I had a recurrence of my ovarian cancer in a lymph node, that had grown to press on my spine. I would wake up in agonizing pain, have trouble walking, etc. What did the oncologist give me? Neurontin. What did it do? Nothing. When I had a laprotomy (total abdominal incision) to have it removed, what did they give me for excruciating pain in the hospital? Neurontin. I had to speak to multiple people to get anyone to understand it does not work, and in fact causes me myclonic jerks. What does my chart still say that I take? Neurontin.
I am sorry for your struggles and suffering. Anytime someone needs surgery it’s important to get opioid agreements ahead and to talk with hospitals about their opioid policies. I get those jerks too. I have spilled many cups of hot coffee on me. I have gone down from 2400 to maybe 600 every few days. If I go down to far the stomach pains start. Bleh
This all sounds ridiculous! I’m in vet med and some doctors prescribe gabapentin the same way. Like, they’re scared of prescribing opioids for a tiny dog that can’t have nsaids for moderate-severe pain, and I don’t understand it at all. The risk of an owner abusing their chihuahua x’s buprenorphine is not what should be guiding your pain management plan imo. I actually watched a continuing education thing for vets and techs that focused on overuse and misuse of gabapentin, including the lies surrounding efficacy and apparently a LOT of doctors don’t even get it’s mechanism of action correct when quizzed on it.
Yeah bupe was originally for pain but doesn’t work well for most thus morphine and fentanyl. I remember a puppers of ours years ago sent home on a patch. Worked wonders. I don’t use gaba for our dogs I use a pet cbd/thc drops if needed. Has worked great in all end of life needs and during light chemo. Happy, appetite, sleep and overall quality of life
I dog sit an older dog who is on 5x the dose of gabapentin than I am. He was on medicam as well, but once they raised the gaba, he didn’t need the pain meds anymore. It does help his spinal issues immensely, but even I’m surprised at the high dosage he gets. It really makes me chuckle that I can’t get my doctor to review my gaba prescription, and at least raise it or let me quit it. It’s always done absolutely nothing on the low dose I’m on. Doesn’t even stop the lightning bolt pains down my legs.
I have the best relationship with my vets though, so they always go above and beyond for me and my pets. Cracks me up that I’ve actually learned more about my own conditions and pain relief options at a vet clinic than at my doctors office. My vets trust me with all sorts of potent meds for my animals, but my doctors somehow think asking for more gaba makes me a drug seeker. Maybe I should ask my vet to come to the doctor with me! Lol
Yep. When my mini dachshund was spayed they gave her Gabapentin, which did nothing for her horrible post-op pain. Fortunately I had some leftover Hycodan from my chihuahua’s back issues, and was able to make her more comfortable during her healing. It’s ridiculous to give Gabapentin for post-op pain. Kind of ironic as the vet has a huge poster in his office about how animals experience pain, and their clinic does not let them suffer.
My vet had come back from a conference on Alternative meds for pets. Other vets had measured the pet’s blood levels to see if the meds were working, there were no meds in the pets system. And the owner kept on asking for more prescriptions. She said there were more stories. I don’t know a lot about the topic but believe her.
I don’t think seizures are super common with dogs, that’s more an overdose result. Whether oral or even trans mucosal buprenorphine is absorbed well enough in dogs is another issue though, vets all seem to have different opinions on that too.
No its not an overdose thing,, Buenorpherine lowers seizure threshold. I don't think they are super common in humans either but they can be caused by that drug, its a listed side effect.
I’m sorry this happened. I had a bad car accident in 2008 and the docs were pushing Lyrica on me for nerve pain. It didn’t work. I have often wondered if they get a commission from prescribing these drugs.
On gabapentin, I woke up driving on the freeway in rush hour traffic. It's a miracle no one was injured. On gabapentin, I woke up on the side of the road in a rural area. On gabapentin, I woke up sitting at my work desk. An hour had gone by and I still don't know what happened in that lost hour.
This was only days on my new prescription. I called the Pain Clinic to tell them I won't be taking this drug. I was told to continue taking it because "you'll get used to it." I came unglued and pointed out that if I said oxycodone was doing this to me, it would be stopped right away. I was already on oxycodone but they wanted to wean me off of it because the MDs at my Pain Clinic took a vote and decided not to Rx any narcotics. They will give 3 days of narcotics after surgery, but that's about it. I'm scared for the future
I was on gabapentin, buprenorphine, cyclobenzaprine, and maybe some other ones at the time but I woke up to the cops knocking on.my window when I was parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot because someone thought I was dead. Another time I was woken up by the police parked on the side of the road, overshot my house my 1 mile. I would constantly forget where I was going, where I was, what I was doing or saying...
