I have been supervising my friend's neuropathy for a couple of years now. A person in 24/7 pain can't see
far into the future, instead they are focused minute by
minute, hour by hour with their pain management.
It's easy to fall in a trap where your body gets accustomed
to the pain meds and you need more to achieve that same
effect, a downward trend in the long run.
I created a custom regimen for this person that I monitor
often, to ensure they follow the plan. It's focuses on the
basics, diet and excercise plus heavy dietary supplementation. It's work in progress and the regimen
can change often as needed.
I think this regimen has other rewards in spite that pain
reduction may not be realized in the short term. I honestly
believe that if this person didn't do this regimen, they'd
be in bed all day and getting worse over time, not to mention the weight gain and water retension side effects
of all the drugs taken.
I have to keep supervising to ensure the regimen is executed daily as I have a long term vision that the
health will improve over time. Be optimistic
While the pain is still there, some of the other smaller
rewards add up and improve the quality if life.
In spite of being heavily medicated, the regimen I put
in place has allowed that person to get a part time job
five days a week, about 5 hours per day. This person has
been doing this job for 1 year now. Excercise is great,
there is weight loss, the water in the legs is gone, the
cholesterol test yield a score of 152, and the big home
run was the spa therapy, which now opens the doors
to optimize the pain pills and how you take them.
Big changes are in the works.
*No more cholesterol medicine
*On demand Vicodin vs. schedule
And last weeks experiment, to go cold turkey and remove
Cymbalta from the regimen, the anti-depressent drug
that may offer nerve pain relief. The doctor prescribed this
medicine in addition to all the other meds, but honestly,
we don't know if this drug is offering any pain relief after
1.5 years of taking the drug. It's now time to get off the
drug and monitor the pain scores.
About 36 hours after getting off Cymbalta, during lunch
last Sunday, my friend went from feeling normal to
a massive headache as if someone threw an axe in the
skull. We didn't know the cause. Only until the next day
did I look into 'Cymbalta withdrawal' and found lots of
data on 'brain zap'. The dose is 30mg daily, not a high
dose, but nonetheless the withdrawal even on a low dose
can be a shocking experience, perhaps more pain than
the neuropathy itself. The big headache was only a 1 day
event, the next few days and even today the headache remains, hopefully the detox will be a short period.
Often, patients can't see the light
