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/.