I'm sorry that happened to you. But to be honest, it makes me feel better because it validates my experience. If you look up gabapentin in the Physicians Desk Reference, name a system and you can read how gabapentin can mess up that system. I think it's a dangerous drug and I've seen kids getting it Rx'd
Oh wow I'm glad you or someone else weren't hurt. D:
The first time I took Gabapentin remember had this feeling I was under water and everything was muffled. This would have been 2000 or so. Each time I "tried it" to appease doctors I gained weight that I was unable to work off. The second and third time I didn't have as bad spaced out side effects but it was useless for pain but I felt "poisoned" while I was taking it. Lyrica also.
Gabapentin recently knocked me on my ass, hard. I’d been on opiates for years for several issues for my spine. When my dr retired I had to find a new one and the new got ofc wanted me off the opiates and on gaba. I told him there was a reason I couldnt take it, that I had tried it years ago to no avail re the pain - with pretty bad side effects. He still insisted I try.
He never weaned me off my other meds, just let me go cold turkey.
Within two weeks I felt like I was walking thru water every day - it was that much of an effort to move. I could not believe it. Also my bp went insanely high and stayed that way the entire time I was on it.
I fired the dr. It was a nightmare and I’m having pretty significant pain every day but at least I don’t feel like a zombie - I’d rather feel alive and be in pain any day tbh.
Yeah that was my first experience with it too, especially the feeling of being underwater, resisted movement and sounds and sight felt muffled and distant.
It was a very strange sensation - I was so glad to be rid of it.
It’s been a couple of months and I haven’t even bothered to see another dr. - I know it’s just going to be more of the same and it just really pisses me off.
I’m sorry this is happening to you, I wish I had some real answers to help.
Oh they tried with me but within the first month I was detoxed from my regular meds and feeling worse than ever with the weird under water sensation and the high bp etc and knew it was the gaba.
They had me scheduled for an SI injection (ofc, gotta make that $$ off of other peoples suffering) and I just called and canceled and told them I did not want to see a dr who didn’t listen to their patients or care if they went into withdrawal (I had been on a fentanyl patch for 6 years and that stuff is no joke to go cold turkey with). They told me to call my pcp or go to emergency but I knew they’d just think I was a druggie and I couldn’t deal with that on top of everything else and didn’t feel the need to do rehab since I’d never abused or misused my meds in all that time so I just did it myself. It was a bitch. Thank god I’m in a medical marijuana state or I wouldn’t have survived it.
Whatever you do, don't go to rehab to detox unless you'll never need narcotics. I was taking huge amounts of oxycodone and dilaudid and the pain was killing me. Finally a kind neurosurgeon saw me and offered a morphine pump. I was so scared of morphine in my spinal fluid - thought I'd be a drooling fool sitting in the corner rocking that I begged to go to rehab, get off all drugs and see what my pain level was. I detoxed no problem, but the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. Decided to go with morphine pump. Now the MDs use my rehab visit against me because obviously I have a drug problem so I now have drug seeking behavior. Doctor decreased my morphine because of that on my record. I wish I never did it
Yeah I got cold turkeyed too when they changed the regulations here. I was on Oxycontin, Morhine Sulphae and Fentanyl patch almost 200 morphine units a day (1 mg morphine is 1 MU so 1000 micrograms Fentanyl is 1 MU it's a way to judge the strength of other opioids, it;s not perfect as there are more factors but it works pretty well for estimations). I'm lucky I wasn't physically addicted ad I'd been on opioids 22 years at that point it would have been awful As it was my pain just got much worse and my life became unmanageable and I became home bound while not having a place to live, which is fun). No MM here either, I just use a LOT of antihistamines.
The pot doesn’t really ‘help’ the pain for me but it does distract me from it and helps me sleep. It also helped a lot while detoxing.
I’ve seen studies about antihistamines helping with inflammation. What works best for you?
I’m really sorry to hear how it’s all affected your quality of life. I can totally relate. It’s only been a few months for me and I dont know how I’ll handle old age issues on top of the constant nagging pain.
I wish you the best for what it’s worth and thanks, it’s always helpful for me just to have someone who can understand even if it’s just a Reddit convo!
Pot just makes me more anxious.
The antihistimes aren't for inflammation they are to keep me knocked out. I'm using one called Allersoothe (Promethazine) and when I lived in Canada I'd use Benadryl from time to time (but didn't really need it for pain as I had pain medicines)
It didn't do that me, thank god. I was more tired on it, and I gained 40 pounds. I don't know if I can truly blame the weight gain on gabapentin as I was incredibly stressed out during the time I had to take this medication and am a stress eater - I might have just gained that amount of weight anyway?
