Amitriptyline and shakiness

Mema,
I don't know the drug but I have a rule of thumb...if there is a side effect that is uncomfortable or dangerous I first tell my GP or perscribing doctor and then if necessary (like in the case of hives or an alergic reaction) I stop the med.
Could the shakes be a side effect of dehydration? Have you been drinking enough fluids? Has the med caused your pouch to run more?
Try upping your fluid intake and tell your doctor what is going on.
Sharon

I Googled for side effects of amitriptyline and it did list trembling as a possible side effect

You may need to dial back the dose and increase it later, but more gradually, or just take a smaller dose. Maybe a different tricyclic antidepressant will be better tolerated, but they all have similar side effect profiles and can cause tremors.

Don't discontinue it suddenly!!

If you are taking any other drugs or supplements that effect serotonin levels, you need to stop them and/or notify your physician about them. You can also talk with your pharmacist.

Jan

I'm on less than 40 mg which really is a very small dose. I'll cut it in half and go from there. My surgeon is on vacation until the 6th, so forget that.

Feeling a bit discouraged and depressed and the darned pill that I'm taking for my stomach isn't even helping with the depression. Wondering if taking it isn't making it worse.

Dosages for pain/IPS are lower than needed for depression. You may need another antidepressant for that, but probably not a tricyclic. You can talk with your primary doctor about it. No need to wait for your surgeon on this. Your primary doc probably has more experience prescribing this stuff, since depression is so common.

Jan

Hate to go another pill right now. I'm on so many for my stomach. I think I'm depressed because my husband just died three weeks ago, my only sister is in the hospital with Congestive Heart Failure, my stomach starts to make horrid noises when I get upset (which has been quite often lately) and then the gas starts with the pain until I relieve the gas which doesn't always happen that easily, and I'm dealing with a remodeling job alone now that has gone bad. I'm sure that there are other "little" things that I haven't acknowledged yet. Yep, my life is a soap opera, and I don't know what to do about it.

Baby steps.
Prioritize and only do what is needed to get by in the begining...a little bit every day but not a huge chunk all at once.
You need energy and that is what you are lacking right now due to the shock and stress of the recent events.
Get all of the help that you can especially from your kids.
Also, now is not the time to make any huge decisions so go slowly and do not forget to eat good healthy foods and to take care of yourself.
Sharon

Just curious, if I stayed on the med, would I eventually be able to tolerate it, or would I never be able to? Jan, do you know?

I was put on it for my daily migraines. I went up in dose gradually as 10 mg for a week, then 20 mg for a week to eventually 100 mg. It took me 10 weeks to get up to the dose my new neurologist prescribed. I decreased off of an antidepressant I was taking the last 4 weeks so that when I got to week 10 I off of it. Simultaneously I decreased the medication I was taking for the migraines.

The net effect was I went from taking 2 medications to 1 medication. That one medication is working out well for 3 things, my migraines, depression and IPS. I am grateful for being able to have Mayo doctors working on my case. He told me this prescription was going to help with my j-pouch problems too. This is because he knows what a j-pouch is! My Mayo GI referred me to neurology because he was also looking at the total package of my chronic illnesses and not just my GI tract.

I got a little off track here but think you are right in questioning what your medication is suppose to be doing. My goal is to get down to 1 thyroid prescription. I take a handful of prescription medications daily and am tired of being a biological/chemistry experiment. I'm not a petri dish or a beaker that you can throw all of these chemicals in to see how it reacts but that is how I feel. How did my grandparents do so well during their last decades? None of them took many medications.

Sorry I did not respond sooner. But yes, often, with time, your body acclimates and the side effects tend to resolve.

Jan