have been far worse! Horrible sleepless nights, jerking, tensing, cold and hot flashes are some of the symptoms. Depression is probably the worst of them all however. I am a grown man that can cry now at the drop of a hat! This is a terrible drug that I would recommend to never try. You will experience withdrawals when you stop and they are terrible! I haven’t slept now in four days and can hardly get around the next day!
Eric
Subj: Hearing issues with Ultram?
Date: 1/2/2006
I am just wondering if anyone has experienced sensitive hearing issues from taking Ultram? Often, it seems like things are “too loud” and I regularly feel like my head is stuffed up…like your head might feel after getting water in your ears at a swimming pool. Sometimes when I move my head or yawn, I feel something “move” in my inner ear…again, that stuffy head feeling you get from water after swimming. Anyone relate to this feeling? Thanks!
T
AskDocWeb: The feeling of noises being too loud and fluid are a separate issue, not from taking Ultram. Have your ears check out by your physician.
Subj: Ultram is evil
Date: 1/2/2006
I have experienced all symptoms above. I am now down to 1 a day after struggling for a year and a half to cut down from 6 a day. After some time of using the drug it really didn’t seem to help as much as it did originally. One thing not noted here on this site yet is the stuttering I and others I know have experienced while on Ultram. It’s like a brain fart. You’re talking and all of a sudden your word gets cut off. It reminds me of a mini stroke. This problem only happens with higher doses of the drug. Also, when trying to taper down the stuttering, etc. can creep up. But, the depression and short temper is worse than the pain sometimes. And there is no stopping for a week because you will have withdrawals within 24 + hours.
I also used this drug in pregnancy. Doc said it was OK no problem. Then I asked him about breast feeding…same bs No problem. Like hell. This stuff will constipate an adult image what it does to a tiny baby. The doctors said it was colic, but she only had the problem around 4 hours after I would take a dose.
Due to the withdrawals I would experience, at her 5 month lunar anniversary I stopped breastfeeding. That was 5 months ago. In a week I will go down to half a pill a day for one week…then GOODBYE.
Peggy
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