Feeling Better and Better

Three Generations (that's me in the middle, feeling not-so-bad!)

Today I actually vacuumed my entire apartment (which is pretty tiny) and did some dusting!  When I finished, I was tired but not abnormally so.  I can't remember the last time I was able to do this.  

I had planned to begin taking Savella last week but I've put it off since I'm feeling so much better on just the Amitriptyline.  I wish I'd tried this a long time ago.  To anyone out there suffering with ME/CFS and/ or Fibromyalgia, give Amitriptyline a try!  It's one of the older tricyclic antidepressants (pre-Prozac) but I've read elsewhere that it was effective, so I guess I'm not the only one.

My parents have been visiting from NJ for the last month.  My mom kept happily commenting on how much better I seemed from when they first arrived (they flew back yesterday).  "You could hardly keep your eyes open" she commented on the phone today regarding the horrible state I was in. 

Could this really be it?  Have I found my holy grail?  I'm still very cautiously optimistic.  After all, I know it could be just a phase.  But in the meantime, I've been very slowly beginning to exercise again which is something I have missed greatly.  Before Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS took most of my life away, I exercised daily and was in pretty good physical condition.  I cannot say the same now I'm afraid.

On a less positive and completely different note, today I attended our small town's annual "Health Fair".  I don't have health insurance and they offer a wide variety of medical tests for very low rates.  For example, I had a bone density test, echo cardiogram and a thyroid/ kidney ultrasound for a grand total of $110!  Those tests would have cost way over a thousand at my doctor's office.  Everything came back within normal ranges except the bone density test.  The result was -2 which I discovered today is indicative of osteopenia.  Being that I just turned 39, this was a bit alarming, although it does run in my family.  My mother (who is 69 - sorry mom) has normal bone density but I once overheard a doctor describe my grandmother's bones as "chalk-like".  From what the technician told me today, bone density can be repaired by consuming more calcium but of course I'll be heading to the world wide web to check it out thoroughly.  I am so thankful though that my heart is in good condition!  I sometimes worry because when I'm not feeling well, one of the symptoms I experience is shortness of breath and the feeling that my heart has "skipped a beat" and it can be scary.

Amitriptylene is Rocking My World!

OK, I know I didn't have much positive to say about Amitriptyline in my last couple posts but I've changed my tune completely.  Between the vegan diet and Amitriptylene, I'm feeling better than I have in a long time.  Although, I'm not sure which is actually responsible for this change, if it's a combination of the two or something else entirely. 

I took this picture on my walk to Lover's Cove today, the first time I've taken a walk purely for exercise in weeks.  I put my earphones on and just WALKED!  It felt great!  I've also been taking fewer and shorter naps.  My muscles and joints feel stronger and are in less pain.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up and set myself up for disappointment later but I can't help it.  If it just ends up being a "good week" I'll deal with the disappointment later. 

My original plan was to taper off Zoloft, start Amitriptylene then, when the Zoloft was completely out of my system, start Savella.  I'm completely off Zoloft and up to a therapeutic dose of Amatriptylene but I'm holding off on the Savella since I seem to be feeling pretty well.  After all, I don't want to take anymore drugs than I have to. 

I'm feeling really well about the vegan diet too.  The stomach discomfort I had at the beginning is completely gone.  Oh how I pray this lasts!

Amitriptyline is Kicking My Butt!



I've been taking 100mg Amitriptyline for three days now and I and I feel like I've been living in a dense fog - denser than usual I should say.  I'm so tired and zoned out, I can hardly do anything.  The prescription is for 150mg per day so as soon as I feel more normal, I'll have to bump it up even more, which I can't say I'm looking forward to.  I've been off Zoloft for three days, so tonight I'm going to take the first dose of Savella from the titration pack.  I have a feeling this week is going to be difficult until I've adjusted to the new medications.  I've been having problems sleeping again complete with nightmares and disturbing dreams.  The body pain and muscle weakness haven't gotten any better either.  I really am tired of this medication cha-cha, withdrawal symptoms while going off, side effects of the new meds.

