Stepping Down

When I became pregnant in 2009, I had been in pain management since my third "party in the OR" had failed to help my endometriosis pain, so my doses were extremely high. For this reason, when I went to see my OB/GYN to confirm the pregnancy, she told me that I definitely couldn't just stop the medications. I had to "step down" and taper off them. I was on Oxycodone, MS Contin, Lyrica and a drug called Cymbalta. Lyrica and Cymbalta were both newer to me. I had been taken off Neurontin (a medication for nerve pain) by one of the ten million doctors that I saw in 2009 and had only started the two new prescriptions about a month or two before learning that I was pregnant. I wasn't very impressed with how they were working and I hadn't felt very good while being on them.

I inquired of by my doctor, "I've only been on them for a couple months, how hard will it be to step down?"

"Just follow this schedule and you should be fine," she reassured me.

The plan was as simple as coming off four drugs in a month's time could be, which is to say, not at all, but I had a road map and knew what to do. I reluctantly resumed taking my meds as my doctor had outlined. She was most concerned with getting me off the Cymbalta first. The plan was for me to take a half of my dose daily for a week, then I would take it every other day the second week. I wouldn't change any of my other medications for the first 3-5 days of the Cymbalta half dose and by the end of week two, I would be able to stop taking the Cymbalta.


I woke up the next day, took my half dose in addition to my other medications and went about my day. The following day, I woke up to the feeling of medication stuck and dissolving in my throat. I knew that I had washed down my evening meds the night before with a few glasses of water as usual and that I hadn't gone to bed with that feeling. I started pounding glasses of water trying to either extricate or fully dissolve the offending remnant of whatever-it-was that was stuck in my throat...to no avail. To top it off, morning sickness had begun to be the norm, so in addition to the crazy throat thing, I felt sick to my stomach for the majority of the day.  This left me with little appetite and very little energy. By the time dinner rolled around on the 2nd half dose day, I was having some serious issues. Without going too deep into TMI territory, let's just say that within 8 hours, I had spent time in the bathroom equivalent to 4 weeks of bowel movements.

As the smell of kielbasa and cabbage flowed from the kitchen in the group home where we resided, things took a turn for the worse. I started to throw up. With very little food in my stomach for my abdominal muscles to eject, it wasn't long before I was all out of ammunition and yet, the heaving continued on...relentless. I began throwing up anti-freeze green bile, ironically very similar in color to my Cymbalta pill. 

When it became clear that there was no end in sight on either end of my dehydrating spectrum, Jim took me to the nearest ER. They immediately hooked me up to IV fluids. I was severely dehydrated and it took hours for them to get my vomiting and diarrhea under control. "It's a good thing you came in when you did," the doctor said. "Dehydration can be very dangerous for the baby."

After several tests were run, it was determined that what I had experienced was nothing more than acute withdrawal from cutting my CYMBALTA dosage in half after taking it for LESS THAN TWO MONTHS!

I was in the hospital for 24 hours and still weak when I left to go home, but the baby was safe and I was relieved. At that point, there was no way I was taking any medications again during my pregnancy. I had clearly already been through the worst of the stepping down process. Why even bother subjecting myself to them again? The next few weeks were a bit rough emotionally and pain-wise, but thankfully, I experienced no additional withdrawal symptoms from stopping any of my other medications.

Turns out, I am not the only one who has dealt with severe withdrawal from Cymbalta.  In fact, just a few years ago, Eli Lilly (creator of Cymbalta) settled hundreds of personal injury lawsuits related to the drug's withdrawal symptoms.  For more great information on the Cymbalta lawsuits, please visit: https://fedupwithfatigue.com/cymbalta-lawsuits/.

God's Plan for My Uterus

At the end of 2009, I was at my wit's end. I had exhausted just about every medical option for relieving my abdominal endometriosis pain. I was tossed back into pain management and had scheduled a hysterectomy. I was BEYOND ready to have everything removed. I had already had my miracle baby that I didn't expect - thinking it was impossible due to my endo issues. We had adopted a second daughter. Our home and our hearts were full and I had just celebrated my 36th birthday. I just wanted to be certain that this was, indeed, God's plan, so I prayed. I prayed that if this was the next best step for me, that God would somehow confirm that for me and give me peace about it. As the hysterectomy date approached, I began the pre-operative process with doctor visits, calls to our insurance company, blood work and intake/registration.

Two weeks before my scheduled hysterectomy, I woke up with a stomach bug. I felt like crap, but the pain management regimen that I was on sometimes made me feel sick to my stomach, so I didn't think anything of it. I carried on but as the day went on, the nausea didn't improve...even after skipping my scheduled pain medications. The thought of taking anything in orally didn't sit well with me, so I rode out the pain waiting for the nausea to subside before finally popping a Zofran (anti-nausea medication) mid-afternoon. The medicine did it's job and I was back on my feet again...until the next morning. Same thing, different day and then again, the following day.



Make it a 2 pack, or else!



Suddenly, a thought dawned on me...Jim and I had been intimate. Could it be? I reassured myself that there was just no way that could be possible after having had 3 surgeries in three years, medicinal menopause for a year and with only one defective, polycystic ovary remaining.

