Posted by bleauberry on November 5, 2012, at 4:56:00
So last time I tried Savella a few years ago it helped quite a bit and fast, this after failed ECT and after years of failed meds. But never made it past micro doses and only a few weeks because the side effects were so intense.
The side effects were intense and included painful neck, bad headaches especially in the morning, nausea, small red lines in the skin, difficult to pee, tinglinig numbness in fingers.....all pretty much self explanatory norepinephrine related stuff. Savella is heavy on norepinephrine and I just happened to be overly sensitive on top of that.
This time around, at somewhat higher doses, all of the side effects are either nonexistent or minor. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear now that all those bizarre side effects were actually not Savella's fault. It was all Lyme stuff. Savella just happened to exaggerate it. The red lines for example I figured was boosted norepinephrine causing constriction of blood vessels, and a few of the small ones under the skin ruptured. That was not the case. The red lines were clearly Bartonella (common Lyme co-infection).
So anyway, what this taught me is many of the bizarre psychiatric symptoms we suffer can have something totally different than we think as the underlying problem.
With me for example....racing anxiety in the morning, deep depression all day, total anhedonia....this is obviously neurotransmitter stuff and needs psych meds, right? Wrong. It needed antibiotics.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1030712
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121029/msgs/1030712.html