Folks, I apologize for not staying on top of this. That’s all I can say. I have just found out how to operate Word Press (or I’m learning) and I didn’t realize i had all these pending comments that required my approval! I wasn’t ignoring you kind people who posted comments… I just didn’t realize I had them pending in the first place! And, I lost my site I.D. because I’ve been through 2 hard drive crashes in 5 months… but that’s just whining at this point.
Until next time, peace, and happy holidays. Keep those posts coming in …. let me know how you all are! –BPW
I started Chantix on 8/29/07. On 9/4/07 I woke with every muscle and joint in my body hurting. I could barely walk. I had recently started exercising and just thought I over did it, but when it did not go away I started thinking it was the drug.
I started researching and found there were many more like me. It felt good not to be alone.
I stopped Chantix on 9/16/07 and I did quit smoking. I went to my doctor, who did believe me, but did not know what to treat me for. All my blood work was good. He finally sent me to the Mayo Clinic in FL. where I saw a rheumatologist and a neurologist.
Many tests were performed and I was told they were all normal. I got diagnosed with… you guessed it, FIBROMYALGIA. I say bulls..t! I was given Lyrica, also I found out a nasty drug by Pfizer, which did not help and I am off that now. My feet and knees burn like hell. My knees feel like they will break when I sit or get up from sitting. I have limited use of my left arm because of shoulder pain. My hands hurt horribly and I can barely open anything. My fingers will not close all the way to grasp something, too much pain. My neck is like the worst crick you can imagine. All this, by the way, is 24/7.
My vision is much worse. My gums bleed. The left side of my face goes numb. It is hard sometimes to finish sentences as I forget what things are called. I get startled VERY easily. Other than smoking, before Chantix, I was a healthy, active, not overweight 52 year old female. Now I move like a 90 year old woman. I want my life back!! I would gladly take my chances at a death from ciggarettes rather than live like I am now, if you can call it that.
Please do NOT take this drug. All these things I have mentioned are listed as Chantix side effects and it seems they will never go away. I never had a reaction to a drug before.
This drug should be removed from the market immediately but I am afraid many more will have to die before that happens. There have been many suicides so far. A good site to hear more stories is www.whyquit.com.
My experience with Chantix was just like everyone else’s… it was strange, I wasn’t myself.
There’s one thing about my time on Chantix that really bothers me. It was my aggressive attitudes toward sex. In probably six months of taking Chantix or coming off of it I never had satisfying sex. Not ever. But, I was desperate to feel good and I tried a lot of ways. The low point was when I picked up a guy in an airport. We didn’t “go all the way” but did fool around under a blanket on the plane and that was something I would have never done before. I have never wanted to do anything like that since. I had that attitude considerably often after I started taking Chantix… “just do it” and whatever “it” was seemed like a good idea at the time. I have been off Chantix for several months and I don’t take those kinds of risks anymore, fortunately.
My husband Thomas was ready to quit smoking. Lots of people were telling him how Chantix was so great so he went to the doctor and got prescribed the starter pack for Chantix. No warnings were given by the doctor. We read the common side effects and it didnt sound so bad. He took it three weeks and felt so sick at his stomach that he did succeed in kicking his smoking habit.
I watched my husband fall apart after he stopped the Chantix but had no idea Chantix was causing his problems. In two weeks he nearly lost his vision, lost wieght, stopped eating and drinking foods he used to like, had bleeding gums, had a bad taste in the mouth, fatigue, and was urinating frequently. My husband does not like doctors and he didnt have to like them because he was never sick so now that he was sick it was up to me to get him to the doctor as soon as I could.
I tried and begged to him everyday to go to the doctor. I researched on the computer and found that he might have diabetes. I wasnt sure because I am no doctor but I had to figure out somehow what was wrong with my husband. His vision got so bad that he was nearly blind. He gave in and finally went to the ER.
He was admitted right away after he told them his wife said he may have diabetes and they checked his sugar and it was 890. They gave him insulin right away and it went down to 150 quickly. He was in the hospital 5 days and doctors and nurses seemed puzzled by his condition. He didnt fit the diabetes profile. He is a healthy wieght. They diagnosed him with Type 2 diabetes but we felt they were wrong and they were.
I felt he had Chantix diabetes. I still believe that. He went to his follow up doctor appointment and his doctor said he had Type 3 diabetes or LADA which was a shock to us because we never heard of that in our lives! She told us he was triple positive for Type 3 diabetes which is a rare form of diabetes. I asked her about Chantix and and she said that Chantix could have caused my husbands condition and that she would do more tests. I would put a life bet on it that Chantix caused my husband to be sick. Some scientists are saying Type 3 diabetes is Alzhiemers disease. My husband is 34. We have small children. Our lives have changed. Chantix has ruined my husbands health. I have no idea how to prove Chantix caused this but I believe in God and I know my husband was healthy before taking Chantix. My nieghbor is really sick. His body is swelling up like a balloon. Doctors cant do anything else for him. He took Chantix. My husbands co worker has a heart condition. He took Chantix. Do I believe Chantix caused these problems..yes I do! Until Chantix is banned I will tell as many people as I can to SAVE lives!
Due to breathing issues, I needed to quit smoking, my doctor recommended chantix saying only that it really works to remove the desire to smoke. Having no problems with my doctor or his recommendations I took the prescription and filled it.
