Vanessa, I highly recommend facebook to help keep everyone updated. My wife and I would get exhausted just returning all of the phone calls in a day, when we switched to just posting our status/updates on facebook it made thing sooo much easier.

I totally agree with you on the Prozac, I actaully told a doctor the same thing...of course I have depressed moments...I have cancer, who wouldn't? A bit further on in treatment though got rough for me and I lost it, but we upped the amitryptaline I was taking as a sleep aide and it got me through the hard time and we dialed the dosage back down to sleep aide level...of course I had to stop taking it because it stopped helping me sleep by this time.

Keep breathing and hang in there guys!

Eric,

Are you sure it was amitryptaline? Amitryptaline IS an anti-depression medication.

I was just talking about it with my doctor recently. Some doctors are prescribing it for "off label" usage as they are seeing additional benefits of the medication for people who have issues with insomnia and chronic pain and a variety of other concerns.

The most commonly prescribed sleep aids are Ambien (Zolpidem) and Lunesta.

I have insomnia issues...so this is one area where I have a fair amount of knowledge. Ambien comes in 2 dosages. If you are at the highest dosage, which is common for people who have insomnia, you can't dial it up. I know, I have asked many times.

Hi Margaret
just thought i'd chip in here honey.Amitryptilline is indeed an antidepressant but during research they have discovered it is useful for other things as well,so they jiggle with the dose.Rob was prescribed 10mgs at night for trigeminal neuralgia,and then when he was in hospice they gave him 25 mgs at night to help him relax and sleep.I think as an antidepressant they are given three times a day.

by the way nice to see you back in the swing of things and wading in here

love and hugs liz

Hey Liz!

Good to see you too!! Thanks for clarifying!! That makes much more sense now.

My doctor who wanted me to try it for insomnia told me there were no side effects to the medication...so I looked it up because I don't think there is a drug out there that doesn't have side effects...but, I didn't look at the different dosage amounts.

I've missed you Liz!

Actually amitriptyline has lots of potential side effects--sedation, appetite increase, dry mouth, constipation, etc. At tiny dosages typically used for sleep, the sedation is the most prevalent side effect (figures), but dry mouth, constipation are possible which is a bummer when the other cancer tx can cause the same things!

That is what I read...can you believe a doctor would say a medication has no side effects?? Sorry to have hijacked your thread Vanessa and Jeff!! :-) Hope you are both doing well!!

Well I'm very sure I was on Amitriptyline, I take nothing I don't know the ins and outs of. My drs where looking for an alternative sleep aide as I refused to continue to take Ambien because it's evil, I had horrible side effects from it. The side effects of amitriptyline are kind of a "good thing" in some aspects. Appetite increase was apparent which was good in my case as I was wasting away there for a bit and had lost 70lbs.

The sedation effect was what helped me go to sleep at first but it stops helping after a bit, I use Trazedone and Lunesta now to sleep. Dry mouth...I had radx to the head, I didn't notice a difference lol. As far as constipation goes, my pain meds are probably worse for that but I didn't experience that. Really the amitriptyline worked well for me during my rough patch and didn't work well for me for a sleep aid long term, but it did help for a bit. It's also used to prevent migraines.

Either way, I didn't feel it was a bad drug for me, it definitely did it's job and I didn't notice any "bad" side effects.

I am taking neurotin and that is for eptileptics, I take more than a friend of mines daughter with that disease takes and I just started another that is for soemthing else. 900 mg of neurontin seems like an awfully large dose the other is just one time a day so it is easy

Jim, actually 900mg of Neurontin/gabapentin is quite a small dose for that medication. There are many people who take a few thousand milligrams of it daily. Your friend's daughter is taking a very low dose if she's taking less than you are. Just an FYI, b/c the numbers sound big but mean nothing in comparison to other meds.

Jeff and Vanessa

First off, "even the Best fall down sometime". Everyone told me I was the toughest guy they had ever met and I certainly had a self concept of warrior. Yet, I sat on my couch and just wanted to die many many times during treatment. I should have cried though (held on until the recurrence and failed swallow test). You are hardly a baby to be knocked on your ass by this disease. Even to this day, there are certain songs that my wife and I cannot bear to listen to as they evoke those terrible terrible times.
One concept that will be helpful to you both once you are through this is "the new normal". Basically it means that radiation is the gift that keeps on giving and that even after all the TX is done, life will never be the same but very different. Hard as it is to believe, but you actually adjust to all this travail and sorrow and side effects. Feel free to vent here anytime as we are the only ones who truly understand what you are going through. Hope all goes well
charm