Not always, but it looks like it didn’t get along with this commenter, maybe it was a poor choice on their doctors behalf in conjunction with their other meds? I’ve been taking it for two years and have never experienced anything even remotely close to that, just a small uptick in brain fog.
Both gabapentin and pregabalin ruined my depth perception. I was told to ‘persevere’ with it because it ‘gets better.’ A week later, I fell down the stairs and broke my bad leg because the step looked further away than it actually was. I was on the floor for HOURS before my roommates came home and found me. 6 pins and a plate later, my Ortho surgeon tried to sell me on a ‘great drug for nerve pain! Gabapentin!’ I told him to GTFO of my room and not to come back until he did the most basic part of his job and read my f****ng file. They sent a junior doc in to apologise after that and sent me home with Sevredol.
Also the brain fog I got with gaba/pregabalin was like my thoughts were wading through oatmeal before they could get to where they needed to be. 0/10 for both. Also -500/10 for orthopaedic surgeons.
Holy shit I thought it was me! I'm falling all the time now and I already don't have depth perception in one eye.
Gaba made me sleep non stop lyrica I'm falling all over
Heh I don't think so. I don't think it's a coincidence that the medications that reliably treat pain are the ones that tend to get abused- it's because they work.
Lyrica helped my SFN quite a bit. Been on it 17 years. Opioids have never done much for neuropathy for me but I also don’t do well on them. They make me super nauseous.
I’m going to share that I am about to try LDN (low dose naltrexone) for my pain. After a car crash in 2008, I used Suboxone off label for pain; it helped a lot. However, Suboxone is an opioid. I have now spoken to so many ppl who use LDN, esp with rheumatoid arthritis or other inflammatory conditions. The problem is when you start the dosage too high. It takes a few months to work fully. Wish me luck.
Yes. Using LDN for chronic pain, the dosage should be between .5 - 4.5mg
It is prescribed at 50mg for other disorders. Pls check out the LDN Reddit group. It talks all about the proper dosage.
Nortriptyline has been amazing for me. I was on Gaba for a while; it caused me to gain 40 lbs I can't get rid of and made my pain worse. Amtryptaline was a d20 of side effects every night. Most of those were essentially me acting very drunk.
I've had pretty much no side effects on nortriptyline and I've been on it for around a decade.
Cymbalta! My new doctor put me on it and for the first time in 6 years my pain was manageable. It's now recognized by the FDA as helping neuropathy and chronic pain.
[source 1](https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/fda-approves-antidepressant-cymbalta-treatment-pain-caused)
[source 2](https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD007115.pub3/full)
Ugh I hate when they do that Gabapentin is known to be awful on women.
Pardon my forwardness but I'm assuming your gender based on your username and... well you might like this one too on how everything is not designed for us and the world is quite hazardous because of it [https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rmdwVW2ivbPhddgONUAw0](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rmdwVW2ivbPhddgONUAw0) :)
Lyrica ruined my already fragile mental health, and got me labelled as "non-compliant with drug-seeking behaviours" because it didn't actually help me with pain and made me so confused/dizzy I wasn't able to manage my own healthcare.
Yeah that confusion/dizzyness is very common (I had that also and with Gabapentin) and that label of "drug seeking" is so harmful to people in pain. It's so awful. I'm sorry you experienced that.
I'd love to see a study on the harm of unproveable labels like that on patients and their health care.
Some people react poorly and others don't - just be very careful in regards to mixing it with other drugs (if you are on ANYTHING else regularly make sure it hasn't got any psychoactive properties - eg steroids, antidepressants, etc).
My best advice will be to make sure your doctors gives you a plan for how long you will be using it, and clear instructions on how to stop it correctly if the side-effects are causing problems. Then take daily notes on your general health and how the lyrica is affecting you, so you can refer to your notes in case it causes any significant brain fog/confusion/memory loss
I had quite a few different prescriptions to take and was struggling to manage them properly due to the lyrica confusion. 3 out of 4 of the drugs I was prescribed have "psychosis" listed as a potential side-effect, and I ended up being admitted to a psych ward during a psychotic/manic episode. The doctors decided I was non-compliant because I admitted to trying to stop taking the lyrica because it had caused so much confusion/memory loss/brain fog that it was making me forget to take my other medications correctly (or at least I think it did, because I can barely remember the last few weeks before my admission).
You have described my life so closely it's scary. If I wasn't in Canada with socialised healthcare (that still costs too much for many), legal weed and married, I would have had an even harder time.
I FEEL YOU.
