Gabapentin

a reply to: DARREN1976

I've unfortunately lived with diarrhea most of my life. I have IBS and spastic colon. The positive side is that it makes colon cancer nearly impossible because your guts stay very clean. Lol.

There's an always an upside

a reply to: DAVID64

My story is very similar to yours, my doctor insisted I take it, but I made him give me the lowest dose possible. After a year, I decided I didnt want an extra chemical in my system that wasnt really working anyway. So, I weaned myself off over a months time. I immediately began to loose weight. I only weighed 120 lbs to begin with and lost 25 lbs in 2 months. I was down to 95 lbs on my 5'4" frame, it was really bad. My drs thought I had cancer and started all kinds of tests. During my research of WTF was happening to me I discovered going off Gaba can cause severe weight loss. Not one dr caught that connection. That was 2 yrs ago and I have only gained back 10 lbs.

For the past year my Dr insists I take Gralise. He was a dick when I refused. I reminded him of the weight loss issue, and he simple didnt care. He has aggressively pushed this dangerous medication. I also said that Gralise has a side effect of causing blood pressure problems. And he was kind enough to tell me he could prescribe another pill to regulate my blood pressure. So, the way I deal with it, is I take one the day before I go see him, sometimes he randomly has a urine check to make sure I am taking my meds.

The only reason I see him at all, is that I live with pain that sometimes I really need help with. So, to get a low dose norco prescription, I have to jump through their hoops. I have been prescribed so many anti depressants for my nerve pain its crazy. I refuse to take these meds, so the way I deal with that, is I go home and research the side effects and go back to the dr with my side effect story. I think some day they will pass a law that people on anti depressants can not own fire arms. (I read to much ATS. lol)

The Cannabis tinctures I make are helpful, and I am going to plant a few poppies this year and experiment with the tea. Im an herbal person please no lectures, or warning. etc. Thanks.

Gaba seems to work very well for some people. But, for others it has dangerous side effects. Suicide is one of them. I know a kid that came close to suicide, before someone realized the connection. But again, they have a pill for that too.

Yeah, I was on gabapentin and lyrica. That is some bad s**t. Stick with the morphine.

Also watch out for seizures! All that gabapentin and lyrica did was give me tremors and swelled joints.

There are a lot of different reasons that people can be intolerant to meds. Meds need certain enzymes to break them down so they do not build up in the body. Meds need certain enzymes to work also. Now if you make too much of certain enzymes or if you make too little you can have side effects. Certain foods can alter the metabolism of these meds. They can induce or dampen their chemistry. Food chemistry is actually very complicated, foods are a conglomerate of different chemistries.

A lot of this has to do with genetics, and genetics actually causes a lot of the problems in the first place. Sometimes meds actually boost enzyme or lessen enzyme activity or metabolic activity as part of their targeted process.

So, if you cannot tolerate a certain chemistry than your doctor should try a different chemistry. This medicine could be causing a buildup of ammonia in the blood if you consume a lot of hot foods which needs other chemistry to neutralize. But that is just speculation.

It seems it is probably being used as a central nervous system depressant. Do you have diabetes?

Here is a site I like to reference, I found it not long ago. The site I used to use was a College site which you could plug in interactions to find possible side effects. But when the person graduated the college that gave me access, the code was gone and I can't get to it anymore. Here is the site. www.chemspider.com...

Chemspider is a good site to research some things.

A combination of riboflavin and methyl folate may work to fix the problem. Maybe a little methyl b12 might be helpful too. Your homocysteine levels may be a little high.

a reply to: misskat1

For the past year my Dr insists I take Gralise. He was a dick when I refused. I reminded him of the weight loss issue, and he simple didnt care.

I will, and have, walked away from any Dr who is not willing to work with me on a treatment plan. There are just too many out there, willing to help, to allow one to insist I take a drug that has such severe side effects, that I would rather be in pain than take it. When I called mine and told him, he immediately switched me to a different med. I still take the same amount of morphine, but we are looking for a way to deal with the pain, without going to a higher dose.

