Re: Thanks and more ?s on muscle pain/Neurontin-Cymbalta

[Guest guest]

Just this, my ONE data point about Effexor:

I was taking it for depression, about the time that I had my second surgery

(in 2001) to excise large lipomas (which BTW were undoubtably related to

mito) on my shoulders, upper back, and posterior neck. Shortly after that

surgery my mito symptoms shifted into overdrive, especially in the area of

wierd foot pains, numbing, and twitching. Probably NOT coincidentally, my

life-long severe headaches completely stopped, for a two-week period

immediately after the surgery (too bad, it's back). For other reasons I then

stopped the Effexor, and happened to be getting my first EMG/NC the next

day.

Well, the pain from the nerve study was totally excruciating, and my

peripheral neuropathy thereafter has unrelentingly increased. I went home

that night to surf up anything related, and I stumbled on the fact that

Effexor WITHDRAWAL problems had just been ruled by the FDA to warrant

revised info with a new warning (issued 6/12/2000) to prescribing

physicians. Too bad, my retiring psych doc had never mentioned this. Much

later, I've learned that the neuro problems from the withdrawal may have

precipitated my intense PN and/or drastically increased my pain during the

test. Since then, I have considerable PN but NEVER like those four straight

days of agony, with intermittent sudden jolts of electricity, mostly in my

legs, after that EMG/NC. And three years after that test, I had another,

which was also rather painful but NOTHING like the first one. So it's not

cetain about Efexor involvement, but I personally am afraid of the stuff.

YMMV, but I would at the least be VERY careful (and taper off gently) if you

ever have to discontinue Effexor.

Steve D.

> Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:40:06 -0400

>

> Subject: Re: Thanks and more ?s on muscle pain/Neurontin-Cymbalta

>

> Shayna,

> [...]

> I take Trileptal (1200 mg.), which is another anti-seizure medication, and

> Effexor (similar to Cymbalta, but doesn't really help with neuropathy). I

> take these meds for my Bipolar Disorder.

> [...]

> Take care,

> Cin

[Guest guest]

> Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 02:46:15 -0000

>

> Subject: Re: Thanks and more ?s on muscle pain/Neurontin-Cymbalta

>

> Thanks, Cindy,

> [...] Other times I just

> think, " Better living through chemistry " and count my blessings. (I

> think that was a commercial on television a while ago; I can't

> remember for what).

> :)Shayna

That was DuPont. Trying to convince us that the manufacture of plastics was

worth the environmental risk, although they didn't say it at the time. BTW

this series of commercials is (in)famous in advertising circles because it

was one of the very first " image " types. It didn't promote any particular

product, and most people didn't read the generally non-informative labels

then, hence didn't necessarily know that DuPont made all sorts of shockingly

dangerous household stuff including cleaning chemicals and poisons, but

mostly made the ingredients that went into other things.

I remember how charming those ads were. At first, other marketeers couldn't

figure out what the ads were aimed to accomplish, exactly, but this is now a

commonplace approach. Usually undertaken by " disreputable " companies or

industries, like petrochemicals or coal-burning utilities, for instance.

There was a period when nuclear power plants and nuclear waste disposal

facilities were doing this. Does anyone remember ads implying that living

near an ICBM missile silo was safe or good? Nowadays, tobacco, bomb, and

DRUG companies do this " image " promotion.

Steve D.