Anyone Else Trying Savella For Fibromyalgia? (Page 13)

This is a new medication that just came out for fibromyalgia. I have several other conditions involving spinal degeneration , herniated discs, arthritus, etc.
I've been taking this medication for a little over 2 weeks now and have worked up to the full dose. My biggest symptom seems to be upset stomach but I don't know if it's from the Savella or from de-toxing from 7 other medications that I've been on for over 10+ yrs.
Is there anyone else out there that has started this medication that can give me any information that they may have on it?

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Thank you Gibsoch. I appreciate the prayers. My hubby also noticed an improvement in my mobility while taking the Savella. He said I also seemed to have some energy back. I guess because we live in our bodies we don't notice the small things, but those around us can see the difference. I hope you are able to find a doctor soon.

I finally got an appointment with the Pain Specialist. I don't see them until April 6th. They wanted me to wait til May but I had to insist on an earlier date. Can you imagine????

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Jami, I feel so bad when I hear about a young mom having to deal with this. I couldn't imagine dealing with the pain and having to handle small children. Luckily when my symptoms first started my children were already teens. Plus, my hubby was really good at helping with them. Thankfully, now that I have full blown FM, all my children (8 of them) are grown and live on their own. I couldn't imagine any other factors being thrown in with this disease. UGH!

I hope you find answers, hope and friends. We are all in this together! Hugs!

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Rebecca, it seems as though people do not realize what we go thru each day. It is so hard to explain to someone. The only way I have been able to describe it is that I have flu body aches without the flu, and heck some days that doesn't do it justice. Good luck with your doctor! Let me know how it goes!

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Gib, you are so right. People don't understand what we go thru each day. My hubby has a hard time understanding just the ordeal I go thru to get up each morning. And housekeeping??? Why does it take me most of the day to vacuum? Or wash dishes? Or do laundry? Household chores are an uphill battle. Throw in all the other little things that crop up and suddenly that hill has become a mountain. I really wish everyone could spend one day in our bodies to see what it's like. They wouldn't wish this disease on anyone!

I happen to be the board whiner so you can be assured I will let everyone know how my doctors visit goes.

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Rebecca -- you are too sweet! It is hard to be a mom and keep up with feeling this rotten. Some days I do okay at it - other days -- well like today -- I am still in my pj's and just coping! But...I hold on to hope that some day it will be better and I will be able to do all the fun things we use to do and not be in pain when I do them. I don't want my kids looking back and thinking gosh - mom was in bed all the time I also run a pretty successful home business - I am a consultant with Tastefully Simple. So...life gets challenging often with trying to feel well enough to keep up with it all. Thank goodness for a supportive husband and friends! And...lots of amazing prayer warriors!!! Looking forward to getting to know some of you on here better!
BTW -- I live in Columbia, SC!

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i started Savella January 20,2010 and had to stop taking it Feb 3 due to extreme nausea. after a weekend of feeling like the flu was gone the pain came back so intense that i started the Savella tirtration pac again on the 17th. Now after being on it at 75 mg/day for four weeks i have had to stop again. i went to the ER twice in the past week for shortness of breathe and panic attacks so severe that my co-workers thought it was a heart attack. the shortness of breathe started suddenly 3/10 and has not stopped. there doesn't appear to be any heart or lung problems, so the Rhumetologist said to stop and see if i could breathe again, he had never heard of the shortness of breath being a problem before. he also said to be prepared for serious rebound pain. i am afraid this had me very nervous. after two months of pain at an 8 or 9 i am afraid of how much worse it might get.i have missed 11 days of work so far this year and my boss isn't happy but says he will work with me as long as possible. i was diagnosed with fibro about 10 years ago and have managed to remain functioning with very few people realizing how sick i really was but this medicine has whipped me bad.

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Hi, haven't posted in a while. Been feeling terrific! I haven't been back to the doctor yet since I started accupuncture, but the sleep doctor had told me the combination of wellbutrin and savella was the most likely cause of savella, and he told me to have my doc work the dosages down. Well, I just couldn't wait that long and am feeling fine, so I quit taking the pm dose of savella and wellbutrin, and I have had no negative effects at all. Best of all, I am sleeping again (like a baby 8 straight hours) and my pain is nill. I haven't taken anything for pain in a week. I am so happy that I tried the accupuncture. Heck, my pain doc, regular primary caregiver and the sleep doctor all told me that accupuncture can be helpful for fibromyalgia. They were right! I am so happy to not have the pain. i lost ten pounds (probably fluid) and I'm happy! I hope that you all will recognize there is potential out there, if you are willing to try something, do some research, talk to your doctors, and give it a shot. I went from severe pain to no pain. No headaches anymore. I just wanted to do the accupuncture because I was not willing to just let it be. I am willing to do the hard work. I'm willing to excercise and eat right. I'm willing to pay cash out of my pocket instead of blue cross blue shield. I'm willing to cut the medications off. It's working me and it beats the heck out of pain and crying about it. I've been horseback riding, gardening, walking, working, visiting, had dinner with friends. It's real nice to get my life back. Good luck to you all.