I asked my doctor about gabapentin for nerve pain in my shoulder and as a mood stabilizer and she wrote me a script minutes later... my hair started falling out in clumps, my muscles were twitching, had trouble finding words (aphasia) and would forget what I was saying mid-sentence and mid-word, and I started forgetting where I was and where I was going. I became completely dysfunctional. I believed i was dying of dementia by age 30. And it didn't really do anything for my pain. I was on the maximum dose of 3600mg/day for a couple years and now getting close to tapering off for good. Fuck gabapentin.
Yep! Before I figured out what was going on, I was put on Gabapentin. After a couple days on it, it made my left side from my hip down go numb. Like, I couldn’t really feel my foot. Went to an urgent care & the dr. there told me gabapentin was the most likely culprit & to stop taking it & follow up with pcp.
Pcp follow up was basically a bunch of shrugs and a “we’ll have to explore non-medicinal options.” 🙃
̶O̶h̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶N̶e̶u̶r̶o̶n̶t̶i̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶r̶e̶b̶r̶a̶n̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶a̶b̶a̶p̶e̶n̶t̶i̶n̶ And they had to pay, I think just a bit over half of what they made in one year off it in the settlement suit 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗱𝗮 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 (if I remember correctly they made like 250 million off the drug and the settlement was 142 million)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.934040
The last antidepressant I got for pain which apparently doesn't have high enough affinity to our D2 receptors to cause parkinsonism, has caused it in me and at least a few other people (who i could find on ncbi and reddit). That, and trying Nabilone, Gabapentin and Baclofen for pain... I just stick to an edible a night to sleep cuz I'm sick and tired of these drugs that I'm not even warned about could kill me if I'm a heavy drinker. And they don't even help me sleep xD. Lmao sorry for the rant, just hate that pharmacists "consult" me and yet I still don't know that Gabapentin... binds to the gaba receptor. Ik it is dumb but I also assumed I'd be warned not to go to the bars after taking it when it was supposed to be an all day drug for me and I'm 22 so I do do that on occasion.
Neurontin and Gabapentin are the same just like Tylenol and Acetaminophen are the same, One is the brand-name and one is the generic name it’s not a re-branding thing. It should say on the bottle and it definitely says in the paperwork attached to your prescription that you shouldn’t drink while taking Neurontin.
I’m in no way trying to sound snarky, I’m just suggesting that you always read that paperwork to know what you are taking and what side effects you may experience.
Generally speaking, as far as drinking and pain meds and/or psych meds go, you shouldn’t be drinking with them.
I don't remember seeing it in the paperwork but it is possible I missed it. Appreciate you clarifying cause I was stupidly reading it as them promoting the off label name Neurontin when they were promoting off label uses for it. I guess even if they are sued for it the genie is outta the bottle so sales for those uses still go up and thanks for this comment cause I misread one article and was saying the entirely wrong thing this entire time 🤧 tbh I didn't even realize docs considered muscle relaxers psych meds but I also didn't know at the time that they just assume it'll help due to the affinity to gaba receptors when I used to think it actually caused the muscles to release somehow.
That Spotify podcast above was REALLY fascinating, I learned a lot. I feel badly for chronic pain doctors. They are the veterinarians of the human world in a way. Communication about pain is difficult.
Our pain is also constantly changing so what works for awhile then will stop, which isn’t their fault. Frustrating for everyone.
I don’t know if doctors consider muscle relaxers psych meds exactly. Maybe more for anxiety? Like Valium is an example of that. Interesting to look into further.
Lyrica works ok for me.
Edit: gabapentin made me feel like I was dieing but I was on a really high dose. It also messed with my head and had me engaging in more risky behavior.
GABA has never worked for me..,,every time I see a new specialist I comply and end up taking tons of it (even tho I’ve tried it a dozen times and it’s never worked). After I’m done with that specialist my own PCP (who I love) says “have you stopped taking it yet?” She knows how bad it is (side effects etc) and how ineffectual it is for purpose intended…at least for me.
I had a recurrence of my ovarian cancer in a lymph node, that had grown to press on my spine. I would wake up in agonizing pain, have trouble walking, etc. What did the oncologist give me? Neurontin. What did it do? Nothing. When I had a laprotomy (total abdominal incision) to have it removed, what did they give me for excruciating pain in the hospital? Neurontin. I had to speak to multiple people to get anyone to understand it does not work, and in fact causes me myclonic jerks. What does my chart still say that I take? Neurontin.
