About a year, maybe two years ago, my mother made a statement about Lamisil while we were out shopping. She said “whatever you do don’t take Lamisil.” She said this because one of the students where she worked developed a kidney problem as a result of using this medication. For whatever reason the conversation we had popped up in my mind and I had to do some research.

I had a problem with athlete’s foot back in high school when I ran track. No OTC treatments seemed to work for me and finally I sought help from my doctor who gave me a prescription cream that worked. I honestly do not remember what was prescribed, it could have been a prescription cream for Lamisil, I don’t know. Fortunately, I had no problems with athlete’s foot again until 2004.

During the summer of 2004, I cut and watered grass wearing a pair of thin, airy running shoes. I thought then no harm, no foul and did not see a need to change the shoes in spite of them being soaked through and through when I finished working in the yard. Well, I was wrong, I developed a horrible case of athlete’s foot and again, tried every OTC cream I could find to rid myself of the problem.

Eventually, what worked was this little tube of Lamisil. I never thought about it again until my mother mentioned what happened to the student and at the time I didn’t remember if Lamisil was the cream I used.

Sadly, last night while cleaning out my medicine drawer I found the old tube of Lamisil and was shocked to see I had used so much of the stuff. Horror fell over me when I found another partially used tube of Lamisil. I must have misplaced the first tube and purchased another as back up. Oh my God, I thought, could this be the cause of all of my problems?

Since I couldn’t get it off my mind last night, to the point of not being able to sleep, I got up and searched the Internet for Lamisil and discovered something horrible:

There have been rare cases of Lamisil causing liver failure. Some of these people required a liver transplantation or died as a result. This is more likely to happen in people with existing liver disease. Your healthcare provider should check your liver function (using blood tests) before you start using Lamisil. Also, you should tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any possible symptoms of liver problems, including

o Yellow eyes or skin
o Dark urine
o Vomiting
o Itching
o Pain in the upper-right abdomen.

Lamisil can cause life-threatening skin rashes (known medically as Stevens-Johnson syndrome). Call your healthcare provider right away if you experience an unexplained rash that does not go away, especially if the rash involves blisters or peeling of the skin. Also let your healthcare provider if you have other signs of an allergic reaction, including itching, wheezing, or difficulty breathing or swallowing.

Lamisil has not been studied in patients with poorly functioning kidneys. Therefore, if you have kidney problems, discuss this with your healthcare provider before starting Lamisil.

There have been reports of Lamisil causing lupus or making it worse. Lupus is a condition involving skin rashes (typically a “butterfly” rash on the face) and other serious problems. If you develop symptoms of lupus, or if your lupus gets worse, while taking Lamisil, you should stop taking the medication and call your healthcare provider.

It gets worse folks. Bottom line, this stuff will — as the kids would say — seriously mess you up. What is not stated in the above article is whether the cream or tablets cause these problems. It did make me wonder if the OTC cream caused my problems.

My Experience

I started having health problems in the fall of 2004. I developed a horrible rash with a herald spot shortly after Thanksgiving that was itchy and very uncomfortable. Afterwards, my health seemed to deteriorate for no apparent reason. I went to my drug pimping doctor — my mistake for not checking him out sooner, before I needed him — and of course, he was useless. I had to demand a blood test from this so-called doctor and when the results came in, though he was not concerned the results were disconcerting to me. This idiot of a doctor told me I had arthritis, did not examine my rashes — which were now plentiful — and could not explain the low albumin, proteinuria, high cholesterol — except to say I needed Lipitor — or my low red and high white blood counts. These were just a few of the more disturbing numbers I saw on my CBC, there was more and they were equally disturbing.

The idiot then told me, when pressed, he could not give me a referral — money out of his pocket I’m sure — for a pelvic exam or further tests to see what was going on in my body. I hit the ceiling and when I did he kowtowed and said he would do it. It made me sick to learn I had to scream in order to get something done but that’s what happened. Unfortunately, it took two weeks before the idiot got on the referral and that was done only after I called his office about ten times. Finally, I decided to hell with this, I’m changing doctors.

I did have another visit with Dr. Idiot and that’s when he had to know what I did for a living. You see, Dr. Idiot thought I was just another Black/Hispanic face that lived in the hood, probably at the housing project across the way, and as far as he was concerned I could be manipulated to fill his pockets with his ready-to-write prescription pad . When I told him where I worked, he became visibly disturbed and only then was he ready to do any and all tests I wanted but by that time it was too late as I was then in the process of changing doctors. All I wanted from this poor excuse for a doctor was for him to do what he did best, write a prescription for a cream that would soothe the now numerous rashes that were appearing everywhere and he refused. He now wanted to write a referral for me to see a dermatologist.

