I saw the pain magagement doctor today to explain why I neeed to get off savella. Extreme agitation, high BP 154/97, neck pain from tense muscles, blurry vision and insomnia.
He said "it's not the savella, its you high anxiety". Can he not read? The side effects are clearly listed on every website reguarding this med!
He made me feel like I was a nutcase. He gave me a script to see a counselor for some type of therapy to help with anxiety!
I insisted on getting off the med and will be doing it myself! I will not be seeing the therapist! I will not be taking the med either!
I am sick and tired of being made to feel like I am crazy! Yes it does create anxiety when you hurt so bad you dont know how you are going to get thru a work day. They really dont it. I give up.
Dont care if anyone reads this or responds, I just needed to get it out.
Make sure you cut down on it slowly to get off of it. Any med like that can have bad withdrawal symptoms, so just be careful please, but I agree with you whole heartily.
Yes Savella is what I am as well and I took myself off it too, just cut the pills in half and gradually take urself off otherwise you will be sicker. I also get extreme nauseous on it as well. And I agree with you the Drs suck and are not helpful.
Dear Tina, glad you got it out! So sorry this Dr was so disinterested in you knowing what was happening to you, I could not take this either, though all started off well with it, that did not last long, I started to shake uncontrollably and felt like someone was taking a sharp object over the top of my head, my Internist (GP) began to ween me off of it THAT day!
Do you have a good Primary Care Doc to go to or even better, a good Rheumatologist? IMHO, they are the Doctors to see. All most Pain Management Docs do, in my experience, is shoot you up, I know they have helped many, but I think they have also made many WORSE!
It really is important to go off this gradually, under Dr care. Hope you are alright. No wonder you are so frustrated!
Hope things get better for you, we are always here!
Hey there, Tina. I'm reading your post. It's pretty unbelievable that your doctor refused to listen to your very real and concerning symptoms. And then tried to put you in therapy!
I'm with everyone else here, please be careful in weaning yourself off the meds due to withdrawal symptoms. But I don't blame you a bit. I hope that you get better once you're off the stuff. And it sounds like it's time for you to find a new doctor.
What kind of doctor is this? Mainstream?? Sounds like the usual attitude of one. I prefer integrative type physicians that practice regular medical and holistic medicine. They don't treat you in the way that you described, plus they don't load you up with rx drugs that mostly don't help, just make things worse. This is just my experience and opinion.
I refuse to have physicians treat me that way. It just shows their own ignorance. I find physicians who treat me with respect and who really care about me. Yes, they do exist. Just gotta dig around to find them. Don't give up looking for one.
I am having major problems with Savella too. It took me a while to finally figure it: since June, I have had such horrible symptoms, that I missed the entire summer, I never felt good enough to do ANYTHING. Last week the doctor increased it, and since then, I didn't know if I was dying or if I wanted to kill myself. I blamed it on everything else---Fibro, high BP, asthma, my mental health. I immediately cut it back 2 days ago, and I feel better than I have in a long time. ****Please make sure you decrease it slowly, because the withdrawal symptoms are pretty harsh. And of course, let the prescribing doctor know what's going on!
About doctors: We all need to remember that they basically are our employees. We are hiring them to take care of us. If they don't, then we need to fire them, and like allergic said, just keep searching until we find that one really good doctor we can work with. I have had so many experiences like you, and left their office feeling like I was a crazy hypochondriac. A lot of patients feel stuck with their doctors, and that is not the case.
I'm a huge advocate for having a Rheumatologist on board, and I worked for one for 12 years, but right now I am using the Nurse Practitioner at my new GP's office for EVERYTHING, because he's the ONLY one who seems to listen and care. I know I need to find a new Rheum, but when I finally found someone to listen, I really want to let him handle it all.
I found my GP/NP by asking around, then I searched their names online, which brought up a ton of websites with "medical practitioner reviews". I refused to go into another disrespectful office !
How's it going with reducing your savella? I've been having a very rough time. I agree the summer was ruined by this medicine. I just kept thinking I had to adjust to it! Finally when I started having the severe neck pain when working I knew I needed to get off it. I'm a dental hygienist and couldn't possibly work with my neck hurting. I had a couple of cervical disk removed and a fusion done about a year and a half ago. I really could not take the muscles being so tight that it caused pain in the area they fused.
I had been working 6-8 days per month since June and this was a new symptom for me. The longer I was on it the more problems I was having. I felt like my muscles were so tight my shoulders wouldn't go down. It was weird. Within a couple of days of reducing the dose the tightness in the back of my skull and the headaches behind my eyes started to get better!
However the shaking, chills, nausea and high BP are awful. I've just been trying to relax and take it easy while letting my body get used to the lower dose. My pain doctor didn't have a clue! He actually gave me tramadol to take for pain while I worked which you can not take with savella.
I feel like I cant trust doctors to know what they are doing with meds anymore! Thank goodness my husband is a pharmacist. He has been so helpful with the meds and knowing what I can and cant take while going off this medicine.
PLEASE be careful with what you take with savella. There are several things that we take for fibro including tramadol that you can not take with it.