Wow - I'm just full of positive words today!

Zoloft for Fibromyalgia Pain?

Fibromyalgia Trigger Points

As I posted Tuesday, I've been titrating off Zoloft and replacing it with Amitriptylene so I'm able to take the Fibromyalgia drug Savella.  According to drug interaction information, Savella should not be taken with an SSRI so this change, as inconvenient as it is, was necessary.

Late last year, while conducting yet another of my countless experiments with regards to curing this dismal disease, I also weaned myself off Zoloft (as well as all other medications) in order to follow the Alpha Nutrition Diet for Aching and fatigue (original post).  I noticed when I was completely off Zoloft, that some of my symptoms, which had been absent for some time, returned.  I started again to feel as though I had the flu.  I felt feverish, sweaty and my entire body ached as one does when afflicted with a high fever.  I attributed it, simply, as another phase of the ever changing disease, however, I did make a mental note that the symptoms had appeared almost exactly to the day that I stopped taking Zoloft.

I hadn't read anywhere that Zoloft was being used as a treatment for Fibromyalgia or ME/CFS so I didn't put much stock in the idea that the timing was significant.  The flu-like symptoms did go away, though I can't remember the relationship with when I began taking Zoloft again.

Last night my two year old daughter had one of her infamous sleepless nights which, of course, meant I got very little sleep as well.  Anyone who has Fibromyalgia or ME/CFS knows that lack of sleep is a killer.  Last night, as I lay next to my daughter in her small bed, afraid to move a muscle or even breathe too deeply for fear she would awake, I felt my leg muscles begin to throb and ache, then, the pain slowly spread throughout my entire body all the way to my finger tips.  In what seemed like minutes from when my body started aching, I felt sweat begin to form on my upper lip and the fever-like chills began.  I thought,  "Oh shit!  It's back!".  I'd been fortunate to be rid of these flu-like symptoms for some time and it hardly seemed coincidental that I had taken my last Zoloft two nights before.

I've discovered through reading others' experiences, that treatments for both ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia vary greatly from patient to patient.  One of the strangest and most baffling things about these diseases is the drastically different ways they effect each sufferer and therefore, the methods of treatment that are used.  Zoloft!  Who knew?  If my experiment with Savella doesn't pan out, I'll be going back on Zoloft for sure!  If I can't be completely cured, at least I know some of my symptoms can be relieved.

Amitriptyline & Savella for ME CFS & Fibromyalgia

I'm still going strong with the vegan diet (day 26) and I really think it's helping me.  I posted the question on a couple different forums to see if anyone else had experienced cessation of symptoms after switching to a plant-based diet and I got mixed responses.  Some reported improvements while another wrote she had quit a vegetarian diet after becoming sick and found that meat protein had helped her.  It seems that like so many other aspects of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, diet also effects sufferers very differently.

I had a visit with my doctor last week and we decided I would try the last mainstream medication for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia I haven't taken yet, which is Savella.  Since Savella can't be taken at the same time as an SSRI, I'm tapering off Zoloft and starting on Amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant.  After I'm completely off  Zoloft (in two weeks or so), I'll start taking the Savella and see what happens.  I'm not getting my hopes up since no other prescription medication I've tried has helped, but I feel I have to try everything that's "out there" before resorting to more extreme measures such as B Cell Depletion Therapy which involves toxic chemo-therapy drugs.  If this latest experiment fails, I'll be making an appointment for a consultation with Dr. Andreas Kogelnik at Stanford who is leading much of the research being done on B Cell Depletion Therapy for ME/CFS in the USA.  I have some links and other information about this subject on my website: ME/CFS & Fibromyalgia Awareness - B Cell Depletion Therapy.

Frustration Mounts...

