Havent seen much from you the last few days (unless I have missed something) and wondering how you are doing on the Cymbalta. Just had the appt with the GP, who now refuses to give me two low dose drugs to try at the same time, wont prescribe the verapamil (even though it is in the neurologists letter for me to trial) and when I said I would rather try Cipramil now, insisted I do the effexor, in the next breath said I have to have an ECG before starting on the effexor! Well thats done and I am now sitting here with a box of Topamax, one of Cymbalta and one of effexor, none of which I feel very happy to try!
The last I saw was that you were not doing too well on the Cymbalta but wondered if you have continued with it, or whether you are going for the Cipramil.
Heres hoping that the fact that you have not posted means that you are feeling great and out there partying, getting drunk, seeing the world etc. :mrgreen:
Christine
How bizarre about your doctor not prescribing Verapamil!
I wish I could tell you I was feeling like a million bucks and getting drunk here in Melbourne (I’m down here for a health coaching course). The truth is I’ve had tons of pain and migraine for two days straight no doubt because of the foods I’ve been eating. I’ve tried to avoid migraine triggers as best as possible but it’s tough when they have been laying out an amazing spread of food.
Cymbalta was not good in the end. I ditched it weeks ago. Since then I tried Zoloft for a second time (first time was 2004) and it tore my gut apart like nothing else. I was at work bent over with pain for days. It also caused anxiety just like before. So then I swapped over to Luvox. Only lasted 3 days on that one. My right heel was so painful on it (worse than Effexor) that I was limping all day on it for two days straight. As soon as I stopped it, the pain dropped right off. Luvox gave me a sickly feeling as well.
So now I’m on nothing and migraineing my face off. At least I feel sane and the overall body pain is bearable. I could be having withdrawal pain too I guess. I’m pretty fed up with the SSRI/SNRIs. They all trash me. I should probably move on to a new drug class. I may try Verapamil next.
I would probably try Topamax if I were you. It will either work great or you’ll hate it. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground with that one. Maybe kick it off like Rich did at 6 mg?
Really sorry you have had it so rough, I remember going through this 20 odd years ago when I went through 16 preventatives, I think only three out of those helped me a bit but I couldnt get the dose up through side effects.
The Cymbalta seems too similar to Effexor, thats probably why you had problems. I have a friend on Cipramil who is doing OK and also even takes the odd painkiller as needed. I did try the drops years ago and had 3 days of instant flashing light migraine until I stopped so I am not very hopeful with that one.
Well I will be interested to see how the Verapamil works for you, I could always beg the neurologist to prescribe them direct!
I hope you get some better days, its really crap when you get into a run of migraines, as you probably read from my other post, I had a migraine just recently, every day for 11 days and then it just stopped! I still havent worked out what caused it, just relieved its gone.
Anyway, hope things are better today for you.
Christine
After trying all those preventatives, I gave up, and found a painkiller that helped my symptoms (I know you are not supposed to take them but I wanted a life). I take syndol in halves throughout the day and it controls a lot of whats going on. I take only small pieces or else I would get more dizzy from the syndol. I also started on serc (betahistine) 10 years ago and take 1 to 2 tablets a day (I dont know whether this is helping or not but I am not as bad as I was at the beginning, on a daily basis)
The preventatives that did something for me were propranolol (could not get above 40 mg because I got insomnia and loose bowels at that point), amitriptyline, the dizziness got slightly better in the mornings, but I could not get above three quarter of a 10 mg tablet as I was zonked out till 3 in the afternoon, this was after 3 months on it, and prothiaden, I got up to 150 mg on this one, tried it again recently and it didnt work. I also managed to tolerate sandomigran (the first time round it helped but then the heads came back and the second time it didnt help).