Savella anyone?

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone!

So my battle with pain management continues. I am currently on Savella, Percocet

(dr wants me off narcotics & have been reducing so I'm down to 2 a day even

though I'm still in pain) and tizanidine. Looking for others feedback on the

savella. I did do a search and found a few discussions on it but not a lot and

not very recent. I have been on savella for 2 months now with the first 2 weeks

on the titration pack gradually increasing and am at 50mg twice a day for a

month and a half now. The side effects have been a battle. Currently it is

adding to my temp instability and even though it's the middle of winter in

Wisconsin I have to dress like its spring or I am drenched in sweat. It also is

effecting my already rapid heart rates. Seems like this is worse on the days

when I can't stay cool. I try to drink lots of water but that just means I am

running to the bathroom more and am back to getting up during the night several

times. In addition, the scariest of side effects, is the mood/mental changes.

Luckily these are as severe but I get easily agitated and if I don't get away

from the situation it escalates easily. But that's not the worse part of it.

It's the thoughts that come. I just want to completely destroy something and can

see myself doing it or even possibly hurting someone. The one night I actually

had to leave my house and go sit in a parking lot for a couple hours because I

was afraid of what was going on in my head. At this point I am still able to

recognize that it's not me and not a normal reaction to the situation so I can

remove myself from the situation. But then the guilt for acting that way hits

and I start to spiral down to the depressed side and have a good cry and feel

horrible about myself and my actions. There have only been about 3 episodes this

bad but I few more smaller ones that I just get irritated by something that

normally wouldn't. At this point I can't say that the benefits from taking the

savella are worth it. I thought it was maybe helping with some of the fatigue

but am started to think its more the Percocet because of the time frames. And as

I've been decreasing the Percocet the periods of energy/less fatigue have also

been decreasing. I know I'm still on kinda a low dose but am very hesitant on

increasing it due to the side effects. Trying to be patient as I've read that it

can take several months before you really know how well it's going to work. But

I just feel like I'm moving backwards instead of forward at this point. I have

been trying to also stay committed to the pain drs theory that I need more

exercise and deal with the added pain and new types of pain I experience because

of it. I had really hoped to get off the narcotics I was on and at least have a

happy medium. But I hate to say it, part of me just wants to go back to the

regimen I was at a few months ago. At least there was a happy medium then. My

biggest motivators have been my daughter and grand daughter. I had finally

gotten back up to being able to take my grand daughter at least once a month but

for the entire weekend. Now I'm back down to really struggling to keep her for

just 24hrs and being so exhausted and in so much pain for days afterwards.

Something has got to give soon. Do I give the savella more time? Do I try to

increase the dosage? Or do I just say this is not going to work and move on to

something else? I go back to the pain doctor on Thursday so I'm hoping she has

some advice on all this but so far she hasn't been very helpful and has mad me

feel like a junkie who just sits around and does nothing all day. But I promised

my neuro doc I would give her another chance so I'm trying. My neuro is the one

who started me on the savella not the pain doc.

Debbie