Something helpful for beginners:)

[avee]

http://www.agingeye.net/dryeyes/overview.php
I found this mucin secretagogues thing new for myself. Exactly sth that I would need

[Guest]

I just started pilocarpine today... I was scared to take the first one because I was worried they'd make me a sweaty, drooling, nauseated mess... but so far, so good.

Soooo.... I figure I'll slowly taper up the dose over the next few weeks until I'm taking it 3-4 times daily, and then, well, we'll see what happens!

I took one 5mg tablet after supper... I could feel the effects within 30 minutes:
-my mouth started watering like mad (kind of grossed me out... was a bit too much... so I started to chew some gum to get rid of the saliva taste in my mouth (I know that sounds weird, but seriously, too much saliva has a gross taste) - fortunately, within an hour, the crazy watery mouth calmed down a lot
-my nose started running a bit... no big deal though as it wasn't enough to cause any real annoyance
-my eyes actually started to water a bit... now on this point, I'm thinking it's too good to be true, so I'm not going to get too excited... but if it really was due to the pilocarpine, then I would think it's a good sign of things to come if I am able to tolerate taking the pilocarpine on a daily basis

It's now been 5.5 hrs since I took it, and I think it's mostly wearing off... I still notice my mouth feeling a bit wetter than usual, but that's it.

Hmmm.... I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to be able to actually tolerate taking this med AND have it work for my eyes... time will tell I guess!

[calli66]

Wow, that's impressive. I tried Pilocarpine and it did absolutely nothing. I was all nervous about taking it, and nothing changed; couldn't feel a thing.

Sounds like it is working for you---good!

C

[spmcc]

Re: pilocarpine

I flush almost instantly after I've taken 5mg of salagen/pilocarpine (not good for my rosacea!).

Then I get the hiccups!

I find the pills also cause me tummy problems *sigh*. So I always take them with a big meal to buffer.

FYI Even though the pills aren't scored, you could try half a pill and work up to a whole.

[tearless2]

Thanks for this interesting topic. Please keep posting on how the pilocarpine is working out, I am very interested in trying this for myself.

I was wondering what type of Dr. prescribed it for you. Optometrist, primary care physician, opthamologist? Does anyone know if optometrists can prescribe this?

Thanks!

[Guest]

I was wondering what type of Dr. prescribed it for you.

My corneal specialist prescribed it for me. I assume most people don't tolerate pilocarpine well, because when he wrote the rx, his advice was to just fill maybe 7 tabs or so just to see if I can tolerate them.

Anyhow, maybe I'll be one of the lucky ones after all! I took a total of 2 tablets yesterday (1 at 11:30 am, and another at 6:30 pm) and had no problems. YAY!

The crazy salivation like I had the first time has not repeated itself luckily! (Maybe it was the combo of the pilocarpine making my mouth water AND having that steaming bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup right under my nose doing it too that was too much lol)

Today I took one at 10am so far... I plan on taking another one at about 3pm... then another at about 8pm for a total of 3 tabs today.

Anyhow, yesterday it still made my eyes more moist... and same thing today. As for the salivation, it's leveled out to just a nice amount (my mouth tends to be on the dry side, so a bit of extra moisture in there is kind of nice!)

I'm starting to feel rather optimistic about this now... From what I hear, it can take up to 12 weeks for it to start kicking in... yet I'm feeling positive effects right now! So maybe it will work better and better for me as time goes on... Hopefully I continue to tolerate it well!

I was originally thinking I'd taper up the dose much more slowly, but I'm doing so well on it, that I guess I won't have to increase it over such a long period after all! Yippee!

I sure hope I didn't just jinx it by saying all this good stuff!

[Guest]

I flush almost instantly after I've taken 5mg of salagen/pilocarpine (not good for my rosacea!).

Then I get the hiccups!

I find the pills also cause me tummy problems *sigh*. So I always take them with a big meal to buffer.

FYI Even though the pills aren't scored, you could try half a pill and work up to a whole.

What a bummer that they cause you problems with side effects. It's a good thing the big meal helps somewhat with that!

I think cutting them in half to begin with is a great idea for anyone who has trouble with side effects when they start... might be easier for some people's bodies to get used to them on a smaller dose.