wavesoflife

(by the way, we named the kitten Luna).

I saw the rheumy Friday. He said I’ve tried most of the medications there are supposed to help fibro and that I need to try and push through the pain and fatigue and exercise. I really feel like some of the pain isn’t the fibro (although he said it is), like in my knee, hip, and foot. Well, I know the foot is plantar fascilitis pain still. But he said a year or so ago that I had arthritis in my knee and in the last visit said it was fibro pain…so I don’t know. Normally he’s the best doctor I see. I told him when I try to exercise (even just stretch) it’s hard to walk for a week or so. He just said I have to try and keep exercising. That’s all well and good, but is he going to be the one to carry me up the stairs at work when I can’t walk up them?

He prescribed me Zanaflex. He said to start at one pill at first, but I took that last night and it didn’t really do much so I’ll try two pills tonight.

I’m tired of not being able to do anything physical. Even walking around the grocery store is very hard. Painful and exhausting.

I’ve decided to stop taking the Savella. It stopped helping several weeks ago. When I was at the rheumy’s last, he had said we could increase the dosage if needed. I called to see about that and then he said that there had been no additional benefit of taking it at higher dosages so he wouldn’t prescribe it.

When I first started it, dizziness had been one of the side effects I had. It went away, but it came back at the beginning of the month. My heart rate and blood pressure were also higher (and they were already high). I’m already on the max dosage of my blood pressure medication, so that wasn’t a good thing at all.

I haven’t really done a proper withdrawal, since I only had a week’s worth left and didn’t want to spend the money to get refilled. I started taking half pills Monday night and went to quarter pills last night. I’ll be out completely by Tuesday. So far, I haven’t had any withdrawal symptoms and the dizziness is gone. It’s kind of strange…when I was still on the trial pack it seemed to be helping but when I started the month’s worth I had from the pharmacy, it’s almost like they were just placebo pills.

Today I had skin testing done at the allergists for food allergies. I had to be off my antihistamine for a week. That was torture! I didn’t realize how much it actually helps my allergies. One day I sneezed the whole drive to work. I’ve had a miserable time the past week.

There were no big reactions, like there was during the other skin tests a year ago (cats and grass were some very large ones). But I did have reactions to oats, whole wheat, pork, and lamb. I wasn’t suprised by the first two but was by the meats. I’ve never eaten lamb (and never plan to). I don’t really like pork, although I eat bacon pretty regularly. I suppose turkey bacon is better for me anyway. The arm that had the oat and whole wheat got very itchy even though the bumps weren’t large at all.

I temporarily went off the gluten-free diet the past few days, but need to get back on it. I was happy to know that I am not allergic to corn, as that is what replaces wheat in a lot of food (and things like Fritos).

I’ve now been on Savella for over two weeks. The first week was the dosage build up, I’ve been on the 50mg twice a day dosage for one week and 4 days. I had no side effects on the smaller dosages the first week. I was sleeping better, so I had less pain. Before I started taking it, I would wake up every hour or so and have to use the bathroom about 3-4 times a night. This was causing my pain to be much worse than usual. Once I started on the Savella, the pain became more bearable because I was sleeping better. I only wake up several times a night now for no reason. Unfortunately, the Savella doesn’t stop me from waking up from things like my husband getting into bed, or cats meowing in my face or banging on the closet doors. Something that I didn’t expect has also happened: I can get through the night without going to the bathroom on some nights. On the other nights, I only have to go once.

I am feeling more productive and less brain foggy. I am also feeling more social, although the Social Anxiety Disorder is still there and causes me to sign off of AIM a second after I sign on. But that’s still a big improvement. I hadn’t signed on to a chat program in years. I don’t think the brain fog improvement is entirely due to Savella since it started improving in January when I started taking CoQ10. Right now I take 200mg in the morning and 100mg in the evenings.

I almost forgot to mention that I did start having some side effects when I went on the full dosage. I started having bad headaches and dizziness when I was upright. I think those side effects are starting to go away though, fortunately.

Yesterday at the rheumy he gave me a sample pack of Savella, which is an SNRI that just came out in the US a few weeks ago and is approved for treating fibromyalgia. You start out taking 12.5 at night, then twice a day for the next two days, then you take 25 twice a day for the next several days, then you’re up to the final dose of 50mg twice a day. My insurance covers the drug with prior authorization, so the rheumy filled out the form and faxed it in yesterday and it’s already been approved. I’m hoping it helps. Today I have less pain and am feeling a little better and last night I slept a little better. I don’t know if it’s the drug or just coincidence.