OfflineHi ya folks,
I am back... I took a drug horror ride. I was put on Methadone and Cymbalta. I started off with only 30mgs. really bad side effects. Pain doctor thought that if we upped the dose to 60mgs a day it would take some of the side effects away. I was sleeping 18-20hrs a day. Never left my house. Thought about killing myself all the time. Drank 4 pots of coffee a day. Smoked 2-3 packs of cigs a day. Didn't take showers 4-5 days at a time. My wife would tell me. Michael you haven't taken a bath in 4 days. I would ask... Is the sun shinning? Is it raining? because I had no desire to leave the basement. Hot flashes that would soak my clothes, dizzyness, throwing up all the time. The brain zaps... how to describe them... hmmm it's like possibly a computer being reset quickly. your just jolted for a few seconds. I am still taken back by the thoughts of killing myself all the time. Nightmares all the time. I started passing out from this drug and that was a good thing because all this time my wife was beggin me to go back to the doctor... but of course I always refused. During a doctor vist... I passed out which started me gaining my life back. They put me in the hospital and checked me out really good. thought it could be my heart. At that point, I refused to take anymore of this drug Cymbalta. They told me that I couldn't come off it cold turkey because of the side effects.. I told them. "I'm in the hospital.. so if something happens fix it" You put me on this drug.. It's was really bad folks.. to say the least. I am on day 15 without Cymbalta and still have some side effects. But guess what.. I am alive again. My pain level is rockin in the 7-8 range but I don't think about killing myself. I take showers everyday, I go outside all the time. I drink maybe a cup coffee. I cut my smokes down to maybe a half pack a day. I have gotten my life back. Now update on my condition. My spinal cord stimulator is working ok for me. I was told two years ago when I was damaged during the operation of what would be happening over the coarse of time because of the nerve injury. I am losing the use of my left leg more and more. the pain is coming stronger and stronger where the stimulator and drugs are not controlling it enough to have any life but I am pushing myself in that area. the doctors all tell me " There is nothing we can do" I have a follow up next week with the pain doc... I am going to request to remove the hardware from my fusion. If anyone reading this has a SCS implanted and wouldn't mind sharing..... Could you please tell me what pain drugs and dose you are taking. right now I am taking 5mgs of oxycodone every 6 hrs. it's just not cutting it.
It's great to be back... To be alive again
Michael
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Dang Michael it is AWESOME to hear from you. I have been thinking about you lately and doing a search hoping to run across you here. Thanks for reading my mind!
Thank goodness they got you away from the Cymbalta! I didn't have that bad of a reaction to it, but I will never take the stuff after having the most vivid nightmares ever. Waking ones too!
It's great that you have regained control over your life! Sucks that you have to suffer more pain in order to know and care that you are alive, but a good trade off it seems.
So can they not change out the leads in your SCS and try to focus it more? Do you already have the paddle leads or do you still have the percutaneous ones?
I don't know if it's an option for you, but I'm going to PM you some info in regards to SCS technology.
Awesome to see you back!
"C"
"I tried to puree a rock...it didn't work..."
This is so scary to me. I am also on methadone and Cymbalta. The only real side effects that I am having are weight gain and sleeping 18 - 20 hours a day. I have only been on the cymbalta for a few months and it has really helped my anxiety alot but I can not handle the sleeping. I am going to give it a couple of months before I decide to give it up all together. Wasn't it you that it was taking like 6 years to get your SSD?
I am in no way associated with the medical field. Anything that I post comes from personal experience only.
DDD, Facet Arthropathy, DJD, Sleep Apnea
PT, Epidurals, Facet Blocks,Medial Branch Block, Rhizotomy,Discogram,Annular Tare L3/L4 Endoscopic Microdiscectomy,Laser Surgery
Methadone, Percocet, Soma, Welbutrin
I am still waiting on SSD, but it's only been 3 yrs for me. I will tell you this... you will have a very hard time coming off Cymbalta. It was a nightmare for me. of course I quit cold turkey to. You stated that it has helped with anxiety... how do you know that..hehehe your sleeping 18-20hrs a day. I was sleeping like that as well. There is more to life then just sleeping. I decided it was best to live with the pain then to sleep it away. The side effects was terrible for me. I wish you the very best of luck with this drug as I would rather die then go thru what I did with Cymbalta again. To me that drug should be tossed by the waste side... and never be given to anyone.
Michael
after reading your post last night I started titrating down today. How long were you on it? I was on 30 mgs about 1 month and now on 60 mgs 1 month. I started taking 30 today and will do that about 1 week and then 30 every other day. I know that it was helping me because my whole family has noticed a big improvement in my irritability, mood swings and anxiety. I have not had the nightmares. I actually have pretty good dreams. I guess it just goes to show how different everyone is chemically. never the less I can't take sleeping my life away and the weight gain. I am already overweight and had lost 18 lbs and now I see it creeping back up there. I see my doc next week and I think that I will talk to him about wellbutrin. I took zyban once to quit smoking and did OK on it. It has the same thing in it that wellbutrin does. Good luck and I will keep you posted on how I do coming off the cymbalta.
BTW- Why did you give up on the methadone? It actually helps my pain a great deal.
I am in no way associated with the medical field. Anything that I post comes from personal experience only.
DDD, Facet Arthropathy, DJD, Sleep Apnea
PT, Epidurals, Facet Blocks,Medial Branch Block, Rhizotomy,Discogram,Annular Tare L3/L4 Endoscopic Microdiscectomy,Laser Surgery
Methadone, Percocet, Soma, Welbutrin
I was on it for 2.5 months. I stopped the methadone at the same time because I honestly didn't know which drug was kicking me in the teeth. You can check out the posts about this drug here also http://drugs.healthdiaries.com/cymbalta-side-effects.html
I would say this to you as well. Don't let my horrible results change your mind about taking it. If it's helping you then I would continue. That is what is so weird with these darn drugs....I took it and it whipped my butt without any help to my nerve pain. You took it and it helped with some things. So if it's working for you then keep using it. That site i posted above is like a Cymbalta nightmare ride for all most everyone that has posted. I will need to start up another stronger pain med but right now I am just living the Dream... enjoying everyday with extreme pain but I am ALIVE
Michael