Actonel side effects

I too was diagnosed with "trigger thumb" after being on the monthly dosage of Actonel for 5 weeks. My thumb joint also pops and is painful. Actually, it started out popping and is now more or less frozen with small latitude of movement. Hope it wears off, and I hope yours improves too.

Why do doctors ignore these problems and make the patient feel dumb and guilty for not continuing the medication?

Linda new york wrote:

<quoted text>I was recently diagnosed with "trigger thumb", mine pops and is painful. Have been off actonel several wks. now,wnd thumb still hurts.

I am wondering if anyone has had skin problems while taking actonel. I have hives or what seems to look like eczema. I read on the Actonel website that skin hives, rashes can result from the drug in addition to eye inflamation. I already had the bone and joint pain and flu like symptoms but those seem to subside afterwards. I take the weekly dose.

I just try to get rid of this but not very succesful!

Do you mean you are not able to get rid of the skin problems? I decided to stop using it for a few weeks and see if it goes away.

Karen wrote:

<quoted text> Alicia, my mother had the exact same experience. Her doctor insisted she take ulcer medication and told me I should be trying to convince her to eat, while her stomach was completely blocked with advanced stomach cancer after about 18 months on Actonel. I see you wrote a while ago. My mom died of complications after a gastrectomy for advanced stomach cancer in 2006. I too am wondering how many others are out there.

My mom just took Actonel about two weeks ago. She followed the instructions and everything. She had once-a-month pill. Now, she feels absolutely horrible. She had terrible joint and bone pain, back pain. She could hardly move. Now she said she feels like there is a sore inside of her stomach. Whenever she eats anything, it stings.

The doctor who prescribed it only told her to take OTC pepsid. Now she has had blood tests taken to see why her stools are dark in color. ONE PILL! I hate this pill and I am furious with the doctor. I hope this has not damaged her stomach. I'm scared...

Brenda wrote:

Please stop taking Actonel. It almost killed me....<quoted text>

No, please stop taking it. My mom took the once-a-month pill and is having HORRIBLE side effects. It's been two weeks since she took it and she is already taking blood tests and it feels like a sore is inside of her chest, exhaustion, and extreme back pain.

I also took actonel for a year and stated to have pain of the joints and back, and also throat congestion like symptoms so i stopped taking the junk . I do not believe in taking prescription drugs anyway because being a nurse I have seen the damage it caused the uneducated desperate sickly people. I have never really seen them get better. I go to a doctor for a diagnosis only, then I look for my own treatment.

I'm 55 I took Actonel weekly for osteopenia (
-1.8 SD) of the spine for about two years - no side effects.
Suddenly this spring my cervical spine started crackling and popping (crepidus )Other joints also started to pop but this was not as unpleasant as the constant crackling in my neck
It was odd that this condition showed up so suddenly within about two weeks of my last three months supply and was so loud and pronounced my yoga teacher commented on it .
I didn't care what anyone said I quit the actonel and have been taking calcium, vit D 3, vit K and Strontium citrate (in the middle of the night). The crepidus has already improved. Has anyone else experienced these side effects ?
Also - how much vitiman K is enoufh?
thanks

My mother started on Actonel when she was 82 years old and took for 3 years. She is now 85 and is off the Actonel and takes calcium and Vitamin D. She is doing great. I asked her to get off the drug after reading this site. Please email me at elmergroener@yahoo.com for further information on Univera's bone and joint. They have amazing natural products and they are based on science. Please take the time to email me. We have another wonderful product called AgelessXtra which enables your body to create energy at the cellular level. They also have Regenicare which is wonderful for promoting joint comfort. The protectin in the Regenicare acts on the inflammation in the body. Univera is a wonderful company and has the products to help us all lead a healthy and active life.

I have great empathy for anyone suffering the side effects of Actonel for I have none have been on this for approx. 1 year.

I broke my hip (osteoporosis)as I am only 56. Found out my BMI was "severe" I take "my pill" every Sat & no side effects. It has done wonders for me!

I took my first Actonel on July 12, 2009. Two days later I started getting a sore throat. Just thought I was getting sick but that's all I had and it only hurts when I swallow. At night I can hardly swallow at all because the pain is severe. My throat is still swollen and hurts when I swallow. Called my doc she said don't take it anymore. I asked how long my throat would be sore and they said they had no idea. If you ask me this is not a safe med!

Surryia wrote:

I have been taking Actonel for two years. In October last year I thought I had laryngitis. I was given antibiotics twice in November and then in December. It didn't cure instead I started feeling lump/ball in my throat. This feeling is still there. I went for private consultancy. They put a camera in my throat. i told my GP and the ENT consultant that I'm on Actonal 35mg. but they didn't pay any attention. i was told Its stress and I need to have speech thrappy as I started having difficulty in speaking.Now I have developed pain in my throat. I was told by consultant I should take any homeopathic its good for throat( Consultant). Now I'm 100% sure its Actonel and I have stopped it yesterday and now want to see the GP to do further tests bout the damage been done.I'm a teacher. I'm in continous pain now. My neck glands feel like inflammed. Is there any doctor in the forum who can suggest me any self help.

I don't know of a doctor on the blog that can help but go to the web site "ask a patient".com There's many blogs/comments about this horribly drug Actonel. I learned about the web site to late. After taking this drug for 8 month, I developed severe bone/joint pain in my shoulders. I stopped taking it in May of this year but the pain is still very persistent. My doctor says there's no way it could be caused by Actonel, but after reading all the comments on this web site, I'm convinced its the drug.

hi i was put on actonel just last mth . 1 tablet a week and so far have been in so much pain i have to use a crutch, i have only taken 2 tablets over 2 weeks and cant believe the side effects yesterday i went 2 the out of hours doctor because i thought i was having a stroke left side of my body went numb and it took me 3 hrs of excersise to get the feeling back in my leg, just so i could walk as i live on my own. im only 50 and dont relish the thought of being like this untill i have a heart attack , get cancer or worse die . didnt take my tablet this morning so far im in pain my jaw sore, but hopefully this will go away so i can get on with my life.

