Thank you for the birthday wishes. I can honestly say I "feel old"
I was hoping for your thoughts on the fibro drugs that work best for you. I've been on Savella since I started seeing my rheumatologist. I know that Cymbalta and Lyrica are the other 2 options. I'm considering asking my doctor if I can try Cymbalta. Has anyone been on Savella and switched to Cymbalta? Did you notice any difference? My doc just added Gabapentin. (I'm also on Tramadol) I can't take my anti-inflammatory anymore because my liver values are elevated. But I 'm still in alot of pain (cold weather!!) I thought maybe a switch to Cymbalta may help. What do you think?
I have been on Cymbalta for about 2 years now. I take 120 mg. a day (2 60 Mg.) every morning. They work the best of all the other antidepressants I tried and it does help with pain. I also take 1 vicodin 4 times a day. My doctor hates that I take the vicodin, but after a long arguement with him, I told him I can't, and don't want to live with this pain. So he reluctantly gives it to me. The pain NEVER goes away the med just takes the edge off. I don't understand why it is such a big deal to prescribe medication if the patient really needs it. He knows I'm in terrible pain, as I'm sure he can tell when somebody wants vicodin just because they are addicted to it. Gentle hugs, I hope this helps you, Tawny
Hi Carol, I've never taken Savella, but have been on Cymbalta for a couple of years. It does help, I take 30 mg in the morning, which helps me with that morning ache all over feeling. I also take 120 mg at bedtime. I've been on heavy duty narc. and they stop working after a while, so they have to be constantly increased. At one point I was on 6 percs/day and 125mcg of Fentanyl. And they weren't working! Now I'm down to 50mcg Fentanyl. I also take T3's with 1 Nabilone 1mg for breakthrough pain. It really helps for now. I hope you get some answers that help :) Hugs, Charlie
I agree, I don't understand why the doctors have such a problem prescribing pain meds. I know I would not be able to work without pain medication. I was on vicoden but my doctor got goofy about it so now I'm on gabapentin and tramadol.
Hi CarolAnn, I have been on Savella for two years, it was helping with the fatigue and down in the dumps mental state, not so much the pain, but all the sudden the past 3 weeks it does not seem to be helping, I am going to talk to my dr about trying Cymbalta. It’s scary because it was helping, I’d say stick with what works cause something else may not help, or it may cause worse side effects… Everyone seems to have different reaction to everything. I see my dr next Monday , so I have gradually been taking less of the Savella, not sure how the switch will go… But I’m hopeful !! & scared be careful taking Savella & Tramadol together it can lead to serotonin syndrome
Hugs & blessings
Nice to hear from you! Enbrel helps me more than anything, I also take Oxaprozin as an anti-inflammatory, Lyrica for Sciatica and Opana for pain. Savella did not agree with me, never tried Cymbalta, but many on here use it!
Hope you can find the right med combo and dose to make a difference in the way you feel.
OOOHHH!!! I feel for you! There is no good arthritis, that I know of. So sorry you are struggling with this. February is almost over, it is my hardest month!
BTW, if you have one particular Dr who is open to herbs, ask them about milk thistle for your liver. I had a dead gall bladder adhered to my liver, and my chiropractor put me on milk thistle, it healed it very nicely.
Dee, As you know, I am new here. I have had fibromyalgia for the last decade that slowly got worse and worse. I have every drug group that is available to treat fibromyalgia. I take Lyrica, Cymbalta, Nortryptaline, Tramadol, Hydrocodone, Ambien, Armour thyroid. Nothing really improved my pain or level of functioning well. I woke up every morning exhausted like I had never been to sleep day after day. My pain stayed between 5 to 10 and and it often stayed around a 7 or 8 every day. I lost my job from calling in sick too much (I am an RN). The pain had me bed ridden when I was not working. Thank God my husband has a decent job. I really had so much pain that I was going to kill myself because I could not do this anymore.
Anyway, my rheumatologist is really a nice man but he had told me that "he did not have anything else in his bag of tricks to help me, and being a nurse and searching all over the internet I knew that this is true. I was so sad that for the last year I have gone into his office crying (and I’m not a cryer). I had even tried natural progesterone and estrogen prescribed by my GYN doctor. Nothing worked. I told my husband that I would rather have my life back with a cure for this illness that to even win the lottery.
