Anyone using Trazodone and or Klonopin?

[Hollyd]

I have been taking 100mg of it at bedtime for sleep for many, many months before all this started. I also take 1.5mg of clonazepam (klonopin) at bedtime as well.

Since this started and I'm going 40+ times a day and may even go to bed with a fair amount of pain, when these drugs kick in I sleep like a baby all night.

I know people try various antidepressants w/ this, I wonder if I'm already on the right one though as I kind of wean out of it when I wake up the problems start again. I'm now wondering if taking some during the day would help, or maybe it's the klonopin relaxing pelvic floor muscles or some combination.

Just wondering if anyone else has experience w/ these.

Holly

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Yes klonopin is used to treat IC and PFD as well as for other nerve pain conditions. Some people take it in small doses during the day. My mother was taking the dose the doctor suggested and it wasn't working all that well and the side effect was causing her to stumble, then she split the dosage in half. It has helped her more than the larger dosage.

Maybe you can call your doctor and ask him if you can take some during the day or lessen you night dosage and take what you remove during the day instead. Good pain symptom mgmt. provides constant coverage, not just coverage during the night. Your body also might be withdrawing during the day, whcih can make one fill miserable. It doesn't mean you are addicted, it is just the body becomes used to having the medicine. Sometimes, I sleep a little long and start withdrawing from my meds and that feels like being hit with a truck! Ugh!

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[sami4]

Klonopin

I was taking Elavil for pain and PFD which worked wonders for me. However, I was just diagnosed with a sleep disorder and possible restless leg syndrome and they felt Elavil may aggravate this. I was switched to Klonopin 0.5 mg at bedtime to be raised and adjusted as I need. I find this is not drying like the Elavil, and Klonopin also is a precursor to GABA which is the hormone of sleep and rest, a double win.
I still have not thrown out my elavil though, as if I ever get a bad bout of urethral pain, I would still pop one or two.
Klonopin is a good choice for sleep, nerve pain, restless leg and pelvic floor disorder spasms as a muscle relaxant.
Sammi

[Hollyd]

Thanks everyone. That's interesting to hear about klonopin. I'm experimenting w/ taking a small amt. of my night time amt. during the day. I'll let you know the results I get.

Holly

[curlycue]

Meds

Hi ladies Ihave a question, why dont you ladies try a sleeping aid, like Ambien. It works really good for me.

[Jo Jo]

Tradazone

Hi
I have been taking trazadone (desyrel name brand) for 5 years now and it works really well with sleep and depression.
IC associated with sexual intercourse mainly
thats when I flare up or with a real urinary infection.

Elmiron 3x days
HRT
Desyrel 150mg at night

Prosed every now and then
I am now trying the to make use of my hot tub every once in a while stopped using it thought it was causing UTI's but now experminenting with it once again. The IC is really horrible when in a flare makes you want to just stay in bed all the time.

Jo Jo

[Qooty]

Does anyone else take Zoloft? Any side effects that were bothersome?

Hi,

I am not an IC sufferer but my wife (holly who has posted on this thread) is. But I do take zoloft, for anxiety-related stuff.

holly tried the zoloft once but found it threw her periods way out of wack and didn't seem to help with anything else, so she discontinued it.

As a bloke, I have found it helpful for calmness and lower tension to some extent, with side effects being some small moments of slight nausea (a lot near start then tapered off), and to this day (after a year) quite a bit of tiredness from it. I think that's the only real thing that I don't like about it.

Hope this helps a little.

Kev

why dont you ladies try a sleeping aid, like Ambien.

Hi. I asked my wife and she discontinued it because she had some pretty severe withdrawal effects each time it cleared from her system, but apparently that's not at all a common reaction, doesn't happen to people often.

[ICLori]

I just was started on trazadone and find it extremely helpful for going to sleep and remaining asleep until morning when it is time to wake up.

I do still appear to need some pain relief at night in the form of Ultram, but not every night, and we will see how that goes. But trazadone does not appear to irritate my bladder at all (most meds - including Ambien - do irritate the heck out of my bladder) and it really really helps me with sleep (I think it's almost a miracle drug at this point) and besides making me very sleepy, and then I go to sleep, I do not notice any side effects. I do not feel groggy at all when I wake up in the morning. Perhaps that is because I am taking the lowest dose that can be prescribed - only 25mg.

I do not know if the trazadone will be effective for me long-term (only been using it about five nights now) but I hope it might be.

Blessings,
Lori

[sami4]

Klonopin

I have been on 0.5 Klonopin at bedtime for a week, didnt feel that it helped with staying asleep at all, I still woke up three times. Then I took two of them, increased my sleep time by one hour. Either this stuff is worthless, or I am not taking enought of it? When I took the two 1.0 mg total and got up once to pee, I felt kind of stumbly, but then next morning I was fine?
Sammi

[Hollyd]

Trazodone working for me

I just wanted to report my success w/ trazodone.

I had been taking 75 - 100mg at night for sleep because of terrible insomnia. Once IC symptoms started I might suffer all day w/ pain and freqency but by the time the traz. kicked in I slept very well.

I have started taking 25 mg. 2 times during the day in addition and I have been pain free and have no frequency issues. I'm even trying sitting a bit on a soft pillow. Normally any trip away from the house that kept me from the bathroom for more than a few minutes resulted in tremendous pain the next day. I had one doctor appt. that kept me out for a long while and started the trazodone that day and was miraculously fine the next day.

