Duloxetine helped my pain so much. In this video, I tell you about my experience with this medication, including the benefits and side effects.
Hey guys, so i’m really gonna try to make this video and not edit it. i always go off on tangents, i suddenly just like pause and think about things, i’m gonna try not to do that just because it’s finals week, and i have a lot to do so, i don’t really have time to edit but i really want to put up a video. so anyway today i’m talking about something that has it’s a medication,
And i just- i’m just thinking back to how bad it was a while ago, but i do know that a lot of people have asked me for an update on this video that i did in august 2018 where i talked about duloxetine, so here is the update. so duloxetine is cymbalta. if you’ve heard it, that’s like the brand name. the most common brand name at least. i take 20 milligrams, and duloxetine to
Serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor snri, and it’s actually typically used to treat depression, 2017. i think december 2017, after my eds diagnosis. and it took me about two or three weeks, i want to say and i started feeling like a when i reflect back on all the pain that i dealt with before this that i realized how like i don’t even know like 60 -70 percent of my
Pain has been reduced by this one medication. it’s insane. and i just like have this in my mind that these memories of just like, everything i did hurt. like, and now it’s not like it doesn’t because it kinda does pain that’s just as bad, but it’s like my typical daily pain is just so much more managed. like something that’s really like, i’m so grateful for and also just
If anybody, you know watching this is thinking about starting duloxetine, like you and your doctor have talked about it or you’re actually interested in talking about it with your doctor, i’m just going to get into, like the ways specifically that it was helped me as well as the side effects, yeah, like i’m not promoting the medication or anything like i don’t know who i am,
Basically, the main things that has helped me with are really like daily so like when i used to walk like if i focused in on it, like every step hurt my feet. potentially a hip, probably not my back, and they put that that’s probably what it was. it was like those joints and if i, sometimes i didn’t have to think about at all, it was just like i literally can’t not think
About it because it hurts so much and now it feels like only sometimes when i’m walking am i in pain in those areas. like, if i walk for a long time then i’m definitely gonna have pain, but a lot of my pain that i have now is just it’s really helped a lot with the joint pain, not as much the muscular pain. but, it has helped by muscular pain in my neck. oh my goodness.
I used to wake up every single morning because of my pain. like that was my alarm clock, like i couldn’t- i can’t go back to sleep once i was in pain and i’d have to get out of bed immediately because my neck hurts so badly from lying (coughs) from lying down, and now it does and i wake up every morning with pain, but usually i’d say probably 60% of the mornings like i can
Stay in bed for a little bit. like, that was not possible and i’ve actually started snoozing. i know i don’t know if this is for the good or the bad. one side effect that i really want to talk about, which is like the main side effect, is that it makes me tired. i take it at night, by the way. i have heard of people taking at different times. i would not imagine that taking
It any other time would be good. like i really think that you should take it before bed, and not like telling you to take it before bed, because it makes me really tired, and it makes me sleep really really well. and i don’t really have lessened energy during the day at all, initially, i’m really tired and then it takes me probably 20 minutes to like feel back to normal,
But really like the first five minutes, i’m like, “oh my god, no!” but then i’m fine. i have taken 30 milligrams before. again, right now, i’m on 20 and i switched back down to 20 after maybe five months -four months on the thirty, because i felt like i was in like a dream like state. it wasn’t like, depersonalization or derealization or anything. i’ve had those before. but
That’s because of anxiety. that’s not what this was. it was more just like you feel very like bubbly and strange, and almost euphoric. but then at the same time not euphoric, and it just hard to think clearly and i don’t know. also didn’t even give me any more pain relief than the 20 did. which is really weird and i’ve actually spoken to a friend of mine who has taken,
I think twenty and thirty or thirty and forty, or you know something like that, and she said that her higher dose did not help more with her pain, but rather just made her symptoms- but rather just made her side effects worse. so that’s really interesting. i wonder if there’s like a amount for you, and then like it works, and anything more isn’t really gonna help anymore. it
Just like may cause side effects. so yeah, that’s really my experience. other types of pain that it’s helped with are really sharp pain, but i i still get them. it’s like i don’t really know why i get them, it’s just like suddenly like something will start killing for like, sometimes it’s 10 seconds. sometimes it’s like 2 minutes, you know, and one thing i have identified
Is that i used to get that a lot in my fingers and then about a year and a half ago was the first time i took that finger, i think it was this finger, and oh, i know what it was. oh my god- i’m sorry- i was drying my hands after washing them on a towel. it was this finger! now i went like this a little bit and then suddenly that same exact pain that i would get my fingers,
That sharp pain, came back and i was like “i but at that time i knew i had eds and i was wondering could it possibly be that my finger is just minutely like subluxed, enough to hurt me but not enough to see a difference in my finger by visually took a guess. i did not know which direction, i forgot which direction it went out and i pulled it back really hard, like really
Fast and hard in the other direction, it clicks, and the pain stopped. and i was like so basically, i guess what i get is very mild subluxation in like my fingers, that caused a really sharp pain. so i’m wondering if that’s what the cause is in certain joints where i got like a really really really sharp pain. maybe that’s where it is. i really don’t know. or maybe it’s
Some type of like nerve misfiring. uh, who knows, like i have bigger problems to worry about than talk about this specific type of pain of my doctor, but, let me think if there’s anything else i wanted to say about it. oh, also like, it doesn’t- it helped me with like, standing. i think standing is like the number one worst thing for me, it really did- oh my god it helped
With walking too like, holy crap. but also standing it’s helped, but i think that that’s improvement. that is like- there are two places where like, i feel like i’ve lacked a lot of improvement which is standing and my neck pain. well, i know i just said how great my neck pains been compared to how it used to be, but like, it really hurts still. and then standing is still
Really hard for me, um so i don’t- i wish that i could help more, but it does help. i remember i used to stand up for like one minute and i’d be like “crap, i’m in pain” and now it’s like five minutes-ten minutes, and i’m like “yeah, okay. hopefully i can stop standing soon, this is starting to hurt.” whereas, like a while ago if it was like 10 minutes i’d be like so, um,
Anyway, this is sort of just like a little ramble. i just kind of wanted to give you guys an update on duloxetine, because i know so many people commented asking me about that. i mean, if even if like your insurance isn’t covering it. wait- let me confirm that, hold on. because maybe mine is when insurance does cover it. i don’t think so. one second… duloxetine 20
Milligrams 16 dollars for a supply of 60 capsules um, that is really affordable, at least in my opinion. like, $280 a month before insurance covers it. insurance always, you know ends up covering it, once i you know, yeah, the family deductible. it’s not just me, let’s leave it there. i have- there’s other health issues, um, in the family. so it’s like, we always reach the
Deductible really early. so, at least that’s good in the sense that like, these medications are covered. but anyway, if yours aren’t which like, most people’s, like i don’t even know if you reach your deductible. i don’t know if that’s normal or not. i assume- assume not, but if you’re chronically ill i assume so. um, anyway, so, if you’re chatting about this medication
With your doctor, i just think that i- there’s barely any side effects, really just that tiredness and weird bubbly feeling especially when that dose is too high. and also maybe if there- if like you wanted to discuss with your doctor other pain options and even talk about, you know, medications such as duloxetine just to hear their opinion, then maybe it’s a good to bring
Up. um, but just, yeah just letting you know. okay. i will see you guys tomorrow. i think tomorrow i’m not putting up a vlog, but then the day after will be a vlog of today and tomorrow combined i think. yeah, i hope that makes sense. i have my final thursday. mm-hmm. all right. bye guys!
Transcribed from video
Duloxetine changed my life By Izzy Kornblau