The reason that I am here is that I found a “miracle” drug last month. I had gone to the doctor to have all of my many medications refilled for another 6 months. For some reason I decided to ask him for a muscle relaxer…I had tried flexaril a couple of years ago and I told him that it did not work for me at all and he did not suggest another one. This time when I asked for another muscle relaxer because my muscles were so tight and I had limbs jumping by themselves when the pain was bad. He wrote me a prescription for a medication called Tizanidine. I have been taking it for the last month. I am very excited about this medication because it cut my daily average pain score by at least 40% to 50% What is even better is that it also lets me wake up like I actually slept. I woke up today without any pain and my bed actually felt soft instead of hard (it’s memory foam).
The reason it is not know as much by doctors for fibromyalgia is because the drug companies can’t make much money off of this drug because it is out of the patient so any drug company can make it and compete making the profits. They only advertise the ones that are new that they have a patent on. It is all about the money. This is why Lyrica and Cymbalta are so high without if a person does not have insurance.
Tizanidine is not well know to lots of doctors for the purpose of treating fibromyalgia, only for treating illness like MS and the like. The drug companies that make Lyrica and Cymbalta (their gold mines) would like to keep it this way. There are not any big studies on it because they take a lot of money and the drug companies are not going to spend money on a study that is not going to help them to make money. They don’t want doctors and patients to know that there is this drug for MS that has an off label success in treating fibromyalgia pain. There have been a few small studies on the Tizanidine for fibromyalgia and they were very small as there is not money to fund them. What I have come up with has been a few small studies and journal articles written by pain specialists and neurologists.
Anyway, the only reason that I am here tonight is because maybe this will help some of you like it did for me. A few people may not be able to tolerate it…my friend could not because she had hallucinations from it. There are always some persons that do well on a medication and others who do not. The only way one can tell if it could help you is to ask your doctor to try it. I have seen in one study on line where about 40 percent had at least a fifty percent reduction in pain and their quality of life scores were greatly improved. My doctor started me out on a low dose which is wise to do with any new medication. I was on 4mg. three times a day. The first few weeks I was doing somewhat better. It was not until after I asked my doctor to increase the dose that it started working really well. I now am up to taking 6mg. in the morning, 6mg.in the afternoon and 10mg. an hour before bed. This med can cause some drowsiness that is dose related. Some people just take it at night to help them sleep. I feel so blessed to have found this and I wanted to share it with someone who is as miserable as I was. I still have pain and fatigue but it is much better. I still take most of my other medications listed as they are still needed, but the addition of the Tizanadine (also called Zanaflex) has really changed my life for the better. As a disclaimer I will say follow your doctors orders and read up on any medication. I read that about 3% can get elevated liver enzymes on this medication so if you have a liver problem, or drink a lot, you should not try this drug. They say to be careful when driving until you know how it affects you.
I would love for this to help others as much as it had for me. Got to write the name down and ask your doctor. I would love to hear about it. Forgot to mention, only start one new drug at a time or you will not know which one is working or not. LS
This is good to hear, I tried many muscle relaxants, the last one I can remember by name was Skelaxin, I might as well have taken an M&M for all the good it did me. Now the Rheum prescribed Valium, sometimes it works, sometimes not. Thank you for letting us know there is still something out there to try! http://www.drugs.com/tizanidine.html
Hello. Sorry for all of the grammar errors in my post! I was writing late at night and when I went to fix it the site said that I was unable to edit because the time limit was up. I am used to some other sites that allow editing at any time.
Anyway, I want to tell you that the Tizanidine is not like any other muscle relaxer. It works in the central nervous system by blocking some of the pain signals in the spinal fluid. They also claim that it blocks something called substance P. If one looks it up, studies show that persons with fibromyalgia have too much substance P. The substance P is in the central nervous system and it is related to the perception of pain.
The Tizanidine relaxes the muscles, but it does so by a different way than other muscle relaxers. It is really listed as a medication that reduces spasticity in patient with nervous system disorders like MS.
What I am trying to tell you is that this is not like any other muscle relaxer in its mode of action. It does not work directly on the muscles, but on the transmission of pain signals to the brain in the spinal fluid. It is a medication know in research studies by doctors that do research in neurology. If anyone has tried several so called muscle relaxers but have not tried this one, know that this one has a totally different method of action. If all your other muscle relaxers have not helped with the pain you need to try this one. LS
Thanks, yes I am familiar with substance P, I'm sure if mine could be measured it would be sky high. I'll be sure to mention this med to my Dr when I go back, not sure if it will mix with the Opana I take for pain, but we'll see. I am now seeing the PCP and Rheum every 2 months, so have about another month to go.
This is the first time I have heard of a med that addresses the flow of substance P rather than just being a muscle relaxant or pain med. Sounds like we are finally getting somewhere!