Feeling at my wits end with Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia

Someone mentioned Gabapentin! I imagine it may help some people. However, I had an extremely horrible experience with it, as well as did a couple of my friends who fell and injured their selves while taking it.
My surgeon prescribed it along with a couple other pain medicines after rotator cuff surgery. Originally, I didn't take it because I was on so many meds, I had to write down every pill I took so that I would not OD. Later, I was still experiencing a lot of pain and read up on the Gabapentin. It sounded great! Started taking it for about a week. I am an older lady, and my memory is not what it used to be. But I started having frequent, severe memory loss problems. I would forget words while I was talking and couldn't complete my thoughts. It was scary! This went on for a few days. When I started investigating possible reasons for the memory loss, it became clear that adding the Gabapentin was the only thing different. Sure enough, memory loss was a potential side effect with it. Stopped taking the Gabapentin, and almost immediately, my memory returned to normal. Since then, I have become vigilant about reading up on ALL new medicines suggested by my care team. I only read info on the internet posted by the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. It is ridiculous how many horrid medicines they are suggesting and getting mad at me for refusing to take them.
My care team prescribed Norco back in 2000 for severe pain. Have used it on and off since then. During my best times, I only took 5 mg, twice a day. It took the edge off the pain, allowing me to function with daily responsibilities. Last year, I voluntarily quit and went back to work. When I got injured on the job, through no fault of my own, my care team refused to prescribe Norco for my almost constant pain. I have several reasons for the pain, and it is only getting worse since I am now 75 years old. Mind you, I had absolutely no side effects from the Norco and functioned very well and knew how to manage my pain when I over did it physically. Now my care team offered Buprenorphine patches, and I am trying them. Am on the second week. They slowly adjust it until they find the right dose. I have had absolutely no pain relief, and more upsetting is the fairly low-grade headache, almost daily with no relief. It wouldn't be a problem except I have been in constant almost unbearable pain since this last January. I certainly sympathize with all of you out there. Most of you have worse problems than I do. Back to the whole point of this post! Be careful with Gabapentin!

My daughter found a strict GF and Dairy Free diet cleared the fibromyalgia pain.

Someone mentioned Gabapentin! I imagine it may help some people. However, I had an extremely horrible experience with it, as well as did a couple of my friends who fell and injured their selves while taking it.
My surgeon prescribed it along with a couple other pain medicines after rotator cuff surgery. Originally, I didn't take it because I was on so many meds, I had to write down every pill I took so that I would not OD. Later, I was still experiencing a lot of pain and read up on the Gabapentin. It sounded great! Started taking it for about a week. I am an older lady, and my memory is not what it used to be. But I started having frequent, severe memory loss problems. I would forget words while I was talking and couldn't complete my thoughts. It was scary! This went on for a few days. When I started investigating possible reasons for the memory loss, it became clear that adding the Gabapentin was the only thing different. Sure enough, memory loss was a potential side effect with it. Stopped taking the Gabapentin, and almost immediately, my memory returned to normal. Since then, I have become vigilant about reading up on ALL new medicines suggested by my care team. I only read info on the internet posted by the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. It is ridiculous how many horrid medicines they are suggesting and getting mad at me for refusing to take them.
My care team prescribed Norco back in 2000 for severe pain. Have used it on and off since then. During my best times, I only took 5 mg, twice a day. It took the edge off the pain, allowing me to function with daily responsibilities. Last year, I voluntarily quit and went back to work. When I got injured on the job, through no fault of my own, my care team refused to prescribe Norco for my almost constant pain. I have several reasons for the pain, and it is only getting worse since I am now 75 years old. Mind you, I had absolutely no side effects from the Norco and functioned very well and knew how to manage my pain when I over did it physically. Now my care team offered Buprenorphine patches, and I am trying them. Am on the second week. They slowly adjust it until they find the right dose. I have had absolutely no pain relief, and more upsetting is the fairly low-grade headache, almost daily with no relief. It wouldn't be a problem except I have been in constant almost unbearable pain since this last January. I certainly sympathize with all of you out there. Most of you have worse problems than I do. Back to the whole point of this post! Be careful with Gabapentin!

@abd then it wasn’t fibromyalgia. You were misdiagnosed

@grannytrucker Gabapentin, Lyrica (pregabalin) and Cymbalta are ALL psychotropic medications that REWIRE your brain. I used them in my early 60’s and had severe memory loss. It’s dangerous. It took me a YEAR to slowly nitrate of them. As far as back pain— I had failed back surgery for ruptured disc. Only yoga helped. I still take Tramadol and Prozac.
Now my knees are shot. Going to a Pain Clinic today to ask about genicular nerve block and ablation. Scared to death of knee surgery. It’s a struggle. I have had FM for 21 years. Jesus helps me. ❤️ Sending love

Gluten sensitivity is linked to autoimmune disorders like Celiac. Fibromyalgia is NOT an autoimmune syndrome, so going GF ( which I do) helps a little because it reduces inflammation. However, it would NOT cure it because there is no cure. If she really had fibromyalgia, she wouldn’t be symptom-free.

@fmcfs I see now. I’m 66 years old. I used to have great memory, spelling and writing skills. My son really feared I was getting dementia. Was on Cymbalta for about 14 years. Went off Cymbalta 14 months ago, terrible withdrawal and some lasting long term effects I’m still hoping will go away soon (severe uncontrolled crying/emotions). Now I’ve recently stopped the 800 mg of Gabapentin, but was off gabapentin for about 10 months but before that I was taking 2000 mg daily gabapentin for 12-14 years. Memory still not great. I’m still hoping for memory to get better. Taking LDN now and magnesium glycinate for sleep. Pain sleep energy have improved some, the Cymbalta side effect though are making me more isolated and depressed than ever. It seems something gets better, then something new pops up or something else gets worse.

@fmcfs & @abd Fibromyalgia symptoms CAN be drastically reduced by diet and lifestyle changes, but a person may not be cured. In fact, it is like "going into remission" with other diseases and disorders.

Going back to the old lifestyle, or changes like stress and the addition of other conditions or illnesses can cause the symptoms to come back.

I have had fibromyalgia for over 40 years. Removing gluten from my diet led to a huge reduction in my symptoms, to the point where I often felt "normal". BUT when I got a chronic lung infection, and needed serious long-term antibiotic therapy, every symptom roared back, worse than ever before. It took 2 years of pain management therapy to get back to where I was before the infection. Now, I am having a flare of RA symptoms, an increase in osteo-arthritic and seasonal allergies, and the symptoms are worse again. Even my rheumatologist uses my fibro symptoms as a gauge for how well my RA drugs are working.

So really, fibro is a condition that can "wax and wane" depending on other things going on, medication, stress, even weather.

PLEASE don't conclude that because symptoms are gone, there was a misdiagnosis.