symptoms from med changes?

I'm having a hard time figuring out if my symptoms are coming from my recent med changes or if they are lupus related.  My rheumy had me stop my neurontin and my amitriptyline.  I had been on neurontin for a year and a half, but was only on 200mg of it and it really didn't seem to be doing much for me.  I was only on amitriptyline for about 3 months, but it gave me tremors which wasn't good and I was also gaining more weight.  My rheumy put me on Doxepin which is in the same family as amitriptyline, but doesn't have as many side effects.  I quit my old meds and started the new one on Friday. I already wasn't feeling great, but by yesterday I felt pretty bad.  I have been running a fever anywhere from 99-100 and feel flu-ish and achy.  The good news is that my tremors are already much better and the doxepin seems to work well for helping me sleep. I have no idea if I would go through withdrawls from neurontin or from amitriptyline - I didn't even think to ask.  Does anyone know anything about this?  I told a friend last night that it's so hard with this disease to tell if your symptoms are because of the disease or meds or if something new is going on.  I also did a lot on Thursday and Friday, so my body may just be crashing from that.  On Thursday i had my rheumy appointment so while I was there I got all of my kids' school supplies too and then Friday I know I pushed myself too hard trying to get a bunch of things done. I'm guessing my body is going through some kind of adjustment to the med changes.  I seem to be pretty sensitive to meds and their effects anyway.  I just wanted to know what some of you think.  If things don't get better in a few days I'll call my rheumy and see what he thinks.

Thanks Carol. A lot of what you said makes sense and helped me realize that how I'm feeling is probably a combination of things. Sometimes I get tunnel vision and can't see the forest through the trees. I bet you are right that this is a combination of overdoing it last week and my body adjusting to the med changes. My fever has never gotten over 100, but it's enough to make me feel yucky. Today I took some Aleve in addition to my usual meds and some hydrocodone, but my fever still hangs on at about 99.5. The good news is that even though my body feels run down, my head seems a little more clear. Although the amitiriptyline helped with headaches and sleep, it made my already foggy brain more fuzzy, so it's good to have some of that gone. I did sleep most of the afternoon and am hoping that all the rest will result in a better day tomorrow.

Hey Hippi,

If you remember Ginny, I think she had a really hard time trying to get off the amitriptyline. Not positive it was here, but I think so. I didn't have such a hard time and I've been off of it for about 8 months and haven't replaced it with anything. The neurontin may leave you a bit on edge withdrawing from it though. I was taking it for nerve pain for a while.

I hope you get lots of rest and feel better soon. I think that your over-doing it could be the biggest culprit. Darned!!

Blessings!

Thanks Audrey, Rosie and Sharen. I'm doing better this morning. I'm still having a little more pain than usual but no fever so far this morning. The fever is what seems to make me feel the worst. It also turns out that I had been premenstrual and I always tend to have some kind of flare up during that time. I just didn't realize it was about that time of the month. I did some reading yesterday and from what I read, the neurontin should be out of my system in a few days, but I'm not sure how long the amitriptyline takes to leave the body. I think all of you were right about it being a combination of doing too much and the med changes. I think things are starting to look up now though. The kids go back to school on Thursday and I'll be able to start taking regular daily rests again which will help. Overall, I did pretty well this summer and was able to do a lot with my kids. I had a few intense "mini flares", but in general, I'm really thankful for how much I was able to do. I can tell my body needs a break though and that I need some more consistent kinds of rest.

Hi, Hippi. I'm glad to hear that you're feeling some better. I hope it all was just from the combination you spoke of. It's always great to hear good news! Take care,