Cymbalta Round 2 - 20mg First Week
This time around, my neurologist wanted me to try Cymbalta again, he feels that if we start off slow and increase the dosage slowly this time he thinks that some of the other medications I was on were hindering the effects of the Cymbalta. So this time he wanted me to start off with 20 mg for two weeks and then increase to 40 mg for two weeks and then finally to 60 mg. Everything online states that 60 mg, is when the effects on nerve pain are achieved. So I want to at least try to get to 60 mg this time. If you remember the last go around I had with Cymbalta I never got to the 60 mg dosage. So I will see if I can stick with it this time around.
The last time around, I neglected to account that I had gotten stung by a wasp on my hand, which swelled up pretty good, making me go to Patient First to make sure it wasn’t serious. Well, they took it very seriously and wanted to make sure that I didn’t have an allergic reaction, so I was taking two Benadryl every 12 hours, and a Pepcid every 8 hours to combat the reaction, then I was given an antibiotic (Augmentin) and Prednisone (60 mg) to help with the cellulitis. Well, sure enough, being on Prednisone will most definitely cause you to not sleep and if you do, wow the dreams are really messed up, to say the least. I also neglected to account for my doctor not tapering me off of Prednisone will certainly cause joint pain and night sweats.
My first week of Cymbalta wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t without incident either. The morning after my first dose, I woke up after sleeping OK for the night, but I was clenching my teeth in the morning. Now the clenching is a Cymbalta withdrawal side effect, so that should go away soon enough. But I was tired that first full day. The rest of the week continued with OK sleep, but I woke up around 4 a.m. (which is a few hours earlier than normal), but I’m again pain-free, which is nice. Now when I say pain-free, I mean that a majority of the most annoying and nagging pain is either a 0 or maybe a 1-2 on the pain chart, which is great. I have also noticed that my heart rate and BP are back in the normal range.
I did have to play around with the timing of when I took the Cymbalta, settling at dinner time instead of in the morning. I also learned that I can’t take Cymbalta and Gabapentin at the same time, there needs to be at least an hour’s separation. If I take them together, then it will be lights out for me in about 30-45 minutes.
I did notice that I’m yawning all the time, and I mean all the time and they are one after the other, which is annoying. I do hope that goes away. I noticed that from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. (one hour after I take my morning Gabapentin), I’m dragging ass, which is not normal, it must be the interaction between the Cymbalta and the Gabapentin.
Welcome to the Average Joe Weekly blog. This is basically my place on the web where I can help spread some of the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years. I served 10+ years in the Marine Corps on Active Duty, but that was some 25 years ago.
Being tired all the time was probably one of my biggest complaints when taking both Cymbalta and the Gabapentin at the same time. I just couldn’t stay awake. I was drinking coffee like it was going out of style. I’m sure Starbucks was loving me during that time in my life.
That was one of the main reasons I stopped taking Cymbalta. I couldn’t stand being tired all the time.