I read the patient information, which warned of nausea, vomiting, gas, constipation and vivid dreams. Glanced at the other insert with the tiny writing and saw it was for the doctor so I quit straining to read and understand it and took the pills as directed.
Things were going good at first. I was trying to deal with the severity of the nausea, gas and constipation until it just got too bad. I thought of calling the doctor but read at the Pfizer site where a lower dosage might help relieve the side effects. Out with the pill cutter and things got bearable and I continued taking chantix. With the reduced dosage, my personality started to change as I became more agitated with the little things bugging me more. My spouse noticed it and so did my family but I was not smoking so we all ignored the little things. We all contributed it to quitting smoking.
After 4 months of not smoking and little improvement in my breathing issues, I went back to the doctor. I told the doctor of my breathing issues and nervousness. I left the doctor’s office with prescriptions for valium, an albuterol inhaler and told to quarter the pills. Over the next week, I became more nervous, could not sleep and had nightmares when I did. The morning after I started my menstrual cycle I woke up at 6 am in a panic, living my nightmare. Then I did some weird stuff and became very paranoid. We ended up going out and buying some cigarettes. Smoking did not help me! The next morning I woke up at the same time in a different nightmare. That evening a friend came over and right before they entered the door, I took a puff off the inhaler. I told my friend and husband I was feeling funny.
We started talking about what had happened the last two mornings. I had no idea of the passage of time as it had no relevance. I lost my ability to speak and lost consciousness even though I was sitting up.
My friend left in tears recommending my husband call the rescue squad. No one had ever seen me acting this way before or since.
When my mind returned to my body, I asked my husband what day it was and then what year it was. He told me and then asked if I remembered the last two days. I said I did not and he convinced me to go to bed to sleep.
I woke up a few hours later and wanted to go have my blood tested because I knew there was something wrong and thought I was having a drug reaction. I did not know I had taken a drug that would make me react this way but I had CHANTIX!
I ended up lead away from the hospital in handcuffs to a behavioral healthcare unit wondering what had happened to turn my life around so fast.
In about four short months, my stable personal life and profession turned upside down. I went from a smoker with shortness of breath on excursion to unable to care for myself. My husband, family and friends all wanted me back but not more than I did. It has been a long hard road from then until now.
The more I learn about chantix (varenicline) modeled after morphine and cytisine, the more I know it is a poison. My husband and I have both quit smoking this time cold turkey. There are still some lingering chantix effects. Please read and consider if you want to chance chantix for you could be playing Russian roulette with your brain or poisoning your body with something deadlier then tobacco. Little was known or believed about chantix when this happened to me but post marketing is showing the truth. Good luck quitting smoking but my advice is there are safer ways that do not leave you deaf, blind or speechless!
I believe that my husband’s suicide is linked to Chantix. He took Chantix August-October of 2007. He was never the same person after that.
He always talked about how he felt the urge to drink alcohol while on the Chantix. This sudden alcoholism continued after stopping the Chantix, along with extreme anxiety, agitation and depression. It seemed these problems just fed off of each other, making each worse and worse.
His doctor started him on a couple anxiety meds to try to help him cope. He ended up being hospitalized overnight in a mental health facility a couple days before Christmas 2007 due to a suicide attempt. After standing in our backyard with a gun to his head, he could not calm down and ended up taking too much medication trying to calm down himself down.(About 10-12mg of clonazepam and 100-120mg of flexeril) After one night at that facility, they released him, attributing it to alcohol.
In the next six months, things got even worse. He had to quit a good job as a semi/delivery driver due to the alcohol problem.
There were many nights I would sit with him with a gun to his head and have to convince him to give me the gun. He always tried to explain to me the overwhelming anxiety he would have, how he felt like he was “crawling out of his skin”, and how alcohol was the only thing that worked to relieve it somewhat, at least temporarily.
He would always ask me what happened to him, and why he had turned into this person, and why couldn’t he just go back to who he had been before he took the Chantix. I knew him for 11 years and this was such a sudden, drastic change in him.
He did try to get help, his PCP diagnosed him with bipolar and we tried a few different meds, but nothing helped. I never really agreed with that diagnosis, it just seemed like too much of a coincidence that it all started with the Chantix, and he would have such rapid mood swings. He would be fine one minute, then suicidal walking around with a gun, then fine again a few hours later.
I just never knew when he would “snap”, and he could control it in front of our friends and family for the most part. He ultimately took his own life on June 14, 2008, five days after out 1st wedding anniversary. He was 29 years old.
In my profession as a pharmacist, I have spoken with many people who have struggled with horrible side effects from this medication. I make sure to warn every patient of these potential awful effects. There is even a separate med guide now that must be given out with each Chantix prescription, warning about the potential for suicide, anxiety, agitation, etc.
In my opinion, I don’t recommend anyone take this medication. It’s not worth the risk. I know firsthand, I lost my husband and best friend forever.
I quit smoking using Chantix. But, if I had to go through it all again? I’d still be a smoker. In my opinion, the side effects of Chantix are far worse than cigarettes.
If you’re considering taking such a controversial drug, at least read about those of us who are allegedly the “rare” cases. Pfizer is paying big money to put a positive spin on this medication. There is no advertising on my site, I pay for it myself to educate people about the dangers of Chantix/Champix.
Have a Chantix/Champix story to share? Mail it to me at info@chantixsucks.com
