Daily Diary of the New Fibromyalgia Drug, "Savella"

O.K., I am going to be totally honest here and tell you what has been going on with me so that you can use this information to maybe help yourself or someone you know.


I have been battling a serious depression for several weeks now and have to push myself to even get on the computer. This particular bout of depression is not the first I have experienced but I haven't had it this bad in years. It is the debilitating kind that leaves you very fatigued, uninterested in anything and can wreak havoc on your mind. In addition to this I found out that I have fractured my right foot and the hobbling has thrown off my sciatic nerve on the left side to the point I couldn't sit for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time.
I had an appointment already scheduled for a physical so I talked to my doctor about putting me on an anti-depressant.

I was given a prescription for a fairly new drug called "Savella". Savella is prescribed primarily for fibromyalgia patients because it is supposed help relieve the pain, clear the fibro fog and memory as well as work on the depression.

I have been on several anti-depressants over the years (not in the last 10 or so) and had terrible side effects so I am rather hesitant to try Savella. In fact, it has been sitting in my kitchen cupboard for nearly 2 weeks now. I made the mistake of researching it on the web and didn't like what I saw. It supposedly causes nausea, headaches, possible dizziness and may lead to suicidal thoughts. Great, that's all I need. The upside of this is that 10 out of 12 people in a post I read about Savelle feel it has helped their pain and energy levels as well as the foggy head and are thrilled to have found it.

After much prayer and talking this out with my husband (bless his heart for putting up with me for all these year) I have decided I am going to give it a try and I am going to chronicle the effects it has on me in a diary form on this blog.

Today was my first doze of Savella. I took 12mg around 8am as I learned from the web that you should not mix tramadol (a pain pill I have been taking) and Savella so I had my tramadol at 6:30 when I woke up.

I was told to eat a full breakfast before I took this medication as it can cause nausea. It is now a little after 11am and I haven't felt any side effects.

I plan to stay on 12mg for the first 3 days then increase it to 25mg. for several more days.
I am hopeful that I can ween myself off the tramadol as you are not supposed to mix the two since they are both lift the serotonin levels in your brain. I did ask my doctor about this when she first prescribed it to me but she said I was fine and even gave me a new RX for more tramadol. Go figure. I always do my own research because no one knows my body better than me and we can't all be generalized.

I hope this drug works for me because I don't want to play the guinea pig trying to find one that will work.

I will keep you posted.

Until next time :)