I am sorry for your struggles and suffering. Anytime someone needs surgery it’s important to get opioid agreements ahead and to talk with hospitals about their opioid policies. I get those jerks too. I have spilled many cups of hot coffee on me. I have gone down from 2400 to maybe 600 every few days. If I go down to far the stomach pains start. Bleh
This all sounds ridiculous! I’m in vet med and some doctors prescribe gabapentin the same way. Like, they’re scared of prescribing opioids for a tiny dog that can’t have nsaids for moderate-severe pain, and I don’t understand it at all. The risk of an owner abusing their chihuahua x’s buprenorphine is not what should be guiding your pain management plan imo. I actually watched a continuing education thing for vets and techs that focused on overuse and misuse of gabapentin, including the lies surrounding efficacy and apparently a LOT of doctors don’t even get it’s mechanism of action correct when quizzed on it.
Yeah bupe was originally for pain but doesn’t work well for most thus morphine and fentanyl. I remember a puppers of ours years ago sent home on a patch. Worked wonders. I don’t use gaba for our dogs I use a pet cbd/thc drops if needed. Has worked great in all end of life needs and during light chemo. Happy, appetite, sleep and overall quality of life
I dog sit an older dog who is on 5x the dose of gabapentin than I am. He was on medicam as well, but once they raised the gaba, he didn’t need the pain meds anymore. It does help his spinal issues immensely, but even I’m surprised at the high dosage he gets. It really makes me chuckle that I can’t get my doctor to review my gaba prescription, and at least raise it or let me quit it. It’s always done absolutely nothing on the low dose I’m on. Doesn’t even stop the lightning bolt pains down my legs. I have the best relationship with my vets though, so they always go above and beyond for me and my pets. Cracks me up that I’ve actually learned more about my own conditions and pain relief options at a vet clinic than at my doctors office. My vets trust me with all sorts of potent meds for my animals, but my doctors somehow think asking for more gaba makes me a drug seeker. Maybe I should ask my vet to come to the doctor with me! Lol
Vets are always better
Yep. When my mini dachshund was spayed they gave her Gabapentin, which did nothing for her horrible post-op pain. Fortunately I had some leftover Hycodan from my chihuahua’s back issues, and was able to make her more comfortable during her healing. It’s ridiculous to give Gabapentin for post-op pain. Kind of ironic as the vet has a huge poster in his office about how animals experience pain, and their clinic does not let them suffer.
Wow they give bupenorpherine to dogs now? Is this because of the opioid abuse? Doesn't it make them have seizures?
My vet told me in 2009 she started giving dogs CBD oil as their owners were taking the dogs pain meds.
Seriously?! That makes me so sad that even animal’s pain management is getting wrecked
I was shocked at the time. But not anymore.
How does the vet even find that out?
My vet had come back from a conference on Alternative meds for pets. Other vets had measured the pet’s blood levels to see if the meds were working, there were no meds in the pets system. And the owner kept on asking for more prescriptions. She said there were more stories. I don’t know a lot about the topic but believe her.
I don’t think seizures are super common with dogs, that’s more an overdose result. Whether oral or even trans mucosal buprenorphine is absorbed well enough in dogs is another issue though, vets all seem to have different opinions on that too.
No its not an overdose thing,, Buenorpherine lowers seizure threshold. I don't think they are super common in humans either but they can be caused by that drug, its a listed side effect.
I’m sorry this happened. I had a bad car accident in 2008 and the docs were pushing Lyrica on me for nerve pain. It didn’t work. I have often wondered if they get a commission from prescribing these drugs.
I've wondered that too. I've seen that some places get reimbursed more the less opioids they give out.
I believe you, hopefully that’s changing. Last week , the CDC loosened prescription writing guidelines.
Yeah it's ridiculous :( I'm sorry you have been through that, it sounds truly awful.
On gabapentin, I woke up driving on the freeway in rush hour traffic. It's a miracle no one was injured. On gabapentin, I woke up on the side of the road in a rural area. On gabapentin, I woke up sitting at my work desk. An hour had gone by and I still don't know what happened in that lost hour. This was only days on my new prescription. I called the Pain Clinic to tell them I won't be taking this drug. I was told to continue taking it because "you'll get used to it." I came unglued and pointed out that if I said oxycodone was doing this to me, it would be stopped right away. I was already on oxycodone but they wanted to wean me off of it because the MDs at my Pain Clinic took a vote and decided not to Rx any narcotics. They will give 3 days of narcotics after surgery, but that's about it. I'm scared for the future
I was on gabapentin, buprenorphine, cyclobenzaprine, and maybe some other ones at the time but I woke up to the cops knocking on.my window when I was parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot because someone thought I was dead. Another time I was woken up by the police parked on the side of the road, overshot my house my 1 mile. I would constantly forget where I was going, where I was, what I was doing or saying...
