24 replies to this topic

[SarahT]

Well things are soso.

Hubby madehimself go outside today so I could get a work outin.
I am still struggling dealing with everything and fighting to stay who I am and have alwase been.

Hubby has a full week coming up
monday is hus pyscology app tue is his psyciatrist app
wednesday is his unimployment hearing and I have to get all the info together

[SarahT]

I am concerned because I read on another posting about not injesting the balls out of the capsules. But that is how hubby was directed to come down from 60mg to 0. What happens when you do this do any of you know i am scared.

[nursedeborah]

Sarah,
My goodness is that how he took them? How did that get missed!!!! NO you can't take them
out of the caps. When you do you get the dose all at once! No wonder he is , and has been such a mess
as the dose would hit him all at once. That could explain his not getting any relief from the Xanax, or
even the other med he is on.

It is ok by now, nothing happened to him, well like he didn't die, he just really suffered more that I can
even fathom at all. It is bad enough doing it the way we are with the beads in the caps, let alone having
the dose hit you all at once. My God his doctor's all need to know what he did!!

This really does help in explaining so much of all that's been going on!

Glad you got him out of the house, that was good for him to do anyway, also that you got a workout, and
time for yourself! You really need that, and I would make him do it more often, and take all the kids with
him too. That gets his mind off what's going on with him.

Take good care, talk to your real soon.

Love,
Debbie

[SarahT]

I don't know what to do. It scares me but his dr will not listen to anything about the cymbalta nor will he take him off all meds I want one that is going to help him or we just stay on 20mg of citalopram until he gets through it.

I just need and want things tro get better. I can not take the lonleyness or the feeling like we are roomates.

[nursedeborah]

I don't know what to do. It scares me but his dr will not listen to anything about the cymbalta nor will he take him off all meds I want one that is going to help him or we just stay on 20mg of citalopram until he gets through it.

I just need and want things tro get better. I can not take the lonleyness or the feeling like we are roomates.

Sarah,
When is the next apppt.? You have not gone yet have you? I thought you said it was all coming up this week?
No one can do what your doing alone! You don't have any support other than here to really help you. Can you
get into therapy yourself, just for you? To help you get through this, and also help you better understand
what is really going on. It would really be a good thing for you. The other thing is a 12 step program that I
go to, and it's free, it's called Alanon, and you can just call the operator, and she will give you the phone
number, or go to alanon.org, and that is where you can find a list of all the meetings in you area. it's a
great program, I go several times a week to help me deal with other people, and what is going on with them
that I have no control over. It really helps me so much, and I know you would love all the people there, as
they would all have the same stories as yours someway or another.

Well I will be around all day if you want to talk.

Love,
Debbie

[SarahT]

This is how his week goes so far.

Monday
He sees his psychologist and to physical theropy for his neck problem that started all of this.

Tuesday
He sees his psyciatrist (who is rude, crude, and has a terrable bed side mannor) that is an hour away .and all we do is go in there for 30min and he just does what he wants anyway.

Wednesday
he has his unimployment hearing that I have to prepare him for but can't speak at

[nursedeborah]

Sarah,
You sure have a busy week. I just now got the fact that he was put on
cymbalta because of his neck!! OMG!

Do not forget to telll them both about his taking the Cymbalta beads
while he was decreasing as this will help them with what is going on.
I know the shrink is an idiot, and does not do what your husband
wants, and that's to take him off all his meds. Remember that he does
have the choice to take them or not!! So even if the shrink won't listen
he doesn't have to take what he's telling him to take. He can just say
it isnot helping, but also now that it's known he was taking the Cymbalta
out of the caps, this may really like I said help the doc to see it was
something else causing the symptoms!!!

I am sure that his taking the beads the way he did, did make it really so very
hard on him. I just can't even think what it might be like to get a dose hit
all at once, no wonder he is having a hard time.

You didn't say anything about your going to therapy or looking into Alanon?
What do you think?

Love,
Debbie

[SarahT]

I will look into it an as for theropy I go to my hubbys and speak openly with her about it all.

lol yes a busy week that is just hubbys stuff I have the kids stuff and trick or treating.

[nursedeborah]

Sarah,
Going to your husbands therapist is not the same as you having
one of your own where you go for an hour, and just talk about
you, and your life, and all that's going on. It just not the same.

At times like these one needs to have a person that you can talk
to and have them listen to you, and help you work through all the things
your going through. Talking to your husbands therapist is just not the
same, or useful in the same way as you having your own.

I do hope you check out the Alanon meetings, as they are so great, and
there you can also talk about what is going on with you in your life.
It is really helping me, and the people are so wonderful, and loving.

Just a thought.

Be good to yourself this week!

