I woke up at 5:40 for work like I do every day, I had been sleeping downstairs due to the excessive sweating that I had been expecting from the Cymbalta withdrawals. I was a little unsteady and cold, but nothing terrible. I got into the shower and wow, it hit me hard, my legs got very weak and I felt nauseous and I thought for sure I was going to pass out. I slowly sat down on the bottom of the tub and waited it out. The room started to get really dizzy and I thought for sure I was going to have to call my wife and have her take me to the ER. After 4-5 minutes, I felt like I could stand up and carry on. So I slowly stood up and quickly soaped up and rinsed off and climbed out of the shower. My legs were still very weak, but now I was confronted with being ice cold and shivering. I dried off and went into the bedroom and climbed under the covers to try and warm up. After a few minutes, it wasn’t getting much better so I went back downstairs wrapped in a heavy blanket and sat in front of a portable heater.

After 15 minutes of being covered in a thick blanket, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, and sitting in front of the heater, I was still shivering uncontrollably. The rest became somewhat of a blur. I know that my wife took my temperature and it was like 96.4 and I know that I finally gave up and climbed in bed with a ton of blankets on me and fell asleep for a few hours.

When I awoke I was warmish, confused, and agitated, with a mild headache, rapid heart rate, muscle spasms, and in major pain. I mean every bone in my hands, arms, feet, and legs was on fire, it hurt to move it hurt to think about moving. I staggered to get my Gabapentin, which I know I missed my last two doses of, which is likely the cause of the pain. I took my gabapentin and make two slices of plain toast and sat on the couch, covered in a thick blanket trying not to move. I ended up retiring back to bed and slept for a few more hours, waking up in mild pain, confused, warmish and cranky.

My daughter and wife said that I was also having tremors.

Throughout the day, my temperature fluctuated between 96.2 and 100.8, I slept off and on all day and felt like crap the rest of the day. The next morning I woke up feeling somewhat better but not myself, still cold off and on, my temperature was still bouncing around and I was still tired.

Today it day three of being off work, I feel somewhat myself, but I have no energy and my temperature is still bouncing around. In the world, according to Google, it looks like I was experiencing a case of mild serotonin syndrome. Likely due to my stepping down in Cymbalta and the Sudafed, I was taking for my sinus. Though I checked with my pharmacist and there is a moderate interaction between the two, it is for blood pressure and heart rate, not serotonin.