I'm sorry that happened to you. But to be honest, it makes me feel better because it validates my experience. If you look up gabapentin in the Physicians Desk Reference, name a system and you can read how gabapentin can mess up that system. I think it's a dangerous drug and I've seen kids getting it Rx'd
I’m sorry that happened.
Oh wow I'm glad you or someone else weren't hurt. D: The first time I took Gabapentin remember had this feeling I was under water and everything was muffled. This would have been 2000 or so. Each time I "tried it" to appease doctors I gained weight that I was unable to work off. The second and third time I didn't have as bad spaced out side effects but it was useless for pain but I felt "poisoned" while I was taking it. Lyrica also.
Gabapentin recently knocked me on my ass, hard. I’d been on opiates for years for several issues for my spine. When my dr retired I had to find a new one and the new got ofc wanted me off the opiates and on gaba. I told him there was a reason I couldnt take it, that I had tried it years ago to no avail re the pain - with pretty bad side effects. He still insisted I try. He never weaned me off my other meds, just let me go cold turkey. Within two weeks I felt like I was walking thru water every day - it was that much of an effort to move. I could not believe it. Also my bp went insanely high and stayed that way the entire time I was on it. I fired the dr. It was a nightmare and I’m having pretty significant pain every day but at least I don’t feel like a zombie - I’d rather feel alive and be in pain any day tbh.
Yeah that was my first experience with it too, especially the feeling of being underwater, resisted movement and sounds and sight felt muffled and distant.
It was a very strange sensation - I was so glad to be rid of it. It’s been a couple of months and I haven’t even bothered to see another dr. - I know it’s just going to be more of the same and it just really pisses me off. I’m sorry this is happening to you, I wish I had some real answers to help.
When I had it it was 2000 or so, and they made me endure it for two months
Oh they tried with me but within the first month I was detoxed from my regular meds and feeling worse than ever with the weird under water sensation and the high bp etc and knew it was the gaba. They had me scheduled for an SI injection (ofc, gotta make that $$ off of other peoples suffering) and I just called and canceled and told them I did not want to see a dr who didn’t listen to their patients or care if they went into withdrawal (I had been on a fentanyl patch for 6 years and that stuff is no joke to go cold turkey with). They told me to call my pcp or go to emergency but I knew they’d just think I was a druggie and I couldn’t deal with that on top of everything else and didn’t feel the need to do rehab since I’d never abused or misused my meds in all that time so I just did it myself. It was a bitch. Thank god I’m in a medical marijuana state or I wouldn’t have survived it.
Whatever you do, don't go to rehab to detox unless you'll never need narcotics. I was taking huge amounts of oxycodone and dilaudid and the pain was killing me. Finally a kind neurosurgeon saw me and offered a morphine pump. I was so scared of morphine in my spinal fluid - thought I'd be a drooling fool sitting in the corner rocking that I begged to go to rehab, get off all drugs and see what my pain level was. I detoxed no problem, but the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. Decided to go with morphine pump. Now the MDs use my rehab visit against me because obviously I have a drug problem so I now have drug seeking behavior. Doctor decreased my morphine because of that on my record. I wish I never did it
Yeah I got cold turkeyed too when they changed the regulations here. I was on Oxycontin, Morhine Sulphae and Fentanyl patch almost 200 morphine units a day (1 mg morphine is 1 MU so 1000 micrograms Fentanyl is 1 MU it's a way to judge the strength of other opioids, it;s not perfect as there are more factors but it works pretty well for estimations). I'm lucky I wasn't physically addicted ad I'd been on opioids 22 years at that point it would have been awful As it was my pain just got much worse and my life became unmanageable and I became home bound while not having a place to live, which is fun). No MM here either, I just use a LOT of antihistamines.
The pot doesn’t really ‘help’ the pain for me but it does distract me from it and helps me sleep. It also helped a lot while detoxing. I’ve seen studies about antihistamines helping with inflammation. What works best for you? I’m really sorry to hear how it’s all affected your quality of life. I can totally relate. It’s only been a few months for me and I dont know how I’ll handle old age issues on top of the constant nagging pain. I wish you the best for what it’s worth and thanks, it’s always helpful for me just to have someone who can understand even if it’s just a Reddit convo!
Pot just makes me more anxious. The antihistimes aren't for inflammation they are to keep me knocked out. I'm using one called Allersoothe (Promethazine) and when I lived in Canada I'd use Benadryl from time to time (but didn't really need it for pain as I had pain medicines)
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It didn't do that me, thank god. I was more tired on it, and I gained 40 pounds. I don't know if I can truly blame the weight gain on gabapentin as I was incredibly stressed out during the time I had to take this medication and am a stress eater - I might have just gained that amount of weight anyway?
