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Monday, March 26, 2012

Decreasing the Pristiq dose again

I met with my doctor last week, and he advised me to stay at each decreased dose of Pristiq for at least 2 weeks before taking another 25 mg step down. That means on the day after my colonoscopy last week, I started my decrease down to 50 mg of Pristiq.

And guess what! So far, so good.

Other than headaches, at least one a day, I haven't had any major discontinuation syndrome symptoms. I can usually take some ibuprofen and it calms down to a tolerable level.

I had a bit of a rough time the night before my test, as I had been doing my "purge" prep for the test. That involved lots of laxatives and lots of pooping. Of course, even though I took my pill well after I'd taken my last bunch of laxatives, I still found the pill, whole except for some of the coating, in the toilet about an hour later. It's a time released pill, so I don't think much had been absorbed.

And I felt it later. Or rather, I felt something later. Maybe the fasting made it worse. I had weird headaches, and that familiar zappy feeling in my head when I woke up in the morning. I couldn't take my pill again, or drink any water because of my test later that day, so I wasn't feeling great. It waxed and waned all day until I took my next dose a few hours after the test. I took 75 mg, and then decreased to 50 mg the next day.

So here's hoping this gradual decrease keeps working. It's been a lot easier than the cold turkey approach.

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