Pain meds?

Hi, Thecrystalp, and welcome! I'm so sorry I'm late in welcoming you but was busy trying to put Christmas boxes together to mail to my kids up north. Got the mailed this morning. Yay!

I was offered Lyrica, then Cymbalta, and then Savella and turned them down. I wanted to try a more "natural" route. I use ibuprofen with food, Tylenol, magnesium malate, vitamin D3, and a muscle relaxer called Robaxin that has made a significant difference in my pain. I also walk daily as my gentle form of daily exercise. I swim in the warmer weather, too. I do stretching exercises and I also pace myself when doing things. I keep moving and that is important.

The magnesium shouldn't hurt you. It's found in the food you eat. There are different types of magnesium but magnesium malate is a good choice for people with fibro. It has malic acid in it (that's the malate) and this has been shown to help with some with fibro in reducing pain. It's also easily absorbed and much easier on the digestive system because the body recognizes it as food (malic acid is found in apples). Magnesium oxide is cheap but only about 20% of it is absorbed and it's harder on the digestive system. In Fibro 101 there is a link all about it....and the vitamin D3, too....and how these work in the body. Here is a link to help you understand the types of magnesium and you can see why I suggest the magnesium malate.

http://www.drnibber.com/understanding-different-types-of-magnesium/

I'm glad you liked Fibro 101. It's a good way to find what you are looking for.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you better. Don't hesitate to ask questions because we are here to help you. Hope to hear more from you soon.

Sherrne

Cymbalta was very helpful for me. I transitioned to a different drug called Nucynta, which has very similar SNRI properties, so it's contraindicated to take both.

I would sincerely give Cymbalta a try. It takes several weeks to see a difference, but it really increased my energy and made me just feel better overall. I found myself doing housework and other tasks that I would dread much more often than ever before.

Cymbalta is a non-narcotic, non DEA scheduled drug...if by scheduled you mean taking it routinely, then YES, that is essential to success of this medication. You must take it every day though. It is NOT on "an as needed basis" like percocet.

You can pretty much take whatever else is prescribed to you for breakthrough pain relief, except Tramadol (Ultram) and Tapentadol (Nucynta).

Like I said, it will about 4-6 weeks to notice a drastic difference, but most people respond and tolerate the drug well. Also, I am a medical student training in pain management, and I would like to make more patients aware of this:

Unless there is a true adverse reaction, try to be willing and open to trying several medications before your physician puts you on anything more powerful like narcotics. Physicians most often need to observe their patient's medication compliance and ability to follow directions before prescribing anything more powerful. If you give Cymbalta an honest effort and its not doing enough, be honest with your doctor and he/she will move to the next tier of medications. I've found this to be true both me being a patient and learning to become a practitioner. Most doctors are suspicious of those who come in and say, "only narcotics work for me, and I'm allergic to NSAIDs, SSRI's, etc."

I am in no way suggesting this is how you are, or anyone is for this matter on this forum, I have just noticed it before in the pain clinics...and while that may be true for some folks, it just raises some flags

Unfortunately getting chronic pain under control is a longer process than it should be, but the most important things are to be completely honest with your doctor and be willing and open to try lower tier medications that the physician may suggest initially. If it's not working, simply tell the doc, and they will find something that does.

Post Edited (docintraining) : 12/4/2014 10:48:16 AM (GMT-7)

Hi and welcome! (I have a 9yr old and soon to be 6yr old twins also.)

If you can't find Magnesium Malate around, I suggest you check out Puritan Pride online. I surely am not advertising for them! I just have found it there and it's always on sale. They even have other vitamins buy one get two free with free shipping. I gave them the wrong address on my first order (really? Like I do know my addy! Brain fog!). They were really nice and sent out another package immediately- even tho UPS delivered it some place else! I believe others on here use them too since it was on here I heard about them.

Good luck with the Cymbalta! Let us know how it's going.

Dawn

Puritan was where I got mine.

Hugs, Karen...

Yes, I know taking my current ssri's and cymbalta would be bad, that's why we're going to be tapering off my other ssri's at the same time we start cymbalta so I don't have the extra to maybe cause serotonin syndrome. But thank you for looking out for me! It's nice to have people doing that :)

That's a lot of magnesium! Be sure to start out slowly. That's not what I take. In the ones I take, there is a total of 433 mg of magnesium and 2.500 mg of malic acid in six capsules which is a daily serving and I take three in the morning and three at night. If I took what you bought I'd be in the bathroom all day.

The total explanation of what has helped me is in Fibro 101.

Sherrine

I get mine at Puritan.com. Go to that site and in the upper left hand corner you will see "Search". Type in magnesium malate and it will show you what I take. They are by Source Naturals. You can see the label and it will show you 433 mg of magnesium and 2.5 g ( which is 2,500 mg) of malic acid.

Sherrine

I think its sensible that you're trying out cymbalta, just remember to review the overall cost/benefits with your physician every so often. Also the yoga is a good idea, not only for the gentle stretching, but also to help with elements of the condition related to mental stress. Best of luck.

I have tried a number of different meds including cymbalta. But for me personally, I have found that a combination of such as jogging to be highly beneficial. I do not really like the edgy feeling of reboxetine, but i only take it an hour or so before exercise, which I have done three times a week. There have been a few studies on this combination which led me to try this out - http://www.progresspastpain.com/articles/aerobic-exercise-reboxetine-fibromyalgia-symptoms

I had a good run with Cymbalta…it helped tremendously for about 8 months, and then stopped working for me. There is something with this class of drugs called "poop out syndrome" (no joke!) that happened to me with both this and a similar drug called Savella. I went back on Savella after not being on it for a year or two, and it was effective again, but only for about 5 months. Other people don't seem to have this problem that I do.
Cymbalta was a hard drug for me to come off: I had to titrate back, taking less and less over the course of a few weeks. For months, I was dizzy, sick to my stomach and woozy. The after effects made me never want to go back on this again. Savella was a much smoother transition for me when coming off it.
Right now I am on nothing and taking tramadol for pain at night…I have been very uncomfortable. I am going to try fluoxetine next, another SSRI.
HEART