Pain relief?

[Escapologygirl]

Hi endo community I've been on pain relief for the last 2 years as since being diagnosed with endometriosis thats spread to bladder and rectum in 2018 noone will touch me for surgery and have been referred to the endometriosis clinic in the Coombe hospital Dublin with a couple years long waiting list, I was on ponstan or mefenemic acid 500mg 3times daily but now its not really helping me with the pain anymore, I've now been prescribed amitriptaline and I'm wondering if any of you have experience with this pain med? Good or bad as I've just realised this is an antidepressant?

[A44M]

Hiya, I’m in a similar position re wait list in Scotland and I take codeine/ Dihydrocodeine, and naproxen for pain. I also have a back issue which I use these for too.

I’ve just stopped amitriptyline after using for over a year for pain and to prevent migraines. I sometimes go back on to it depending on my back pain. It used to be used commonly as an antidepressant years ago at very high doses, but isn’t used much in that way anymore. Your prescription wouldn’t be at the dose they originally used it for I’d imagine. It can make you very sleepy and can give people brain fog, though I didn’t experience brain fog. If you take it at night it reduces the sleepiness for the next day so I usually took it early evening so I wouldn’t struggle to get up in the morning!

I didn’t find it to help my endo pain unfortunately.

Hope that helps in some way.

[Escapologygirl in reply to A44M]

Thank you so much for your reply and wow that's really helped me understand. My dr said to take it at night too , I have a lot of back pain and down the left hip and leg and my period is not due for a few days yet. So it'll be that plus the horrible endometriosis period pain

[A44M in reply to Escapologygirl]

Yeah my specialist wondered if I have sciatic endometriosis as around my ‘period’ I get that too. The joys! Amitriptyline could work for that as it’s good at targeting nerve pain. Anything is worth a try is my take!

[Escapologygirl in reply to A44M]

That's exactly what my dr said and thank you for sharing your experience, I don't feel as isolated now

[Cailleach]

I would agree with taking amitryptyline earlier in the evening to avoid morning drowsiness. It doesn’t make you sleepy immediately. As has been said you will be getting it at a much lower dose than would be used in depression. You can start at 10mg and go up to 50 I think, you can work out what helps your pain and doesn’t cause a hangover effect.

It does sound like you might have some nerve pain, with the pain going down your leg. If you don’t get on with amitryptyline there are other nerve pain meds your GP can prescribe.

You can also take this along with other pain relief such as codeine, and/or anti-inflammatory meds, as possiblynot all your pain is nerve pain.

Hope this helps xx

[Escapologygirl in reply to Cailleach]

Oh wow thank you so much for your reply and thats really helpful thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, I wasn't aware I could take it with meds like paracetamol.