Tuesday was my much anticipated doctor appointment.  The visit was anticlimactic to say the least.  I shouldn't have been surprised, I wasn't actually.  I expected nothing and that's almost what I ended up with.  When I finally got to see the doctor (after sitting in the exam room for close to an hour and while my very cranky one year old tried to open every drawer in the room) she apologized for not having returned my calls.  She explained that the rhumatologist she consults with had been "out of the office" for the last two weeks and promised she would call him as soon as he were back in the office.  I told her I had been feeling worse and worse and asked if she could prescribe one of those fancy new drugs made specially to treat fibromyalgia.  I was so desperate for some relief.  In the past we'd ruled these drugs out due to their prohibitive cost, but I didn't care anymore, I had to do something.  If I had to, I'd cash in my 401K.  She agreed and prescribed the new drug Savella.  She promised she would call as soon as she spoke to the rhumatologist and that she would fax the prescription to the pharmacy.

A couple of hours later I walked to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription.  After checking with the Pharmacist, the cashier told me that they hadn't received anything from the clinic for me.  I sighed deeply and walked out the door while dialing the clinic on my cell phone.  My doctor wasn't available, of course, so the receptionist said she would leave a "call back".  I waited all day and even called again but never received a call.  The next morning I started calling again.  The receptionist at the clinic was shocked of course that the doctor hadn't called me back and swore she'd given her the message.  She was with a patient but the receptionist promised to "grab" her as soon as she was finished.  Later in the day someone finally got her to fax the prescription.  When I called the pharmacy they said they had received the prescription but that they didn't have Savella in stock.  They'd ordered it and would have it the next day.

The next day I called the pharmacy and they said the prescription would be ready around noon.  I picked it up at one, then my husband and I took our daughter on the glass-bottomed boat to see the fish which she absolutely loves.  My husband held her, carried her and pushed the stroller since I wasn't able to.  Afterwards, my husband saw a sign at a restaurants advertising a corn beef sandwich lunch special.  Since it was St. Patrick's Day, he decided he had to have one.  While he was eating I started reading the literature that came with the prescription.  About halfway through the first page, bold and in all caps it read "DO NOT take this medication if you are also taking an SSRI".  Shit!  I'm taking 200mg of Zoloft per day which is an SSRI.

After lunch we went back to the pharmacist and asked him about the conflicting drug interaction.  His opinion was that I shouldn't do anything until talking to my doctor.  Holy shit!  Was I an unwitting subject on some sick version of Candid Camera or something?  Could this really be happening or was it just another of those fibro induced nightmares I live through every night? 

We went back home and I got on the phone yet again.  I begged the receptionist at the clinic to please have my doctor call me right away.  The staff at the clinic must have thought I'd lost my mind or something. After all, how could so many things possibly go wrong day after day?  They again promised they would tell the doctor that she needed to call me and I thanked them for being patient with me and reiterated that I knew none of them was to blame.  I waited all day again and received no response. 

At this point I was so beaten down that I just cried.  Of course this made my fibro flare up even more.  My husband was so angry he was ready to kill someone.  I felt completely ignored and insignificant.  Was I just going to have to live like this for the rest of my life; like a cripple?  I waited another night, trying to be as patient as possible.  The next morning I called the clinic and demanded to speak to my doctor.  "I have to speak to her today...period."  I hated being a bitch but this was clearly out of control.  I was really suffering and my own doctor wouldn't even return my calls.  Finally, about an hour later she called.  "What's going on?" she asked seeming at first surprised at my desperation.  I told her about the drug interactions and she seemed confused.  She said she would have to research it and call me right back.  She did actually call back in about 20 minutes and told me not to take the Savella.  Since I had been doing so much research on the web, I suggested that I switch to a tricyclic antidepressant that had been shown to be more effective with fibro patients and that I would also be able to take the Savella at the same time.  She agreed but didn't know how slowly to titrate me off the Zoloft so she would check with her psychiatrist friend and call me back.

Who knows when and if she will call back.  Basically I'm no further ahead than I was before the doctor appointment.  I seem to be building an immunity or something to the drugs I am on because I'm feeling worse and my sleep disturbances are returning.  Last night I had nightmares about crushed baby skulls and many other terrifying scenarios.  I also spent most of the night awake on and off.  I slept on the couch so as to not disturb my husband.