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: TinySickTears

I don't drink much water either, but I go through gallons of fruit juice and milk, so I've been fortunate not to have that problem. The water around here is nasty and I really don't want to spend all that money on bottled water that's no better, so I just go with the juices and I've always loved a cold glass of milk, just about any time of day. Especially witha big piece of cake.
mmmm cake.

The fructose and dairy are both inflammatory, if you're ok with tea and coffee (sweetened with stevia), if they can be taken with the meds....maybe do a little less sugary stuff.
I hope you figure out the medication- I can't imagine being in pain all the time.

I just get the stupid sharp sudden pains that then go away. Comes and goes. Different areas of joint pain, wrist, big toe, hands.
The pains go away if I avoid all sugar. Which is hard to do. The pains come back a couple of days into eating sweets again.
Sugar = pain

a reply to: DAVID64

David I feel for You...I'm always sad for People Who have to deal with Cronic Pain...
I started taking Gaba's 16 yrs ago after My first lower back surgery. I've had 3 more since. The last one around 06...

I take a 600 mg Gaba 3 times daily along with 50mg Tramadol. Used to be two Trams but My most recent Pain Clinic Doc stopped a pill from My regime. I also take a 10mg Norco 4 times a day.

Bi-Lateral Stenosis, damaged Nerves and Channels, along with Arthritis are My Chronic probs...

I have developed an immunity to most of the negative side effects of those Meds. When I even feel them I welcome it! LOL!!! It helps break the monotonous days of My life...

I truly wish You Good Luck on Your journey to be Pain Free!!

Syx...

a reply to: r0xor


Have you tried taking lomotil? I have a similar spastic colon,and it works for me.

a reply to: snowspirit

Man to be in Pain from eating Sugar would SUCK!
I am a Junk Food Junkie! Bring on the Suzy Q's!!!!! LMFAO!!!!!!

Syx...

One time I ran out of Clonazepam.I had no idea of the withdrawal symptoms.I mean I was only taking.5mg 2x a day,right?lol So now I get my script filled a day early and now I have about a 10 day supply backup just in case.

a reply to: SyxPak

I'm fine with salty snacks, helps to have lowish blood pressure I guess. But I keep falling off the wagon!
Caramel is my fave, but literally addictive.
I'm just glad it's not bad enough to be on meds, some of those must be hard on stomach, liver, and kidneys, for those with chronic pain.
I hope the pain meds they're making these days are safer than they used to be. My father had a severe ulcer from his pain meds, years ago.

a reply to: DAVID64

I was on that garbage for a while too. I gave it two weeks thing, maybe once I get used to it the side effects with diminish. NOPE! Just got worse.
It gave me what I refer to as fog brain. I experienced almost the exact same symptoms you did. I can absolutely relate to the "world is out of level" part, as well as the inability to focus or do simple tasks well coordination was gone, gone. My reaction times I generally very good. On that junk, I couldn't have caught a falling plastic bag.

a reply to: snowspirit

So far I've been lucky I guess as to any probs from all the Meds I take. Except for extremely Dark Urine I don't think there is any other probs... Yah I know the dark urine may be telling Me something, but Sherah Sherah...
As long as these Meds keep taking the edge off enough for Me to function I'll keep taking them...
Crawling around on the floor in order to avoid triggering the lightning shooting down My legs sucked!!!
I did that for two weeks before My last Surgery... I also could not stand up to pee during those 2 weeks...( Don't ask...) LOL!!

ETA: I doubt if the Meds are any safer than they used to be. Even if they are, the GMO's and Other Crap in Our foods will mess Us up so...

a reply to: snowspirit

DP...

a reply to: DAVID64

I'm sticking to morphine. It works, it's cheap and I can't afford that magic plant, found deep in the Amazon jungle, harvested by the local shaman [ only after the appropriate dance and scouring of evil spirits ] and the supplier just so happens to be the only one who can convince him to do it because they are the only ones with the spiritual purity/higher consciousness to connect with said shaman

We're good...you won your bet...your minds already made up. Stay on the Big Pharma merry go round

side effects

reacting too quickly, too emotional, or overreacting restlessness suspiciousness or distrust

Why ask rhetorical questions when you're happy displaying the side effects! On a serious note have you tried another Doctor? Or researched Generic medicines?

a reply to: DAVID64

I don't drink much water either, but I go through gallons of fruit juice and milk,

Well thats probably something you could do without...fruit juice and all that sugar....or poisonous milk

www.notmilk.com...

