PUCKETT: If you're looking for trouble ...

Back to my docs today for all sorts of fun.

In the wake of last week's post about Cymbalta withdrawal, I listed all the side effects I was feeling, complete with descriptions. I printed out information about those side effects from various sites, including those sites that translated Eli Lilly's seemingly benign commentary about "sensory disturbances." I walked in with guns and bandoliers of ammo, ready to stay a while, not unlike Pike Bishop confronting Mapache.

And this is why I love my pain management doctor.

I handed him the printouts and he started reading them. He listened to me describe what was going on. I talked about the anecdotes and experiences of patients weaning off Cymbalta and other SSRIs and SNRIs and their methods to make the withdrawal as easy as possible. And, as usual, I pointed out that I obviously don't know where in the pain management pipeline I am compared to his other patients but, given that it was only approved for use in 2004 and I'm coming off it in the middle of 2007, I'm guessing I'm one of his first patients to do this, so right now, I'm the tip of the iceberg. And by the time I said that, he had already added all of this to my chart.

I couldn't have been happier with his reaction - which was action. He was writing notes, making plans to talk to colleagues who have researched SSRIs and SNRIs to identify how best to deal with the gap between 20 mg and 0, whether using a solution or another med. If the brain shivers haven't stopped in a couple of weeks, I'm off to one of the nearby medical schools or Chicago for PET and functional MRI scans because I can trigger the shivers through rapid eye movement so we can actually induce the condition. Like me, he's kind of curious whether anything will show up ... and what it would mean if it does.

While we both know that there's little he can do for me, this isn't exactly about me anymore. This is about working together to make things easier for everyone who comes after me, about his next patient who comes off Cymbalta and letting them know what might happen ... or being able to develop a better weaning schedule so it doesn't. And my approach to this is that I'll take the hit for the team if it will yield clinically or diagnostically useful information. Someone has to be first and it might as well be me because I know I can shake it off and get right back in the game.

And I thought all those years of hauling amps and sleeping on concrete floors and focusing on leaving everywhere better than I found it so the next band coming through would also be welcome were only quixotically noble.

I walked out of my doc's office today with an order for a full blood screen and liver panel. I walked out of there feeling like, whatever else I did that day, I had accomplished something. It may be a bit too late to treat my symptoms, but I've gritted my teeth through worse and, most importantly, my doc now has more information which he can use to help the next patient get through this more easily.

And that'll do, pig. That'll do.

For now.