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06-10-2004, 04:34 AM
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#1
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2
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Elavil - sleepy???
Hey!
I was just diagnosed with IC 3 weeks ago. This week my doctor started me on Elmiron and Elavil.
Elavil knocked me out 30 minutes after I took it and 24 hours later, I still feel DRUNK!!!!
Haven't taken another...
Is this normal? Will my body get used to it, and the side effects become lessened?
THANKS!!
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06-10-2004, 09:38 AM
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#2
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ICN Member
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Eastern USA
Posts: 5,461
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What dosage are you on? I take 25mg at bedtime and it made me really sleepy the first few days, but then it lessened and I haven't felt that way since.
I have a non-IC friend who was on Elavil once and said it made her feel drunk - I think she was on 50mg.
__________________
Kim
Diagnosed August 2001
Current IC meds: Elmiron (since 2001), Levaquin (one pill after intercourse to prevent UTIs), Lexapro (since 2003 for depression & anxiety, but also helps my IC)
Past IC meds: Amitriptyline (Elavil), Hydroxyzine (Vistaril), Detrol LA (They all helped, but I was able to discontinue them.)
My IC story: http://www.ic-network.com/patientstories/kim.html It's very outdated now. I've been virtually symptom free and able to eat & drink whatever I'd like for several years now.
*****************************
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” ~ Viktor Frankl
“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.” ~ Brian Tracy
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06-10-2004, 10:45 AM
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#3
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ICN Staff
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 10,489
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I take 25mg at bedtime. It does not make me feel sleepy and I do not have problems the next morning. I think I read that it does take a few days for your body to adjust but, when I began taking it, my doctor started me out at 10mg and I adjusted right away. It also began relieving the pain right away. It is what gave me back my life. 
__________________
Sharon
Shopping??? Did someone mention shopping? I'll get my hat... ;-)
Where I can be found most days.
If not there, then here
Link to the ICN Patient Handbook:
http://www.ic-network.com/handbook/
Link to the IC Diet:
http://www.ic-network.com/diet/
IC Volunteers are not medical authorities nor do we offer medical advice. In all cases, we strongly encourage you to discuss your medical treatment with your personal medical care provider. Only they can, and should, give medical recommendations to you.
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06-10-2004, 07:49 PM
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#4
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ICN Member
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Michigan
Posts: 834
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Hi there! Elavil does not really make me sleepy before I go to bed, but after I'm sleeping, it's very hard for me to wake up. It used to be worse when I first started to take it. It probably took a good week to not feel the sleepiness so much. I feel so much better taking the elavil, that I just cope with this side effect. I take 25mg at bedtime.
I hope you find a way to take it that helps you. I have heard of people cutting their dose and also cutting the pill in half. Talk to your doctor to see if this is an option for you if this continues.
Take Care!
Jennifer
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06-11-2004, 12:43 AM
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#5
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ICN Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Ontario
Posts: 88
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I was very sensitive when I first started it for my fibromyalsia and had to cut the 10 mg in half. My doctor said to take it at around 8 pm so I did not feel as groogy in the morning. I have been on it over a year and now take 10 mg at night and when I am in a fribro flare I take 20 mg.
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06-11-2004, 04:52 AM
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#6
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ICN Member
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,049
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Elavil
I would recommend that you start at 5 or 10 mg per night. What you are feeling is very normal for Elavil and it does go away after about a month. To make it easier cut back the dosage.
Ginny
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06-11-2004, 05:01 AM
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#7
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IC Friend
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,782
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I started on 25 mg of Elavil & upped it to 50 mg after a week. I always take it at bedtime. I felt drunk for a couple of weeks, but that feeling DID go away. I would try to keep taking it if I were you. This drug is a lifesaver for many IC patients.
Karma
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06-24-2004, 09:56 AM
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 56
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I'm so glad to have found this post. I think I take 25mg ( I can't remember b/c of the Elival and I have switched my meds so many times in the past 2 months I get them mixed up) at bedtime. Last night was the first dose and I felt totally loaded this morning. I did fall asleep almost immediately after I took it for about 30 min and then woke up and was just kind of sleepy until I fell asleep. This morning when I work up I did feel (and still do- it's 1pm) really tired!!
I am also on Zoloft and recal feeling this way too when I started and it did go away.
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06-26-2004, 06:24 AM
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#9
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ICN Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: California
Posts: 28
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elavil
I have been on Elavil for my IC and vulvodynia for 6 years and it has really helped me. I started by cutting the 10 mg. in half and over 6 months I worked up to 50mg. It took me about a month before the "drunk, sleepy" feeling went away. Don't give up, that feeling does go away. 
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06-26-2004, 05:58 PM
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#10
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: NC
Posts: 7
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I'm on 150 mg of Elavil. It doesn't have much of an effect on me, but I've known people who are particularly sensitive to it.
__________________
Endo, chronic pelvic pain, IBS, IC, LS, FMS, CFS, GERD, possible adeno
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07-11-2004, 06:59 PM
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#11
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IC Friend
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: So Calif
Posts: 140
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I couldn't take it. I started at 25mg, then a week later took half the pills at night, still felt hung over after a month. It also made me a total witch. I even started to have retention problems.
6 months later of no antidepressant, I am taking Paxil. I am on my first week of it and don't have the same BIG feeling of hung over, but I am tired from it.
Good luck!
__________________
~leanne
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07-11-2004, 07:20 PM
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#12
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Support Volunteer
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: California
Posts: 6,011
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I started at 10mg, then increased to 20mg. One thing the doctor recommended when I went up to 20mg was to stagger the dose. Take 10mg at 7pm and the second 10mg at 9pm for a 10:00 bedtime & 6am wakeup. He said that might reduce the extreme grogginess some people wake up with.
That worked fine, then eventually I just started to take them both at 9:00 and that's okay now.
__________________
Kadi
-------------------------------------------------------------
I am not a medical authority nor do I offer medical advice. In all cases, I strongly encourage you to discuss your medical treatment with your personal medical care provider. Only they can, and should, give medical recommendations to you.
------------------------------------------------------
This week's favorite one-liner:
"I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by...
New second favorite:
"And which dwarf are you?."
Adding a third because I'm just so darn easily amused...
"Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines."
Current treatments:
-IC diet
-Elavil 20mg at night
-Ditropan 5mg at night
-Continuous use birth control pills (4-5 periods/year)
-Heparin/Marcaine/Sodium Bicarb home instills every night & sometimes in the morning also
-Pyridium if needed, usually once a week or so
-1 Darvocet at bedtime,
-Flexeril 10mg at bedtime
-Dye Free Benadryl for allergies occasionally
-Pelvic floor & myofascial release (external only) physical therapy for 8 weeks, then home exercise program...
-Managing stress
-Fur therapy: Hugging the cat! 
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