Levocetirizine dihydrochloride (Xyzal)

[erin]

Has anybody used this medicine? Or any other allergy medicine for ME?

I've been having insistent dull pain on my left flank for about 6 months. It's now bothering me full time. So, I went to an internist last Thursday. He examined me and felt that my intestines were very hard. I thought he was going to do a scan. But he said I need a colonoscopy which I already booked it for next month.

I also mentioned all my allergic skin and GI problems, he had prescribed me Xyzal. This is my third day on it, the itch is lessened about 50% and the flank pain is less noticeable, but made me more fatigued than my usual ME fatigue. I slept more than 10 hours past two nights.

The dr does not know ME and I've not mentioned it. I mentioned all my problems as separate symptoms and he said, he thought they are all related and possibly an auto immune problem causing allergies. He also prescribed a medicine for cramping and gas and a probiotic capsules.

I've not used them yet, he said use them when in need. I'm not too bad for gas and bloating at the moment.

Has anyone else use Xyzal? It kind of made me calmer and more normalish. It also surprisingly eased the pain and puffiness of my right ankle and gave me appetite. Any thoughts?

 

[adambeyoncelowe]

I've got cetirizine, which is essentially the same thing. I take it before bed to stop nocturia but it can make me groggy in the morning. I try to mix it up a bit, so I don't take it every night.

 

[TiredSam]

I used to take cetirizine for allergies before I got ME. It makes you tired, so I was told to take it just before I went to bed. Since having ME I've had to stop taking cetirizine, on top of ME it just wiped me out.

 

[adambeyoncelowe]

I take everything sleep-related at 8pm. That way, I can wake up at 8am ish without feeling too bad. Melatonin is my favourite, but I feel I need an anti-histamine or I have nocturia and IBS-D (AHs seem to dry me out enough to prevent these somewhat). However, some nights I'm a zombie by 9pm and still feel groggy in the morning, so obviously it's not perfect.

I think diphenhydramine hydrochloride is supposed to only work for four hours, so you can try that instead? It's the active ingredient in the non-herbal, one-a-night Nytol (though generics are dirt cheap in comparison). Usually I wake up after a few hours, so it's not my first choice, but your sleep may be better.

 

[erin]

I sleep so much regardless medicines. My sleep is not so refreshing in general. I felt more refreshed after taking Xyzal. But it's only been 3 days I take this medicine. After taking it I feel very drowsy within 15 minutes. I'll try to finish the course if there are no other problems with it. Then I'll think about what to do. Thank you for sharing your experiences with antihistamines.

 

[Allele]

Erin, we are all different but my experience with cetirizine and related antihistamines is that over time they stop making me super-sleepy.
One way to achieve this is to titrate from a much smaller dose and work your way up to your optimal dose.(If you have pills rather than capsules, they're obviously easier to split.)

Titrating has been so helpful for me in avoiding or overcoming side effects. I wish more doctors were in the know about this, as it is also crucial when going off long-term meds that the body has gotten used to.

I do find that histamine blockers are useful for those of us who clearly have mast cell mayhem going on.

 

[erin]

@Allele, thank you so much for this reply.

Very good idea to reduce the dose in the beginning. I took my dose just 5 minutes ago. I can halve the pill tomorrow. They are tiny but have a dent in the middle, obviously for halving them. I can not quarter them as the pills are so small.

Half a pill might help with the drowsiness. I agree with you, I find the histamine blockers useful. I use them probably first time for rash. I've never been on them as an ongoing treatment before.

 

[Invisible Woman]

I use cetirizine and have done for years. Bizarrely, it doesn't make me drowsy. Having said that, I am weird - apart from melatonin stuff that is supposed to make a person drowsy tends to keep me awake.

I also use a nasal spray and occasionally have to top up with piriton when that just isn't enough.

Like @Allele 's idea of titration. When trying anything new I find it's always worth following the start low and go slow rule of thumb.

 

[erin]

I've been using Xyzal, half a pill every night since March. I was feeling not too bad since trying bitter gourd for my GI problems and stopped Xyzal for few weeks. This was a mistake, I was OK for a week but all my problems started to come back. So back to Xyzal, half a day. Now half a pill makes me zombie - like.