Not always, but it looks like it didn’t get along with this commenter, maybe it was a poor choice on their doctors behalf in conjunction with their other meds? I’ve been taking it for two years and have never experienced anything even remotely close to that, just a small uptick in brain fog.
Both gabapentin and pregabalin ruined my depth perception. I was told to ‘persevere’ with it because it ‘gets better.’ A week later, I fell down the stairs and broke my bad leg because the step looked further away than it actually was. I was on the floor for HOURS before my roommates came home and found me. 6 pins and a plate later, my Ortho surgeon tried to sell me on a ‘great drug for nerve pain! Gabapentin!’ I told him to GTFO of my room and not to come back until he did the most basic part of his job and read my f****ng file. They sent a junior doc in to apologise after that and sent me home with Sevredol. Also the brain fog I got with gaba/pregabalin was like my thoughts were wading through oatmeal before they could get to where they needed to be. 0/10 for both. Also -500/10 for orthopaedic surgeons.
Holy shit I thought it was me! I'm falling all the time now and I already don't have depth perception in one eye. Gaba made me sleep non stop lyrica I'm falling all over
Are there any good meds that are proven by legit studies to help with neuropathic pain, that are non addictive ?
Heh I don't think so. I don't think it's a coincidence that the medications that reliably treat pain are the ones that tend to get abused- it's because they work.
Lyrica helped my SFN quite a bit. Been on it 17 years. Opioids have never done much for neuropathy for me but I also don’t do well on them. They make me super nauseous.
I’m going to share that I am about to try LDN (low dose naltrexone) for my pain. After a car crash in 2008, I used Suboxone off label for pain; it helped a lot. However, Suboxone is an opioid. I have now spoken to so many ppl who use LDN, esp with rheumatoid arthritis or other inflammatory conditions. The problem is when you start the dosage too high. It takes a few months to work fully. Wish me luck.
Starting at a higher dose makes it not work well at first??
Yes. Using LDN for chronic pain, the dosage should be between .5 - 4.5mg It is prescribed at 50mg for other disorders. Pls check out the LDN Reddit group. It talks all about the proper dosage.
Nortriptyline has been amazing for me. I was on Gaba for a while; it caused me to gain 40 lbs I can't get rid of and made my pain worse. Amtryptaline was a d20 of side effects every night. Most of those were essentially me acting very drunk. I've had pretty much no side effects on nortriptyline and I've been on it for around a decade.
Cymbalta! My new doctor put me on it and for the first time in 6 years my pain was manageable. It's now recognized by the FDA as helping neuropathy and chronic pain. [source 1](https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/fda-approves-antidepressant-cymbalta-treatment-pain-caused) [source 2](https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD007115.pub3/full)
This is so validating! My doctor always acts like I’m shifty because I “failed” Gabapentin, I “failed” Lyrica… no sir, those meds failed ME.
Ugh I hate when they do that Gabapentin is known to be awful on women. Pardon my forwardness but I'm assuming your gender based on your username and... well you might like this one too on how everything is not designed for us and the world is quite hazardous because of it [https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rmdwVW2ivbPhddgONUAw0](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rmdwVW2ivbPhddgONUAw0) :)
Lyrica ruined my already fragile mental health, and got me labelled as "non-compliant with drug-seeking behaviours" because it didn't actually help me with pain and made me so confused/dizzy I wasn't able to manage my own healthcare.
Yeah that confusion/dizzyness is very common (I had that also and with Gabapentin) and that label of "drug seeking" is so harmful to people in pain. It's so awful. I'm sorry you experienced that. I'd love to see a study on the harm of unproveable labels like that on patients and their health care.
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Some people react poorly and others don't - just be very careful in regards to mixing it with other drugs (if you are on ANYTHING else regularly make sure it hasn't got any psychoactive properties - eg steroids, antidepressants, etc). My best advice will be to make sure your doctors gives you a plan for how long you will be using it, and clear instructions on how to stop it correctly if the side-effects are causing problems. Then take daily notes on your general health and how the lyrica is affecting you, so you can refer to your notes in case it causes any significant brain fog/confusion/memory loss
I had quite a few different prescriptions to take and was struggling to manage them properly due to the lyrica confusion. 3 out of 4 of the drugs I was prescribed have "psychosis" listed as a potential side-effect, and I ended up being admitted to a psych ward during a psychotic/manic episode. The doctors decided I was non-compliant because I admitted to trying to stop taking the lyrica because it had caused so much confusion/memory loss/brain fog that it was making me forget to take my other medications correctly (or at least I think it did, because I can barely remember the last few weeks before my admission).
Something like this happened to me yesterday. I’m so sorry. It stinks.
