A Quick Word about Duloxetine.

I have been taking Duloxetine for more than 3 years. I ran out once and had to wait a week for a prescription refill. During that week I had the usual withdrawal symptoms such as "brain zaps" or lack of concentration, but overall I felt awful. I think a great deal of my depression is related to pain. Before taking Duloxetine, I started taking 2 vicodin every morning and after doing so, I felt like showering and getting dressed was somehow easier. I was more productive on days I took vicodin in the morning. I noticed an even bigger improvement when I started taking the Duloxetine. Now I use Vicodin more of an as needed basis, which is better for my liver.

When I read the PubMed posted on Twitter by @fibroaction, I was happy to read “In addition, the efficacy of Duloxetine was found to be due to direct effects on pain symptoms rather than secondary to improvements in depression or anxiety." It's tough to just "walk off" chronic pain at such high levels.

It's good to see other patients will benefit from this pain relieving benefit and I am not imagining things. Sometimes pain is so frequent and intense, it really feels like I'm crazy. I may be a mental patient with depression, but I fell less like a nut today.

I'm Ready To Live

Who wouldn't want to stay in their nice comfy bed after the alarm goes off, but my snooze button addiction had become out of control. Today, I tried something different. I used my new phone as an alarm clock this morning and there was a way to name my alarm. At first, I called it, "Wake up asshole!” Possible left over attitudes about morning left over from boot camp. Then I thought about waking up to calling myself an asshole first thing in the morning and realized I was going about this all wrong. Perhaps it wasn't my fatigue that was keeping my hand on the snooze button, maybe it was my attitude. So I changed the name of my alarm to, "If you wake up this early, you are going to have a great day!” You know what, it worked. I didn't hit the snooze button. I stopped the alarm, got up, had breakfast and even took all my meds without having to remind myself. Maybe I'm onto something. I have been so negative for so long. A good friend asked me recently why I think things continue to go down hill for me. My answer was I always think, "What next?" Today, I see that I have reached that point of letting go of "What next?" and allowing the true feeling of, "I'm ready to live" and start my day.