It's been almost 3 months now since my last dose of Actonel. I was taking the 150MG pill once a month. Both my shoulders still have severe muscle/joint pain. I was on the drug for 8 months before that and stopped in May of 2009.

Has anyone experienced the same as effects as me? I would like to hear from someone that has stopped the drug but still experiencing joint pain. Or better yet! how long after going off the drug did the pain go away?
thanks, Dennis

I have Osteoporosis and have been on Actonel for 11 years. The first five didn't bother me. THen I started having 7 or 8 spontaneous stress fractures in my legs. I had bloating, trouble swallowing, loss of hair, sores on lips and tongue, rash, pain in joints and pain in bones. I have been off Actonel now for 3 months. What I did not know and the Dr. kept prescribing it all this time, is that Actonel only puts a shield around the bones and does not allow the new oceteoclasts to form inside the bones. Any twisting motion can cause a spontaneous fracture. I was laid up 5 months this last time and finally my Doctor told me. I am off all RX take calcium and Vit D and multi vitamin. I am scared of another break in legs, but the Actonel obviously did not prevent the fractures. So it did a lot more harm than good.

After one week of taking actonel I got the halos associated with migraines. I continued taking the drug for 2 months and the frequency increased from one per week, to two, to two per day. I have stopped taking Actonel and have had no such occurrences since. Has anyone else out there experienced this kind of vision problem. When I contacted Actonel they stated they had no such reports.

took weekly actonel over two weeks ,ended up at out o hours doctor thought i was having a stroke ,stopped taking pills but not befor they had a grip of my stomach, bowels , bladder and bone in my body aches,been off pills about 8wks now and i now have sore jaw and gum bleeding, sore teeth, but my doctor says actonel out of my system , i would say other wise. any 1 out there with anything simular ? or an idea how long this stays in your body. please read up on these pills before you take them.

hi jeannie, yes iv had same thing but i got them when i stopped pills , actonel seems to havr triggered of a domino effect on me ,my eyes got that bad i had to stop driving for 2 wks. got appointment to have my eyes checked so will know more then .and yes i agree i think actonel to blame.

diane 02 wrote:

took weekly actonel over two weeks ,ended up at out o hours doctor thought i was having a stroke ,stopped taking pills but not befor they had a grip of my stomach, bowels , bladder and bone in my body aches,been off pills about 8wks now and i now have sore jaw and gum bleeding, sore teeth, but my doctor says actonel out of my system , i would say other wise. any 1 out there with anything simular ? or an idea how long this stays in your body. please read up on these pills before you take them.

Yes! I have a somewhat similar story. I took Actonel for 8 months and developed severe joint pains in my shoulders. I Stopped taking the drug in May 09. It's now Sept. 30th and I'm finally starting to feel the some of pain subside. I'm probably at about 60% recovered. I complained to my doctor on several occasions but he didn't think the pain and Actonel were related. I'm also doing stretch exercises to get my shoulder muscles back in shape. I'll never take this drug or any other like Fosamax, Boniva etc.......If you read some of the comments of this drug at "ask a patient" .com you'll be amazed.

Surryia wrote:

I have been taking Actonel for two years. In October last year I thought I had laryngitis. I was given antibiotics twice in November and then in December. It didn't cure instead I started feeling lump/ball in my throat. This feeling is still there. I went for private consultancy. They put a camera in my throat. i told my GP and the ENT consultant that I'm on Actonal 35mg. but they didn't pay any attention. i was told Its stress and I need to have speech thrappy as I started having difficulty in speaking.Now I have developed pain in my throat. I was told by consultant I should take any homeopathic its good for throat( Consultant). Now I'm 100% sure its Actonel and I have stopped it yesterday and now want to see the GP to do further tests bout the damage been done.I'm a teacher. I'm in continous pain now. My neck glands feel like inflammed. Is there any doctor in the forum who can suggest me any self help.

Dear Alicia:

I am so sorry to hear of your mother's misfortune but want to share my story about Actonel. I have been on Actonel for about five or six years. Last November 2008, I started having difficulty swallowing and felt a painful discomfort when food travel midway down the esophagus. It felt like I was having a heart attack. Because it was so painful I was afraid to eat anything and lost about seven pounds within a two week time frame. In January 2009, I went to the emergency room at 3 am in the morning because of an allergic reaction to pencillin and it also felt like I was having a heart attack. The ER immediately did an EKG and thank God the test was normal. The ER wanted to admit me over night in the hospital but I refused but they made me promise to get a stress test and I did. The stress came out normal. In the interim, I was still having difficulty swallowing and eating. Since that time, I have had two endoscopies of the esophagus, an ultrasound of the esophagus, and ultrasound of the liver and the spleen and a colonscopy. After all this testing, the doctors told me they do not know what is causing all of my problems but did vertify that I have acid reflux disease and esophageal varices (veins in the esophagus swollen)and three different sets of blood work. I have been placed on Aciphex to help control the acid reflux but it offers very little relief. Each time I went to see these specialists, they requested a copy of all medications which list my Actonel 150 mg a month (I use to take 35 mg a week) but yet not one of them mentioned the devastating side effects of Actonel. Not even one mentioned it! Other side effects I am experiencing are extreme lost of hair and a rash on different parts of the body, extreme and painful aches in my bones. After reading the many comments on this website about the side effects of Actonel and I now know for sure this is the culprit of my problems. I promise you I will never take this medication again and I pray that they put your mother's stomach and esophagus cancer in remission.