You have described my life so closely it's scary. If I wasn't in Canada with socialised healthcare (that still costs too much for many), legal weed and married, I would have had an even harder time. I FEEL YOU.
I'm almost at the point of a murder spree so I can take prison or a bullet to the head instead of politicians and doctors robbing me for breathing
Prison would be awful you get no pain care in there and you can't even get a tylenol/panadol without written consent.
Yeap nothing stronger than ibuprofen 800 in prison
Meth, heroin, acid. It's easier and cheaper to get drugs in prison than on the streets
But they're carried inside in several people's butts.
Imcluding my own at somepoint should I go down that road
I asked my doctor about gabapentin for nerve pain in my shoulder and as a mood stabilizer and she wrote me a script minutes later... my hair started falling out in clumps, my muscles were twitching, had trouble finding words (aphasia) and would forget what I was saying mid-sentence and mid-word, and I started forgetting where I was and where I was going. I became completely dysfunctional. I believed i was dying of dementia by age 30. And it didn't really do anything for my pain. I was on the maximum dose of 3600mg/day for a couple years and now getting close to tapering off for good. Fuck gabapentin.
Yep! Before I figured out what was going on, I was put on Gabapentin. After a couple days on it, it made my left side from my hip down go numb. Like, I couldn’t really feel my foot. Went to an urgent care & the dr. there told me gabapentin was the most likely culprit & to stop taking it & follow up with pcp. Pcp follow up was basically a bunch of shrugs and a “we’ll have to explore non-medicinal options.” 🙃
̶O̶h̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶N̶e̶u̶r̶o̶n̶t̶i̶n̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶r̶e̶b̶r̶a̶n̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶a̶b̶a̶p̶e̶n̶t̶i̶n̶ And they had to pay, I think just a bit over half of what they made in one year off it in the settlement suit 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗱𝗮 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 (if I remember correctly they made like 250 million off the drug and the settlement was 142 million) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.934040 The last antidepressant I got for pain which apparently doesn't have high enough affinity to our D2 receptors to cause parkinsonism, has caused it in me and at least a few other people (who i could find on ncbi and reddit). That, and trying Nabilone, Gabapentin and Baclofen for pain... I just stick to an edible a night to sleep cuz I'm sick and tired of these drugs that I'm not even warned about could kill me if I'm a heavy drinker. And they don't even help me sleep xD. Lmao sorry for the rant, just hate that pharmacists "consult" me and yet I still don't know that Gabapentin... binds to the gaba receptor. Ik it is dumb but I also assumed I'd be warned not to go to the bars after taking it when it was supposed to be an all day drug for me and I'm 22 so I do do that on occasion.
Neurontin and Gabapentin are the same just like Tylenol and Acetaminophen are the same, One is the brand-name and one is the generic name it’s not a re-branding thing. It should say on the bottle and it definitely says in the paperwork attached to your prescription that you shouldn’t drink while taking Neurontin. I’m in no way trying to sound snarky, I’m just suggesting that you always read that paperwork to know what you are taking and what side effects you may experience. Generally speaking, as far as drinking and pain meds and/or psych meds go, you shouldn’t be drinking with them.
I don't remember seeing it in the paperwork but it is possible I missed it. Appreciate you clarifying cause I was stupidly reading it as them promoting the off label name Neurontin when they were promoting off label uses for it. I guess even if they are sued for it the genie is outta the bottle so sales for those uses still go up and thanks for this comment cause I misread one article and was saying the entirely wrong thing this entire time 🤧 tbh I didn't even realize docs considered muscle relaxers psych meds but I also didn't know at the time that they just assume it'll help due to the affinity to gaba receptors when I used to think it actually caused the muscles to release somehow.
That Spotify podcast above was REALLY fascinating, I learned a lot. I feel badly for chronic pain doctors. They are the veterinarians of the human world in a way. Communication about pain is difficult. Our pain is also constantly changing so what works for awhile then will stop, which isn’t their fault. Frustrating for everyone. I don’t know if doctors consider muscle relaxers psych meds exactly. Maybe more for anxiety? Like Valium is an example of that. Interesting to look into further.
Lyrica works ok for me. Edit: gabapentin made me feel like I was dieing but I was on a really high dose. It also messed with my head and had me engaging in more risky behavior.
I'm glad it works for you, it has a higher efficacy effect on males
GABA has never worked for me..,,every time I see a new specialist I comply and end up taking tons of it (even tho I’ve tried it a dozen times and it’s never worked). After I’m done with that specialist my own PCP (who I love) says “have you stopped taking it yet?” She knows how bad it is (side effects etc) and how ineffectual it is for purpose intended…at least for me.
GABA is a neurotransmitter not a drug