RE: RE: arthritis joint like pain (cherry)

July 15, 2003

I'm a lot like you, Cher, in that the interferon got rid of my joint and muscle

aches. however, once I finished treatment, it returned with a bang. Now tho,

it's not my joints that ache but my muscles that burn, muscles I didn't even

know I had.

I think, and this is just my opinion, that once hep c has " triggered " something,

like joint pain, lupus, fibromyalgia, etc, that when you clear the virus that

doesn't mean the thing it triggered goes away too. That is a separate deal.

I test fine on all my routine labs. You'd think I was the healthiest person

around, except for the hep c and fibroymyalgia and chronic fatigue.

My primary and my therapist are working together with me to help me with my

fibro and chronic fatigue.

Yesterday in fact, I went to see both. 6 months after my high dose interferon

cancer treatment, I should be feeling better. And I do some, but not enough.

I wouldn't be able to work if I had to. I'm also trying to lose weight. I

gained a ton on both treatments (it increased my thyroid and I was very

sedentary) and I needed to lose even before treatment.

These same drugs prolly won't make YOU feel better, or work the same way for

you, but they work for me, so they are just an EXAMPLE.So here's what I'm

doing...

I take Wellbutrin twice a day. That is for depression and it perks me up, gives

me a little energy.

Fish Oil - twice a day to help cholesterol and triglycerides (my trigl. are

high, but cholesterol is great).

Trazadone - one at nite for sleep (normally I sleep about 2 hours at a time and

that makes me hurt more. With a sleep aid such as this, I can sleep 7 - 8 hours

at a time and my body gets stage 4 sleep, the stage at which the body repairs

itself, and I honestly don't ache as much the next day! It's amazing.) I was

taking Elavil for this, but we are concerned that it triggered my chronic hives

(remember, 2 years of itching!).

Zonegran - once nightly. This my therapist just prescribed me yesterday. It is

normally prescribed for seizures, but has shown it works well for people in

pain, esp against migraines (which I have thanks to the hep/fibro), against

neuropathic pain, and works well for weight loss. He said that he has had

people rave about the weight they've lost using Zonegran. Course there's always

the % who don't respond or react well to anything, and I read all the possible

precautionary stuff. (ALWAYS read the fine print).

This in particular sounds promising....

" A very exciting recent placebo-controlled trial published in JAMA April 9, 2003

issue by Kishore Gadde, M.D. et. al., demonstrated a significant weight loss in

obese patients taking zonegran at a dose of at least 400 mg per day. At 32

weeks, the average patient demonstrated a 9.4% weight loss. They lost on average

4 inches in the waist. Patients lost weight in week 16 to 32 (although at a

slower rate than week 0- 16 ) so the final weight loss is not known. This data

adds to other data seen in epilepsy patients which found weight loss as well. At

least one study suggested that females were more likely to lose weight than

males. "

quoted from http://www.loftusmd.com/Articles/AED/zonegran.html

So we'll see what happens.

neuropathic pain is =

" When neurologists think of neuropathic pain, we are refering to pain being

caused to the peripheral nerve fibers themselves. Descriptions of neuropathic

pain by patients typically include words such as burning, shooting, stabbing, or

electric like and not aching or crushing. The distribution of pain will be along

the course of a particular peripheral nerve or a group of nerves of similar

length. For neuropathic pain, nonnarcotic pain relievers are generally not

helpful. Narcotic pain relievers typically have initial success but many times

patients have to keep increasing the dose. Neurologist have learned that othe

types of medications - such as tricyclic antidepressants and some anti-epileptic

drugs (AEDs) are very useful in this type of pain. In addition, steroid or other

nerve blocks are also not particularly effective. The approach to a patient with

neuropathic pain when seen by a neurologist will be very different when seen by

physicians who consider themselves pain specialists.

quoted from http://www.loftusmd.com/Articles/Pain/overview.html

(I am using this doctors website to quote from cuz he makes it very readable.

This doesn't mean he's the best person to know about it, just that he was easy

to find on the net and seemed the easiest to read about that particular thing.

He has some links to other things that might be interesting to heppers, like

meds used to treat neuropathic pain Keppra, Lamictal, Neurontin, Tegretol and

arbatrol, Topiramate, Trileptal, Zonegran

So Cher, I'd say, find a doc who will work with you over time to eliminate

possible triggers for your pain and try some different meds to find the ones

that work best for you. Sometimes feeling bad could be as simple as low

postassium, (which isn't really simple cuz it makes you really sick). But you

won't know that unless you have a doctor who is looking for all those little

things that can make us heppers and once upon a time heppers feel bad.

Without my therapist, I wouldn't be making the progress I am now with my

antidepressant. I found out I can't take the newer SSRI's, they make me

depressed. I have to take Wellbutrin, which works on Dopamine. The older meds

like Elavil and Trazadone don't bother me as much. They make me sleepy when I

take them, but not all day, just enough to get a good nites sleep.

Keep working on it Cher. It's rarely a simple thing that fixes us. It's more

like trial and error.

Good luck

Alley

alleypat@...

http://home.comcast.net/~alleypat

http://alleypat.livejournal.com

" Thou reeky dizzy-eyed pantaloon! " from

http://www.tower.org/insult/insult.html

July 15, 2003