Finding life very difficult. Could Fibro meds be making me feel worse?

Hi all. I hope you can help me. I am 55 years old woman. Among other illnesses I have Rhumatoid Arthritis, Diabetes, Asthma, Sleep Apnoea, IBS, High BP and Fibromyalgia.

The hardest thing to get under control has been the Fibro. I am on Lyrica, Solpadol and Cymbalta for Fibro.

All these things started about 6 years ago. I could get no relief for the pain of Fibro till I increased my lyrica from 150mg to 300mg and started Cymbalta about 6 months ago.

The pain most of the time has decreased to a level I can live with but I feel very very ill most of the time. I have always had fatigue but it's worse now. I can only do half of what I used to be able to do before increasing the Lyrica and adding the Cymbalta.

I am finding it very difficult to live like this but I dread the return of the pain level I was experiencing before.

Could it be that the Lyrica increase and adding the Cymbalta are making me feel this way. I am on medication for my other ailments which have not been changed. I also use a CPAP machine for the apnoea. The menopause didn't even get a look in.

Has anyone else had this experience? Any advice is welcome. Thanks Neenaa.

Hi Neenaa,

The Solpadol is basically Tylenol #3 here in the US, a mix of Tylenol with a bit of codeine. It's understandable that you need that to take the edge off of your pain if the Lyrica and Cymbalta aren't doing the trick. Myself, I take something similar, a barbiturate with codeine (PRN) in addition to my Lyrica and Tramadol.

I've found that Lyrica eventually doesn't help with pain, but it does help with fatigue. I take either 300 or 450 mg, mostly 300. Luckily my Dr understands that real painkillers are sometimes necessary for people to have any quality of life. What do they expect us to do, suffer in pain all day over in a corner? Sorry, but I work 60 hours a week and don't have time for 8 hours of daily Zen meditation...

IMO, Lyrica itself will not cause additional pain. It has only helped me and not the reverse. I tried Cymbalta and it helped but the gas was so bad i had to stop. However, I did not take them both at the same time. Maybe you can stop one and see, but during this ensure you have extra "regular" pain meds to get you through the transition.

Interestingly, I'm also on a CPAP. Seems many of us are...

Best of luck to you, but IMO, do whatever is necessary to relieve your pain so you can enjoy life as best you can. I'm 52 myself and will do whatever it takes, including moving to CO and getting to know Mary Jane if the medical establishment eventually completely abandons me.

Post Edited (TomBSCS) : 8/11/2015 6:49:19 PM (GMT-6)

Thank you everyone for your kind responses. I’m sorry I didn’t explain what Solpadol is. I wasn’t at my best when I wrote the post. In the US as it’s called Tylanol #3 as TomBSCS says or Tylex. It’s sometimes called Co-codamol and made up of Paracetamol 500mg and Codeine 30mg.

I have been taking 2 Solpadol every night along with lyrica for about 2 years. I rarely take it in the day unless I just can't bear the pain. I don't know if this kind of use would be too harmful. The maximum per day is 8 so I think I'm ok. I know that it is supposed to be for short term use but my doctor knows I'm taking it long term. I'll ask him about it the next time I see him.

I guess I will try to taper off the Cymbalta slowly to see if I can find a happy medium between pain and exhaustion. Thanks for your suggestions. It means a lot to me that you would go to the trouble. Neenaa