Hi everyone,
Thanks so much for your responses and sorry for taking a long time to reply, I’ve honestly been having a really stressful time with the dizziness, working from home and moving house during lockdown.
My doctor was also on holiday for a fortnight so that was also a nightmare, and I was convinced I had corona at one point because I couldn’t stop coughing, but that was actually do to with the ven!!
I rang the doctors as I was having horrible problems on 75mg. My doc wasn’t in so they had me talk to the pharmacy doctor, who recommended i go back down to 37.5mg but on the prolonged release. I asked about a 50mg, but apparently they don’t do those over here. They also didn’t know anything about the extended release capsules with the beads in; i’ve been on the tablets and there’s no way to cut those without affecting the release.
I went down to the 37.5mg but after a week and a bit my dizziness was back in full force like it was before i started venlafaxine. The dizziness I was experiencing on the 75mg was different - probably related to the medicine rather than my vertigo - and it was easy to tell the difference. This made me panic a bit. I stuck it out until my regular doctor was back in and then asked if there was anything else we could try. I really wanted 50 somehow, because 37.5 was too low and 75 was too much.
My doctor said that there was a work around - I would take the 37.5mg prolonged release one day, and the next day take the 75mg, and so on. Apparently this would equate to 50mg because of how the prolonged release works and its half life (or something sciency I don’t really understand). So I’ve been trying that for about 5 days now. I feel like it might be working but I’m not sure. I definitely don’t feel as vertigo-dizzy as I had on 37.5mg, but it’s not been very long and I could just be convincing myself. My doctor says to give it a month and get back to him, so fingers crossed. I also spoke to him about the fact that I was coughing horrendously at night, and he said it could be acid reflux from the venlafaxine, so I’ve been taking antacids before bed at it seems to be helping in that respect.
The prolonged release is helping me sleep so much better than the instant release, I’m having weird, vivid dreams but I kind of like that (lol). The only thing is it is still SO hard in the mornings, I feel super hungover and just generally horrible for a couple of hours. Does anyone else experience this? I don’t want to go back on instant release because I was literally wired and restless all night, so it feels like a catch-22 in some respects.
Today, I also feel SO sick. Nauseas, like I could throw up at any second. I’m hoping this is just my body getting used to the 37.5mg + 75mg combo.
I just feel really defeated. Every day is a struggle right now!!
Hope you’re all doing ok x
Momo