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whoops just noticed, savella and welbutrin combination caused SLEEP disorder (not savella like I had erroneously posted) typing too fast, my gosh! It IS that great!

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I am still loving the Savella. I actually went out dancing Sat. nite and could still walk Sun AND I didn't hurt!!! So nice to enjoy life!

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In doing some research about FM, diet, exercise, etc (anything I can basically find) a question came to mind.

Has anyone diagnosed with FM later found out it was a different diagnosis altogether??

The reason I ask is because so many FM symptoms can be related to other diseases. And I wonder how many docs stop at the FM diagnosis when in actuality it's totally something else.

Just thought I'd ask!

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I have a friend who has lymes disease - verified through testing. She told me if you have been treated with any type of steroids that lymes wil not show up. I personally don't know if I believe anything about fibromyalgia other than it does exist, but can be cured through holistic measures.

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posting to Theresa and Tessie, you guys still out there? I still want to pursue either an online get together (chat) or a conference call, would the prescription-drug folks find out if that was doable through prescription drug-info, or allow us to exchange email addresses so that we can talk?

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Second day off Savella. My breathing is nearly back to normal but the pain is returning. I am so disappointed. The Savella had my pain down to 0. Once the nausea let up it was great. Has anyone else had similar problems?

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Okay -- Day 3 of savella is kicking my butt! Wow! Feel like I got hit by a train and the stomach is horrible! Not looking forward tomorrow b/c today is the day I take my methotexate too -- so Fridays tend to be not fun anyway! I have to say that I am holding out hope that it gets better!

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Jami, the nausea is really a pitfall (it seems) with Savella. However, it does get better if you're able to stick with it. It took about 3 weeks for my stomach to get back to normal. The benefit I got from taking Savella was worth it though.

Hope everything works out.

Lori, I am also waiting to see if there is anything doable with prescription drug info and this board. I've looked into other avenues and they may be an option for what we are looking for (chat, posting, conferencing, etc).

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I am no longer taking the Savella and the pain is back but, blood pressure is down and I am not angry all the time. Have any of you tried to take asidopholis (sp?) I take it everyday and have not had an IBS for along time. It may help with the stomache issues associated with the Savella

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I just started takin Savella today. I am not sure about the Fibro thing though Doc says I have it. Depends on which one I go to though. Anyway. I used to take Prozac for depression but it stopped working for me so have only been taking about 15 vitamin and mineral pills a day for hte last 3 months. Nothing else. I am getting Savella on my own not from a doc without a prescription from a Canadian pharmacy since I do no have healthcare and cannot afford to see a doc or pay the fees here! Wish me luck!

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Be careful to make sure it is a legit pharmacy because you never know if you are getting the real thing. This medicine is so hard on the system I would hate to see what would happen if it is not manufactured correctly.

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hI Westerlu.. acidopholis for the stomach - I've heard it is helpful, but when I eat it in yoghurt (naturally occuring) I puke. It is probably because of the yoghurt, but it's not something that I do. I had been taking the prevacid for stomach issues, and am supposed to take one every day due to a past ulcer that perforated. I don't use the capsule, I cut the top of it off and just ingest the granules. The IBS is bad for many people, I had bad bouts of that in the past. All I ever did to relieve the severe bowel cramping was to drink plain hot water. It calms the spasms and you will feel back to normal shortly therafter. I could explain that, but... just try it. it is only water and it will not hurt you. :)
take care, good luck - and to the new fibro gal who is taking canadian drugs, please consider finding a free clinic in your area and then call the company that makes savella - they have a form you can fill out and get a 3 month supply from them through the doctor. the doc has to fill out the form but it is worth it. Please do it for yourself and for everyone that loves you.

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Hi Lori and everyone else on this board. Thank you for bearing with us over the past few weeks, as we have been dedicating our energy to upgrading this community's infrastructure. This has hopefully resulted in faster site performance and enhanced security for everybody.

We still have every intention of creating community chat features, but before pursuing such major upgrades needed to ensure that the site was running on a stable enough server to handle the added load. I hope this makes sense.

As to exchanging email addresses, we certainly cannot make them available on the site for the public - we might be able to facilitate more live interactions if you could use our contact form to let us know what time zone you are in and typically what the best days/times would be for you to connect with other members. We could then send out a group email to those who have reached out and attempt to facilitate a meeting time that way. It could also be helpful for us to get a feel of how a live interactive session would work.

Wishing all of you the best and may you feel better on a daily basis!

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