I don't know the levels of pain we are talking here, but my wife has chronic pain from Lyme disease. Her pain is somehow nearly completely controlled as long as she takes Astragalus an ancient herbal remedy with zero side effects it boosts your own immune system. She refuses any meds.

originally posted by: SyxPak
a reply to: DAVID64

David I feel for You...I'm always sad for People Who have to deal with Cronic Pain...
I started taking Gaba's 16 yrs ago after My first lower back surgery. I've had 3 more since. The last one around 06...

I take a 600 mg Gaba 3 times daily along with 50mg Tramadol. Used to be two Trams but My most recent Pain Clinic Doc stopped a pill from My regime. I also take a 10mg Norco 4 times a day.

Bi-Lateral Stenosis, damaged Nerves and Channels, along with Arthritis are My Chronic probs...

I have developed an immunity to most of the negative side effects of those Meds. When I even feel them I welcome it! LOL!!! It helps break the monotonous days of My life...

I truly wish You Good Luck on Your journey to be Pain Free!!

Syx...

I totally understand what you're dealing with. Cervical Stenosis C4/C5 and C5/C6 are the worst with direct impingement on my spinal cord and it is in lesser degrees above and below. I destroyed my body in the military and have arthritis everywhere. The running joke with my orthopedic surgeon is that I'm a 42 year old guy with the body of a 90 year old. At one point I was up to 100mg MSContin 2/day plus 60 mg oxycodone/day for breakthrough pain.

Coming off of the Morphine was the absolute worst experience of my life and the muscle spasms were so severe that it affect my cervical issues and while I didn't cause severe paralysis, I had no feeling in my left arm/hand with limited use of the hand and my face looked like I had bells palsy. Took my 6 months of PT to get 90% function out of my left arm and hand but its also how they found the stenosis so it was kind of a double edged sword. For a musician, it was a pretty crippling experience because I thought I would never play again.

All because the receptionist complained that I was rude to her repeatedly when I simply called her out on not passing my messages along for refills and literally, every 2 or 3 months she would do this and I'd end up going through hellacious withdrawal for 2-3 days before they would have the new script ready. It was one specific receptionist who had been tellingme for a year she would find a way to get me removed from the practice. Getting old just sucks! I just had a hip replaced, my neck is ruined, its in my other hip, my entire spine, hands...literally everywhere.

And with the new laws over the past couple of years, it's harder and harder to find a general practitioner or even a pain management specialist who will prescribe meds that will actually work. They all want to do these bull crap injections that don't work after a day or two if they do anything at all and get regular MRI's and I simply can't afford to pay all of that, even with my copays I'm getting buried in debt when the prescriptions gave me a least a workable quality of life and all of them together cost less than one office visit copay. But they way they want to do it, I'm on one office or another on a weekly basis plus PT 2x/week. It's beyond frustrating.

I use it as a sedative to stop thinking at night.
It is possibly making me fatigued but that's kind of hard to tell since I had it before anyway.

I suffered with pain issues for years. At my worst, I was taking a tramadol er300 in the morning and norco 10-325 as needed up to four times a day. Along with that I took gabapentin and a variety of anti-inflammatory. The gabapentin didn't do too much for me, good or bad. I was concerned about the addictive properties of the meds and used them very judiciously. It ended up not being a problem. I guess I lucked out. I think of all the things I tried, the tramadol helped me the most. It is an extended release pain reliever that really helped get me moving again. It didn't take the pain away, but made it more manageable. At least for a while.

I hope you find a solution that works for you. I know what it is like to live with debilitating pain every minute of the day.