Generic Name: penicillamine
Brand Name: Cuprimine oral
This medication was used in 1975 as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. I failed on gold salt shots and this was the next medication to try. It caused total kidney failure and I was hospitalized. I was told there was nothing they could do and sent me home. I was told my kidneys would regenerate on my own, or I will die. After a week or so of being miserable, and gaining weight from water retention(could not urinate)I finally got the urge to pee. And pee I did for almost an hour. It was clear not yellow. 45 minutes later another long urination. My kidneys recovered and IK've had no problems since.
Been on this med since 1966 for Wilsonâ??s disease. This medicine saved my life or I wouldnâ??t be here today to comment on this period. I was beyond almost gone when this medicine was still in the experimental stage .. But Iâ??m here today to write about it... thank God!!!
Was tough to get started on. Major nausea. But now my kidney stones are forming much more slowly.
My only complaint with cuprimine is the pricing. I am on Medicare and the cost for a prescription of 60 pills has gone up three hundred dollars since the first of this year. The drug works well for me but I feel totally ripped off to be so dependent on it. I have been taking cuprimine since 1974.
I took this for 30+ years for Wilson's Disease. It has ruined my skin, my teeth and my life. I have crack like sores all over the excess "folds" of loose skin due to this drug confusing my body into excreting collagen through these crack like sores thinking it is a toxin. In fact, I had a dermatologist tell me it was IMPERATIVE I get off the drug because as it was shriveling and wrinkling my skin, it is also doing the same thing to my internal organs!! I beg you, if you have WD, take something else, like Zinc!! Spare yourself a life without shorts and short sleeved shirts due to crack like looking sores all over plus disguisting, wrinkly, shriveled up snake like skin!! If I knew then what I know now, I would have been on Zinc for 30 years instead!! Way too toxic a drug when there are better, less toxic options!! The less exposed skin society sees of me, the better off they are as a whole!! Thank you for reading!!
Have been taking cuprimine for 38 years for cystinuria, starting at a very young age. Very infrequently changing the dose. In the past, I was on a larger dose and it was ultimately blamed for development of temporary nerve damage(numbness in feet/hands). To avoid the high dose, therapy is currently augmented with captopril in addition to the cuprimine. Effectiveness? Well, I have had many kidney stones removed in various different procedures, in childhood and adulthood. But there was time without it, and it was clear the stones formed MUCH faster then.
I have used it mostly on flare ups and it has worked well for me.
