The Cymbalta nightmare

Okay, some background. My Primary Care Physicia, or PCP, sent me to a podiatrist because of my foot pain. After some significant time in his office, he prescribed Cymbalta for it and had some free samples to give me which I cheerfully accepted.

Here is the post I made on diabetes.org this morning:

I took Cymbalta for nearly thee months and it nearly wrecked my life.

I'll never support the use of Cymbalta for DPN or anything else, for that matter. It works, yes, but there is a host of detrimental side effects that go along with it. Do your homework before agreeing to use it. Personally, the risks are not worth it to me.

The podiatrist I was going to suggested it and informed me of NONE of the side effects to watch out for. He only said that it's supposed to help with the foot pain and he prescribed it because the pain it was waking me up in the middle of the night.

Again, what he didn't tell me, were the side effects:

1. Insomnia. Yup. That's exactly what happened to me. So, instead of waking up for 30 minutes on many (but not all) nights with foot pain, I was waking up every night for 2 hours with no real clear reason as to why. BTW, this is the most significant side effect listed on the Eli Lilly web site. You'd think the doctor would have mentioned it and told me to watch out for it.

2. Elevated blood sugar. Unbelievable, eh? It's supposed to be a SLIGHT elevation but really, now, are we supposed to battle our own body's lack of blood sugar control AND battle a prescription drug too? Jeez. BTW, I stopped it cold turkey about three weeks ago and my BG levels have been getting lower since. Could be a combination of things but . . . . Regardless, I'm interested in controlling BG at every possible level and I do NOT need something working against me, even if it's at a low level.

3. Elevated Triglycerides, elevated LDL, lowered HDL. Again, I was battling these things, working hard to get them under control and Cymbalta was working against me. Unbelievable. I still don't have a final verdict on my lipids but at this point, I hate to think that there is a possibility that I could have had another drug added to my list of pharmaceuticals to control lipids and worse, one which I might not need. At the very least, I'm thinking I might need less of it if it comes down to it.

4. Lethargy was the one that nearly wrecked my life. I'm still catching up from the productivity losses I suffered at work. I'm amazed I wasn't fired during that time. The only way I can describe it looking back to when I was taking Cymbalta, is that it put me into a zombie like state. Since I stopped taking it, I've feel like I've reawakened. My productivity is literaly multiples on top of multiples greater than it was while on Cymbalta. I'm awake again and getting things done.

5. Urinary dysfunction. I was having symptoms which appears, for all intents and purposes, to be the same as the symptoms for prostate enlargement. Difficulty starting, reducde flow, feeling like the bladder is not completely empty, taking a long time to urinate, etc. I was just about to ask the PCP to start dealing with it, which would most likely have resulted in the need for YET ANOTHER prescription
drug. Once I stopped taking Cymbalta, those symptoms dissapated gradually over the past three weeks. There is still some residual effect but I think I'll wait to attempt to determine if the Cymbalta is still working its way out of my system or if I really do have a slight prostate enlargement or if the Cymbalta did some permanent damage. I don't know yet so I'm still reserving judgement. It is clear, however, that stopping the prescription use has improved that part of my life.

6. Sexual dysfunction. Again, I was just about to address this with the PCP and would most likely have ended up with another prescription drug such as Cialis or Viagra. Not really what I want but I don't want to be deprived, either. Just as importantly, I don't want my life mate deprived. Problems included not having a full erection, not being able to sustain an erection to orgasm, less satisfying orgasm or long LONG delays in reaching orgasm and not reaching orgasm at all. Notably, ALL of these problems went away within 36 hours after stopping Cymbalta.

7. Suicidal ideations. I didn't have anything seriously along these lines, but I was starting to get discouraged about the failings I was having. See #4 above. The problem is, you know you're failing but you can't do anything about it. Scary stuff, really. Some anecdotal incidents on the web sites out there include putting people on suicide watch. This could have resulted in yet another prescription for
depression, although Cymbalta is used for that, as well so who knows? Was I headed in this direction?

8. Cardiovascular issues. This one didn't seem too significant, however, with diabetics, would you want to add risk to an already risky situation in this area? Not me. I don't know and will never be able
to tell if Cymbalta caused any permanent damage. I'll be watching for class action lawsuits, I can assure you.

9. Nose bleeds and dry skin. Putting these together here because they may be related. Fact is, my nose bleeds have tapered off significantly and the dry skin patches have shrunk in size dramatically and are less dry. Still battling some nose bleeds (never had nose bleeds before Cymbalta) but they are tapering off, finally.

Net savings on not taking Cymbalta is at least FIVE fewer prescriptions at a co-pay of $30 each on my current insurance plan for a total savings of probably $150.00 per month. To say nothing of putting that many fewer unnecessary chems through my system. To say nothing of improving my quality of life dramatically. Already.

Google it. There are four benefits/uses listed for Cymbalta compared to a laundry list of potentially detrimental side-effects which will stretch from floor to ceiling and that's no exaggeration. Well, maybe a little. But the fact is, even mathematically, you will hit several of those side-effects. Which ones are you willing to live with?

I will say this: It did stop my DPN for the most part. Not completely, though, and mine isn't all that bad, either. I question the value of it for a guy like me who can take some Advil or Tylenol for the few times when it's bad enough to warrant that usage.

All I'm saying is, do your homework first. The podiatrist, I suspect, got a boat load of samples from a drug vendor/salesman and just dumped it on me without reading the insert. Who knows? I can't accuse him with 100% certainty, but at the very least, he didn't do his job with me.

I suppose the same applies to all care you receive from your physicians: Do your homework, folks. On EVERYTHING.

--Wag--