Allegra Caused Me 30 Days of Misery - Here's Why

Allegra is all over TV and radio these days. "Get relief from your seasonal allergies" - sounds promising right? Sure it does, as long as you don't have the horrible side effects I had. Here's my story...

It was August 2007. I have bad hay fever symptoms and was looking for a safe and effective solution to provide some relief from my symptoms for the next (hopefully not so miserable) season. I eventually came upon an online prescription website with what seemed to be very reasonable prices on medication named Allegra. The benefits sounded great. The side effects, not so much, but like everyone else I figured I'd never experience any of them. So I went ahead and purchased a 60 day supply to give it a whirl. I received the pills about 2 days later in unmarked packaging. Now the fun begins.

I normally try to avoid prescription medications like the plague. But my seasonal allergies made me so miserable, I was willing to try anything. I immediately took my first pill and didn't notice any change for about 2 days. At that time I started experiencing drowsiness and a backache. I didn't think anything of it at first, figured it was just your average every day aches and pains, which usually go away on their own. I was very wrong in that assumption! After 5 days total of taking the medication, those symptoms continued and even worsened to a point where I was having to take pain medication to function normally. Keep in mind I had not been informed about the Allegra side effects, so it didn't cross my mind that this medication might be causing them. So I continued taking the medication.

Into my 14th day on Allegra, I was not only having the original side effects, but now some additional ones as well. My ears were starting to have severe pain and I was beginning to experience symptoms of insomnia, which for me was very strange. At this point I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was becoming very miserable and didn't know why. I was experiencing relentless and severe ear pain, insomnia, drowsiness, backache and headache. It was getting to a point where my quality of life was next to nil. My work suffered severely and so did my social life, not to mention my mental health at the time. I was 100% miserable!

This went on for another 2 weeks, for a total of 1 month of what I like to call "hell on earth". I finally made an appointment with my Dr. to try and figure out what was going on. I know what you're thinking, why wait so long? Well if you knew me, you'd know why. I basically have to be on my death bed before I drag myself into the Dr's office willingly. But that is exactly how it felt, so I finally made the appointment.

My Dr. was perplexed at first as well. But eventually told me that I should try getting off of the Allegra to see if that had any effect on the symptoms. So I immediately stopped taking the medication, and sure enough the symptoms started to recede immediately. About a week later I started sleeping more at night, and my various severe pains had vastly improved. After 2 weeks free of Allerga, I was feeling about 95% back to my old self again. I was absolutely ecstatic that all I had to do was stop taking Allegra to cure the problem! I had no idea one allergy medication could make me feel so miserable.

My advice: Make SURE you know the possible side effects of any medication you plan on taking. I know this seems like a no brainer, but you need to be 100% informed before taking any prescription medication, so you don't spend 30 days in hell like I did. And don't be an idiot like I was, go to your Dr. to obtain the medication, don't go and order it online without being informed first.

I still have seasonal allergies, but am I going to try another allergy medication to help with the symptoms? No way! On another note, I have a 30 day supply of a great seasonal allergy medication at half the retail price. Any takers? No? I didn't think so.