This is Barb in Louisville who takes care of Bill. He was given
Elavil a few years back when he first became disabled. It made him
completely paralyzed - he couldn't walk or do anything - it made him
worse. Of course, everyone is different and he was also taking other
medicines that might have strengthened the effect of the elavil. He
often "claims" that if he had not been given the elavil, he could have
continued to work with a limp maybe to this day. (He's in a wheelchair
now)
Now, I could be wrong about this part, but I think elavil is in the
family of tricyclics just like doxepin. Bill was given doxepin in 1995
(late) and early 96. He tried to tell the Doctors that he couldn't take
something like that. But they said to try. At that time, he was taking
mostly baclofen and neurontin along with it. (plus maybe a few over the
counter things off & on)....Anyway, it made him completely konked
out---he slept all day long in his wheelchair and when he smoked, he
would drop the cig to the floor and start small fires. Finally......he
collapsed and was found one morning, but I personally attribute it
mostly to the neurontin. But, it could have even been the flu. But,
the Doctors then attributed it to the combination of baclofen and
doxepin, the tricyclic. So, they then terminated the use of doxepin for
him.
Like I said, that is only our experience with it. Bill doesn't like
elavil. Not at all. I just wanted to give my 2 cents worth. I will
try to look it up, later, though to see if it really is a tricyclic. I
just know he had a real bad experience with that medicine. Don't mean
to scare you - as you probably are taking totally different things.
And...he might have a more severe problem with his muscles not moving
than you do---and he might take more over-the-counter stuff than he
should
Thank you for listening! Thanks to everyone on this board for all
their help,too.
I can remember when we used to be the only people dealing with TM that
we knew and we used to wonder if there was a better medicine "out there"
that we were not being given - but now that we are on this board, we
have a better concept of what is going on across the country with
everyone else. It really is a great help. Like I said, we could be
wrong about the elavil, but we did not really like it.
Barbara in Louisville