Debbie

[SarahT]

I am going to try most things were cancled due to the flu in our home

[MaureenV]

It's a great pity you can't work WITH your doctor to discuss what you're doing.


I was even able to take in one of the gelatin capsules I'd bought to show the GP, and show her how the capsules come apart (if you have a look at a doctor's drug listings book, there's no way they're going to know the ins and outs of each and every drug), and how I found out on the board how many beads were in each.

Are you keeping the beads you ditch to use later?


Maureen.

[SarahT]

We did not get rid of the balls half the 30 was put on a spoon and half was left in the capsul

[nursedeborah]

Sarah,
Do you still have Cymbalta? I see that it has been said that's it's ok to take the beads,
but just not to crush them. All I can tell you is that is not what I have learned from
being here, and doctor's know nothing about this drug.

I go by the people that have been here a very long time, or who have web site info
to back up whaat they say.

Alll I know is that since I have been here it has always been said to not take the beads
alone, and to always put them in the capsule. Why on earth does everyone buy empty
caps if it were fine to just take the beads.

You can always leave a message, for Houdi, and ask her what she says, she is the one
who runs this site, and that's who I have gotten most of my information from.

It is over with anyway, the only thing I was saying is that it might have been a reason
why he was having such a hard time weaning, and his withdrawls were so much more
intense.

How itt's going today with everyone sick? That much be really awful. What it just hit
over night, and you all woke up to it this am?

Drinks lots of fluids!

Love,
Debbie

[SarahT]

No it started out with one then it moved to the others we have 5 who hace yet to start it.

[MaureenV]

Sarah,

Completely off topic here, but I remembered you asking, and now I can't find where.

My doctor mentioned that opening the capsules and taking the beads is fine as long as YOU DON'T CRUSH THE BEADS! He said that he had a hospitalized patient that couldn't/wouldn't take pills so they mixed it in with some pudding. She could take it that way.

But again he warned that YOU CANNOT CRUSH THE LITTLE BALLS!
I wish I had BBCode so I could underline, bold and red that line.

He mentioned this because he thinks I'll be slicing the capsules open and taking the beads out. According to him, there's too many to count (hah!) and when I asked about working it loose, he thinks the capsules are sealed so that you can't. As you can tell I didn't tell him what I've been doing, just that I was scared to go from 30mg to cold turkey. In reality, I just wanted a few more 30mg's to make sure I had enough to get off completely.

I hate lying but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

O.k. tabby I done an experiment which confirms what you're saying and solves my query about WHY.


It's got absolutely nothing to do with 'getting the whole dose at once' which is a claim I couldn't understand, because what's the difference between washing them down (into your stomach) with a glass of water, or getting them down into your stomach via a capsule? The answer is that the difference is ONLY the risk of the little balls being damaged.

If no balls are damaged there is absolutely no difference. I just put both a cymbalta empty capsule and a gelatin empty capsule in body temperature water; before I could even turn around to put the timer on, both had dissolved to the point where ALL of the contents would be released into the stomach within a minute or two of taking them.

As I suspected, and queried the other day, they are NOT time release capsules, but they ARE time release balls.

I've been on time release drugs, which are specifically designed to NOT start disintegrating until they've left your stomach, quite the opposite from this.

If you took two people, one of whom took the beads from a spoon with a glass of water, and one who took them in a capsule, the only difference would be IF the person who took the beads damaged any with their teeth etc along the way.

Personally I feel the potential for that is quite high - my teeth have a zillion nooks and crannies where little beads could hide, then getting crunched with the next mouthful of food.

So I agree, the capsule is just THE SAFEST way of getting the time release balls into your stomach undamaged.


That is, unless you've swallowed your false teeth in your sleep, in which case you've probably got bigger problems coming up in the next few days than Cymbalta. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)


:))


Maureen.

[nursedeborah]

Maureene,
Love the thing about the false teeth. I hate to tell you we do do this at the hospital, crush all the
meds if the patient has a feeding tube, as some of these meds do not come in liquids as of yet.

With Cymbalta, and all we didn't know about this drug to begin with, I just wouldn't want to mess
with it anymore than I had to.

I still would never disolve these beads in h2o of take out of the caps, like you said the beads could
get caught. that's pretty cool the test you did, but rmemeber the acid in the stomach, and othe things
do work different than water when pills dislove, and at what rate.

this is off the wall, but i saw something last night that said the half life of this crap was 8-12 or 17
hours, but O know it is only a short half life of 4. Where can I find that kind of info?

Debbie

[MaureenV]

Hi Debbie,


Don't worry - I ain't messin' with Cymbalta - I wouldn't want to take the risk of even one getting caught in my teeth!


