Jan,
I just sent a response to Colleen!

Hi Jen,Like you I am looking for pain relief. I'm 65yrs old suffering with self diagnosed fibro because I haven't yet had a Dr tell me what my pain is. Started with pain in neck and especially right shoulder 36yrs ago. For the last 12yr ish I started with osteoarthritis.I have had joint replacements in both thumbs,shoulders scoped twice,knees scoped to which I have the right one done again on the 17th Jan . The worse thing for me is my back.After MRI's the diagnosis was degenerative disc throughout my whole spine but seem to have 4-5 areas where the pain is from the nerves which cause constant,constant burning pain worse when sitting but bad ALL THE BLOODY TIME. I see my GP who just smiles and talks and I come out of there with nothing, no answers,no specialist appointments because I attend the pain clinic. I can only have a shot in one area of my spine every 6mths so am in constant agony,this Christmas was torture. I just confided in my friend that I don't now how much longer I can go on and that every night I go to bed and hope I won't wake up the next day. I have thought of trying Cymbalta but daren't ask my Doc as I'm sure he doesn't believe how much pain I am in. I was a Psych nurse all my working life till I was 58 when the osteo set in and I just couldn't do my job any more so due to my profession I am wary of all drugs.

I have experience with Deloxetine. I find the side effects, most problematic for me was extreme sweating. Also from what I have read is that it is pretty difficult to stop. As in withdrawing is a pretty rough ride. However, I was able to reduce from 60 to 30 and did not notice any issues. I did not notice that it helped with my chronic pain. I've heard that it works well for chronic neuropathy.