It didn't cause constipation but it did slow things down quite a bit.
Did it cause you to get constipated at all as a side effect?
I ACTUALLY slept last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It took the 20mg for me to feel the effects of the amitriptyline last night. It relaxed me and when I went to bed I went right to sleep. I woke up a couple times to gurggling and slight cramping but nothing like I have been experiencing. I was almost so calm that it didn't make me upset and I fell right back to sleep.
I did wake up groggy this morning when the alarm went off to do my Lovenox shot at 8am. The doctor prescribed me 10mg in the am and 25 mg before bed. I was leary of the side effects of this medication because in small amounts it's used to help people with pain, sleep and cramping from things like IBS. In larger doses it can treat people for depression. So there is a long list of side effects. So to be safe I took 10mg at 8pm last night and when I didn't notice a change I took another 10mg at 9pm.
So now that I know it works I think I just need to take the full 25mg dose earlier in the evening. I don't know if I really want to take 10mg in the am and 25mg at night as prescribed. I want to be awake and alert during the day so I can eat and get my walking in etc. The 10mg didn't seem to do much but at the same time that will increase the dosage for the entire day and the possible side effects. I will determine this based on how much pain I experience during the day.
I was on it during bouts of IBS-D. It calmed down the cramping, but I had to adjust the dosage because it tired me out. I found if I took it at night the 'hold-over' effect lasted well into lunch time, at which point I could add a bit more and not feel like I was blending into the wallpaper. I ended up doing a lot of 'cutting-up' the pills, but it worked well for me once I figured out how to take it so my body would handle it.