He did prescribe an antibiotic because, after looking at my blood test again — yes, finally looked at it — he said I had an infection and wrote a prescription for an antibiotic. I filled the prescription and that was the last I saw of Dr. Idiot. Unfortunately, while taking the antibiotic I noticed bubbles in my urine and that sent me immediately to urgent care where the next long saga, with new doctors this time, began.

Now, I was beginning to swell. Urine output was decreasing and the young doctors I saw both in emergency and at urgent care were of no help. I started documenting the poor or inadequate treatment as they were doing what is often called the definition for insanity, trying the same thing every time hoping for a different outcome. They first prescribed Lasix orally. Nothing. Then they increased the dosage to 80 mg as needed. Still nothing. They added another prescription to be taken by mouth 30 minutes prior to the Lasix. Nothing. They then began injecting me with diuretics. Nothing. They increased the dosage of the injection and still, nothing.

Finally, having had enough, I threaten a lawsuit and asked if I was better off that day than I was when I first entered their offices. Since they were taking blood at every visit, they should be able to tell me whether I was improving or not. The one doctor walked away, checked my records and returned to apologize and tell me I was worse off, my creatinine was off the charts and my kidneys were failing.

I was finally hospitalized with a blood pressure of 200 plus over 117, and I’m assuming after showing the doctor in urgent care my documentation from every visit and using words like standard of care and detrimental reliance caused them to do every test in the book. This is why tort reform for me is a non-issue. We need to be able to sue, otherwise, we die.

Death was certainly floating close to the surface of my life at that time. I could have died that weekend from a stroke, heart attack or kidney failure. I could have easily become a vegetable too and would have become yet another statistic. The only incentive they had — in my opinion — was ensuring payment by my insurance company. There were no real incentives to make me well or seek out the problem. Fee for service, fee for service, fee for service and if I had died, oh well and that’s too bad.

I will also note it was equally helpful having a MS RN by my side in the form of my mother who was equally horrified by what she saw. When they discovered she was an MS RN, not a certificated RN — an assumption easily made of minorities — the certificated RN was removed from my room and a degreed RN was brought in.

In their defense — and I’m not saying it’s a good defense — the good doctors were probably biding their time waiting for my referral to go through for a specialist and the appointment with my GP. Unfortunately, the appointments for both the nephrologist and my GP were weeks away. I couldn’t even schedule an emergency appointment with these folks. In the meantime, if I had died, oh well.

After all was said and done, the hospitalization, the battery of tests, and being asked repeatedly “has anyone ever told you you have lupus?” I was finally diagnosed with lupus. My question now is could it have been the Lamisil?

According to the source of the above quote, Lamisil can either cause lupus or make it worse. I might have had lupus all of my life, I don’t know because no one ever tested me to find out. Doctors always treated my symptoms but never tested to see if my immune system was in good shape. What I do know is all of my weird symptoms came after my using Lamisil and though I’ve had weird things happen in the past, I never had rashes like what I saw in 2004. Not before or since.

About Lamisil

I am a little shocked about reading all of the side effects associated with Lamisil, particularly as it relates to either causing Lupus or making lupus worse. However, much of my research on drug-induced lupus says that once the medication is removed, the person’s system returns to normal. If this is true, I cannot call it my smoking gun because I was not diagnosed with lupus prior to 2005, can’t say definitively I had lupus prior to my diagnosis in 2005, and as such, cannot say Lamisil made my lupus symptoms worse. I can speculate, but I cannot say definitively this is what happened.

Second, most of the literature I’ve read does not state whether the side-effects from Lamisil are caused from the use of prescription tablets, creams or the OTC creams. I don’t know and it’s unclear. I’ll tell you this, since I don’t know I’m staying away from anything Lamisil. If I should need it again, I will use something else.

As a friend of mine once said many years ago, it is important we become our own HMOs. If you don’t have a PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference) handy, pick up a few books on pharmaceuticals which include over the counter medications as well. Search WebMD and other good sources for detailed information on the medications prescribed to you. Never take anything without first asking your doctor about the side-effects and then, if you take the medication, talk with your doctor about what you’re experiencing. If you should experience any of the side-effects listed, call your doctor immediately. I can’t say that enough.

Most importantly, become proactive in your care. To use an old cliche, the life you save may be your own.