The only major hiccup in it was something related to the CT scan I had where the next day I had major pain.

I've been on it for a week and am really enjoying being pain free and frequency free and will not push my luck by going out for a few more days yet because it's been pure hell. I did take a 20 minute walk yesterday which was impossible b4, I'd just walk out the driveway length, go back and go to the bathroom, go out again and go curl up fetal to avoid pain. Crazy!

Jo Jo, that is sooooo encouraging that it helps w/ sex for you. I hope I have the same luck!

Holly

[armslee]

Klonopin- my experience

I began using Klonopin for bladder and urethral spasms. It did help me sleep initially when I took it as my doctor prescribed 1mg dosages 3 x per day. However, I couldn't take that amount during the day and be functional so I adjusted my dosages during the day from .25 to .50 and now I take 1 mg when needed.
This drug is an antispasmodic/ muscle relaxer. It isn't a sleep medication.

I have insomnia now after building up tolerance to all my drugs so I now take Ambien at night.

Klonopin has worked wonders for me. Because of the drowsiness factor though, some should possibly explore options like Detrol LA first. It helped my spasms alot but made my stream very weak so I had to quit taking it.

[Hollyd]

Trazodone Revisited - how much do you take?

My good results w/ Trazodone did not last in terms of pain relief though my frequency went down and stayed down since taking it, even though I stopped it for a long time (months?). I ended up stopping it because of hassles getting it imported into Australia and now that I have that all sorted out I am giving it another try. I still take my 100mg at bedtime and have been taking 2 25mg doses during the day. It's really doing nothing for the pain. I am thinking of trying 25mg more during the day before giving up on it during the day.

It makes my mental confusion insanely bad though, I can't do anything of any consequence that takes mental powers anymore which is an insane way to live.

I was just wondering, those of you who take it, how much do you take?

Thanks.

[wolfaleena]

ic lori hi:
I here that you are being helped sleep with trazadone // is it a sleep aid like ambien or lunesta. i wake up just about every 2 hours and sometimes every 1hour i am so sleep deprived . i have tried ambien and lunesta but neither of them worked. lunesta gave me these night terrors it was awful. i take ativan and vaginal valium and oxycondone liquid for pain. also on a ton of med, elmiron neurontin celexa celebrex foxsomax plauenil (lupus) i can't function any more at all. i can't get any sleep. i will ask my doc about trazodone and or klonopin. any one else have good sleep result with any other meds? thanks

[sternsmk]

Klonopin works for me, Trazadone doesn't

After my second child, my IC (freq and urg for me) came back in full force and the freq and urg were so bad that they were painful. I had post-partum anxiety on top of pain and it was horrible. I'm usually an optimist, but it was bad. I was hospitalized for 5 days to get the meds straight. I was given 50mg Trazadone to help me sleep, but it didn't work. They titrated me up and I was given 150mg Trazadone a few days later. While it did make me somewhat sleepy, it did not reduce my post-partum issues and made me VERY very nauseated. I woke up every morning around 6 am and threw up for almost 15 minutes. It was terrible for me. I had to wean off of it slowly. Finally, I was put on Klonopin to help with the post-partum anxiety - which it did - tremendously. But it also amazingly helped my IC. So, I discovered Klonopin in a roundabout way. After 3 months post-partum, my period returned, and my anxiety completely went away. My hormones normalized and I was my own self. But I have stayed with the low-dose of Klonopin everyday for the bladder improvements.

I take 25-50 mg of Tramadol (Ultram) everyday, and now, at night, I take .5 mg of Klonopin. Even when the tramadol doesn't help that internal pain/irritation, it is almost gone entirely after each night's Klonopin. I know that we don't all have the same symptoms or severity, but for me, this is managing things and I am sleeping better. I also find that when I do get up to pee, I can fall back to sleep much easier with this med combo. I also use Ambien when I need it and still wake up refreshed. Sometimes it builds up after a few nights and becomes too much, so I back off and take 1/2 an Ambien or none at all. The key for me is the Klonopin. I discovered it haphazardly with the post-partum issues and seeing a psychiatrist, but it has worked wonders for my IC. I am not "normal" but I am functioning fine - I am finally learning to manage my IC...that is the key for me. I was diagnosed at age 28, and now, at age 34, I am finally starting to manage it. Hallelujah.

The key to my managing this is to see a uro-gynocologist for Elmiron and pelvic floor issues. But I go to pain management for my ultram and a psychiatrist for the Klonopin and Ambien. I don't want to "beg" a urologist for pain meds, when I can easily go to pain management and bring my urology chart and be treated that way. It seems easier for me to have an ACTUAL pain chart from a doctor's office. That way, someday, if I need to switch doctors, I have a chart from pain management that I am taking with me. Or, if i need to switch urologists, I do not have to worry if the new urologist will give me my pain meds. I have different doctors for different things, and I have legitamate charts that I can travel with to show that I am managing this responsibly. Now, instead of trying to appeal to a uro for pain meds, I can manage it myself. I feel far more confident this way. I feel like I am in control of how I am managing it, and that makes all the difference.
Meredith

[wolfaleena]

meredith: thanks for sharing that!
Very happy for you.
I have been on kolonopin (helped with anxiety, not with any ic symptoms at all) but like you stressed we are all Different!
I go to pain management doc and am on very strong pain meds around the clock.
Thanks again for your story. Again, i feel very happy for you and i hope you have continued success!