shurico: Help with tappering 4 drugs - Cymbalta CT and reinstated

[shurico]

I updated my signature and added the benzo changes too (there were too many lines in my history and didn t all fit)

[Altostrata]

17 hours ago, shurico said:

October 9

7.15 - woke up, feeling tired

7.45 - slight neck pain that goes down the spine

8 - nausea, took zofran and ativan 0.5

10 - lyrica 75

11.30 - headache in the back of the head, took aleeve

1.30 - sleepy and pulse is high(98), feeling sick, naussea

3.30 - nausea

4 - lyrica 75

6 - still nauseous

7.30 - amitriptyline 12.5

8.30 - ativan 0.5

9 - cymbalta 30

10 - lyrica 75

 

You're taking a lot of drugs AND you seem to have a physical pain problem that responded to physical therapy.

 

Ordinarily, Cymbalta is not prescribed with amitriptyline. 

 

What do you want to do?

 

[shurico]

7 hours ago, Altostrata said:

What do you want to do?

My ultimate goal is to get of ALL drugs succesfully! Can you help me?

[Altostrata]

As noted, it is unusual to take amitriptyline with Cymbalta, especially at the same time of day.

 

Have you seen seen any benefit from Cymbalta?

 

See Tips for tapering off duloxetine (Cymbalta)

[shurico]

5 hours ago, Altostrata said:

Have you seen seen any benefit from Cymbalta?

I really do not know. I have been switched around so much that I just can t tell anymore. The initial depression I had with extreme fatigue is gone but I still have no feelings of joy or sadness, nothing. No motivation to do anymore, just do everything out of necesity such as work, house work, stay with my kids and so on.

 

would you suggest i start with cymbalta? I already bought a bead mat that I read helps, a while ago. Could i also taper lyrica at the same time? But at a slower rate than cymbalta?

[shurico]

I feel lyrica is causing me to be jittery and I think nausea is linked to it too. Just because when i tried updosing this summer i almost instantly felt better but it did not last long. Although i cannot believe i would still have withdrawal since june from lyrica.

[Altostrata]

6 hours ago, shurico said:

The initial depression I had with extreme fatigue is gone but I still have no feelings of joy or sadness, nothing. No motivation to do anymore, just do everything out of necesity such as work, house work, stay with my kids and so on.

 

This is not surprising since you are taking stupefying drugs all day long.

 

If you prefer to taper your Lyrica doses, suggest you reduce each of your 3 doses at each step. See 

Tips for tapering off pregabalin (Lyrica)
 

We strongly advise tapering only one drug at a time.

[shurico]

Thank you! I think I will start with lyrica, doing 2.5% a week - so 5mg a week, starting with night dose, doing a water solution. I can only get 75mg pills here.

 

could i see how I feel later on and pause the lyrica and start cymbalta? Does lyrica have WD symptoms that can come later on - weeks later for example? Can it build up over time?

[Altostrata]

12 hours ago, shurico said:

Does lyrica have WD symptoms that can come later on - weeks later for example?

 

Most likely, if you get withdrawal symptoms from tapering Lyrica by 5% per step, they will show up fairly quickly. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about tapering the other drugs, it's going to take a while for you to go off Lyrica.

[shurico]

Thank you so much! I will start tonight by taking out 5ml of my night dose. I will keep you updated!

[Altostrata]

5% of your night dose is only 1.67% of your daily dose.

[shurico]

I thought of taking out 5ml (not 5%) from my night dose (so that would be 5mg in a water solution of 75ml and one 75mg capsule), that would be 2.2% of my total dose. I will do that every week for 4 weeks.

first week drop 5ml from night dose

second drop 5ml from morning dose

third drop 5ml from 4pm dose

fourth week drop 10ml from night dose

 

then recalculate how much is 10% of left total dose (it would be 200) so I would take out 20ml the whole month, divided by 4 I could do 5ml/week again. And so on.

 

did i get this right?

[Altostrata]

On 10/11/2023 at 11:51 AM, Altostrata said:

If you prefer to taper your Lyrica doses, suggest you reduce each of your 3 doses at each step.

 

If you want to do a more elaborate reduction with complex mathematics and record-keeping, that's up to you.

[shurico]

Hello altostrata! Wanted to give you an update

-started taperring lyrica for one month and went ok but nausea was still very much present

-switched to tapering cymbalta, first drop 5% then 2%. First days I felt way better, nausea improved the withdrawal symtoms came in such as flu like, knots in my stomach, shaky and the after about 10 days constant nausea comes back. I really need to figure this out, I believe cymbalta is causing it as a side effects but I cannot bear years of this

i kept on trying to figure it out, i switched from effexor 110 to cymb 60 in march, that was the first time feeling nausea. Then i tapered of cymbalta quickly in april, had mild nausea. Then reinstated in may 30cymb and bad nausea started july and never left. I am at my wits ends here with this nausea and cannot go on like this :(( being on the med it making me sick, tapering is making me sick. I put everything in my drug checker, i stopped taking everything else, i don t take supplements. I wake up daily with severe nausea that last all day :(((

 

pls help with some advice. Thank you!

[shurico]

I just talked to my doctor and she says to stop cymbalta si take one full amitriptiline - I know this is a bad ideea but I need to do something. everyone around me doesn t understand why I cannot just quit...I have no support and don t tell my husband anything because it becomes and argument - he says I got into this myself by going to so many doctors....

 

what if i speed up my taper a little untill this adverse reaction eases? maybe go down 5mg now, although with christmas coming up is going to be horrendous but I feel awful anyway!

[shurico]

Hello @Altostrata! Need help! Like I said above, it has been a month since my third 2% drop (that is very low and did not expect any symptoms):

-first week felt so much better, much less nausea, was motivated, i have noticed with each drop I feel better the first week then hell comes and it just gets worse, i never reach a point where i feel better so i can say i am stable

-week 2 - knots in my stomach and flu symptoms

- week 3 severe nausea returns, i feel spaced out, numb, exhausted, anxious

- week 4, nausea is better but still present all day long from the moment i get out of bed, seems like other symptoms such as anxiousnous is gone but still feeling very numb and detached. 
my holidays were horrible :((

 

how is the safe way to go on? Doing 2% a month feeling so sick is depressing, I don t think I can do it…and even at 2% i feel it. My first drop at 5% i did not feel it which is wierd but i also did not wait longer then 2 weeks, after 2 weeks i dropped again but at 2% and only then it hit me. My first 5% drop i remember i actually felt great those first two weeks!

 

plss help, how do i go forward?

 

 

[shurico]

@Shep hello! I have tagged you in hope you can help me since I read Alto might not be answering ;(

 

thank you!!

[shurico]

@LotusRising pls help!

Thank you!

[KaiLee]

Hi, how are you doing?