When I woke up sick for the fourth day in a row, I asked Jim to go to the store for a pregnancy test assuring him that it was probably nothing. "In fact, please pick up a two pack. If the first one comes back positive, I'm going to want to retest because I won't believe it," I told him as he walked out the door to CVS.

He arrived home with the tests and I proceeded with the first test which showed a very faint second line indicating a positive. I took the second test the next day upon waking up and the second line was even more visible.

"I can't be pregnant!" I shouted at Jim. "I'm having a hysterectomy in a week and a half, for crying out loud! How is this happening right now? Aren't I too old for this?"

"It looks like God has other plans for your uterus," Jim said.

I had prayed and God had answered.  He did, in fact, have other plans for my uterus.

I called my OB/GYN to set up an appointment to confirm the pregnancy and for advice on the crazy pain management regimen that I was on. I began freaking out about the little peanut inside of me and how he or she was handling the butt-load of medications I was on for my pain. I didn't want to hurt the baby and I was so scared. I also didn't know how I was going to make it through the next three days waiting for my appointment.

2009: The Year I Had Too Many Doctors

It was October of 2008 and I was a little over 4 weeks out from my laparoscopic excision and left oophorectomy (ovary) removal. This had been my 3rd "Party in the OR" in as many years. I had spent tens of thousands of dollars on surgery with an out-of-network endometriosis specialist and was hopeful that things would now be on the upswing.

On October 18, 2008, I woke up and was unable to sit up without feeling like a knife was stabbing me in the left side of my abdomen - right at the bend as you sit upright. A few days later, I was forced to make another trip to the ER because the pain was horrific. They told me to check back with the surgeon. Every time I consulted with him, he said it couldn’t possibly be the endo since he had removed all of it. He ordered an MRI of my pelvis and abdomen and at the beginning of November, my husband and I drove down to Atlanta again only to be told that the results had come back normal.

The pain continued to get worse and, not knowing where else to turn, I returned to my primary care physician. She suggested that it might be nerve damage and started me on Neurontin and a muscle relaxer to see if either of those options helped. She recommended that I return to my area OB/GYN, the one who had done my first two laparoscopies.

The OB/GYN referred me to pain management and a gastroenterologist "just to rule that out". She said that the pain management doctor could give me injections to deaden the nerves since that was now what she thought could be the problem…nerve damage during my third surgery that wasn’t healing properly. This assumption was made by process of elimination. She upped my dosage of the Neurontin.

I saw the gastroenterologist and he suggested a colonoscopy to rule out any problems in that area.  He also had me do some blood work and a CT scan. The blood work indicated an enlarged spleen, but nothing dangerous. The colonoscopy was normal.

I met with pain management for the first time in January of 2009. They started me on a pretty hefty pharmaceutical protocol which included Neurontin, MS Contin and Oxycodone, but refused to try nerve blocks. I had officially become a zombie and spent much of the day sleeping and/or passing out in random places around my house...too drugged up to even care. I was out of work and homeschooling both of our daughters (ages 5 & 11) at the time. 

I met with the midwife CNA who had delivered my daughter, and she suggested pursuing alternative medicine. She also recommended a different pain management doctor who might be more aggressive at finding a solution rather than just treating my symptoms. I transferred my pain management case to the one she suggested.

The new pain management doctor was shocked that the first one had refused to do the injection nerve block. He scheduled a nerve block injection procedure, but I saw little to no benefit from them.

In July of 2009, I tried acupuncture for the first time looking for a more natural way to manage the pain, but really had difficulty with the feeling of it and didn’t experience much benefit, so I discontinued that therapy about 2 months in.

In September of 2009, my OB/GYN referred me to a second pelvic pain specialist. He did trigger point needle therapy in his office on my very first meeting with him and upended all of my pain management – put me on Cymbalta, and Lyrica and took me off the oxycodone and Neurontin. He referred me for testing for interstitial cystitis and pelvic floor physical therapy. He also had me try out lidocaine patches and some other topical creams which didn’t really help. Around the beginning of October 2009, he performed a pudendal nerve block to determine if that was the source of my pain but it didn’t help and would only have been a temporary fix if it had.

I saw a urologist who conducted the test for interstitial cystitis in October and the test results were negative.

I began having pelvic floor physical therapy 3 times a week that involved a sensor inserted vaginally which read muscle response. My pelvic floor was pretty much constantly in spasm. I was provided with a TENS unit which helped distract me from the pain a little bit. 

At this point, I was pretty exhausted from running around to a million doctors/providers. It felt like I was always at one doctor or another because I literally was.  I was also still seeing my ENT and endocrinologist as a result of my long-lasting side effects from the previous year's "Lupron Roller Coaster" ride.

Finally, I went back to my OB/GYN and scheduled a hysterectomy for the beginning of December in 2009, hopeful that it would resolve everything although she made no promises. I just couldn't handle being tossed around from provider to provider anymore. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. 

I saw AT LEAST this many medical providers in 2009.