At least we all agree now though that it's not just matter of 'getting the whole dose at once' (which is no different either off a spoon or in a capsule), that the reason it's so important to take them in a capsule is so that they get to your stomach undamaged.


Agree about the stomach stuff, but most stomach contents would dissolve the capsule a lot faster than tepid water - I couldn't believe how fast it was - the cymbalta capsule actually dissolved faster than the gelatine one. Not that there was a huge difference - both were under a minute!

This is what I couldn't understand the other day with 'you're getting the whole dose at once' - either way, the full dose of beads is floating round in your stomach within a minute of taking the dose.

I also mentioned about some drugs (like one of the blood pressure ones I was on - Adalat) which WERE geniune slow release, and didn't start releasing their contents until the tablet had passed through the stomach.

I wonder where the Cymbalta beads start being absorbed?? I wonder if they ALSO don't start getting absorbed until after they've left the stomach???

I agree, I wouldn't dissolve them etc, but I do now accept there's little harm in a person very carefully swallowing them and making sure they wash them down properly, then rising their mouth properly. The risk is in them getting DAMAGED and releasing their dose.

I don't know about the info on the half life; you would think, given that information, that we'd ALL be taking split doses, rather than one a day. I actually did think of that earlier on - instead of dropping from (say) 10mg to 7.5, I thought it would be good to do 7.5 in the am and 2.5 in the p.m. for a few days. Might be worthwhile for you to consider. Bit late fore me.


I'm now down to 20 beads, and having had no effect from dropping five beads every day for a few days (once I got down to 30 beads) have had to stop and stay at 20 because the symptoms started to re-appear - a few zaps, felt floaty, a few blisters on my arm, 'tight' headache etc. Still, nearly there!

You sound a bit better today ????


cheers, Maureen.

[SarahT]

Well today kinda sucked..

the unimployment hearing was bad. His boss lied through her teeth really makes me mad.

Then I have been fighting with the school about one of my kids that has not been pleasant.

[Junior]

Sarah

What happened at the unemployment hearing? Did anything positive come out of it at all?

The school thing: which kid? Why? Can we help?

Grrr... you just can't get a break at the moment. Makes me cross. Grrrrrrrrr

Junior

[SarahT]

With the unimployment thing no much to be done.

And with the school I have an advocate who is helping me out.

No it does not seem that we get a break. I need to find some sort of work if only craffting. Bills are coming due and not much cash.

[nursedeborah]

Maureene,
I had found out about the half life on here being about 4 hours, but then when someone
said something nasty to me on another site, I did look it up, and it did give it as having
like 8-10+ hours as a half life. I just can't believe it, after what has happened, also how
fast it does work for me after I would miss a dose.

Anyway I am glad that you think I sounded better, as I have been having one hell of a time,
I know this gets old, but I am just stuck here right now, and have tried everything to get
myself out of it, and nothing is helping. I don't really know what to do, and I am even on
the Prozac 40 mg, and still so tired all the time, and so mucu anxiety right now.

It is PMS=Full Moon Symdrome,lol, no kidding, it like around the full moon's I really get
so out of it just like I did when I still had my uterus!!!! So that has alot to what's going
on with me right now too!

Didn't know I was going to get into alll of that, but thanks for listening,
Debbie

[Junior]

Sarah, I can't believe how much you guys are getting shafted. There must be something you can do re: the unemployment thing. Do you guys have someone higher up that you can refer this case to? I wish I knew more about the American system... grrrrrr

Thinking of you
Junior

PS -How is hubby doing now?

[SarahT]

Well that is hard to say .

It seems like he is getting some of his joys back. He alwase liked working on cars. And he has been wanting to work on it and half forceing himself.

it is nice to see. he plans on taking himself down another eomg so he will only be on 20mg. So we shall see.

Meanwhile my mom agrees with me while working I would be worring about hubby at home. Need to go back to school if anything.

[MaureenV]

Hi Sarah,


so glad to hear there's a speck of blue sky in your world!


Hope your kids enjoy Halloween this weekend. It's never been very big in Australia, but has taken off a lot in the last few years.

Do most households join in the fun?


A few years ago, one household was desperately scavenging around for something to give my daughter and her friend and they came up with sparklers, which they lit for them. The two girls went screaming along the footpath in the dark with their sparklers - they still remember it clearly - long after all the lollies have been forgotten.

regards, Maureen.

[nursedeborah]

Sarah,
That is great news to hear about your husband!!! It give me hope!
As bad off as he was, and for all that awful stuff that just happened,
yet he's actually thinking about working on his car.

Going to school would be a great idea, you can get grants for that!
They are free, and the money really helps!

Glad to hear it's improving.

Debbie