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Gabapentin side effects?
I am a regular on the Mayo Board! I don't know what I would do without it! Our doctors don't want to discuss openly the things about illnesses and side effets of drugs and other things. Anyway, my question to all of you is Gabapentin and it's side effects. I have been on it now for 6 months. My doctor raised me from 100mg. to now I am on 400mg. three times a day.
The problem is my tiredness! I happen to be in a friends office yesterday and she was taking some medicine. She said she was taking Gabapentin. I asked why and she said she had, had shingles back when and it still helped with the pain. I know the drug is percribed for many things that is why I take it for my issues.
I told her I had been taking it for about 6 months. She asked if I had been tired all the time, just out of the Blue. OF COURSE I SAID YES! She said it took her a year before she got out of the tiredness.
Let me know if any of you have experienced the same thing. Also let me know at what dosage you may be on? I know this is all confidential!
Again Thanks to The Mayo Clinic and Everyone who is kind enough to be open with their lives!
Sundance!
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I wasn't putting down alternative therapies. The wrong drugs are not an alternative therapy, they are malpractice. Pt is great for delaying back problems as is stretching. Hypnosis is an alternative therapy are is Qigong, yoga, acupuncture and ,many other forms and they all have there place. For late stage chronic pain that is not going to get better or abate, for pain that will only progress as you age, as you become more disabled, stretching, exercise and PT may help but they are not an alternative for real pain management. Narcotics have there limit, they can only do so much but reverting to what might have been appropriate or useful when you you were 40 is a cope out on the part of medical professionals. The fact that some people were given narcotics which they misused and became addicted to does not make it ok to throw real patients who used their drugs as they were meant to be used and did not abuse them, under the proverbial bus. I am a Qigong practitioner, an energy healer. That's an alternative therapy. As good as it is, and as skilled as I am, I cannot correct the damage of a crumbling spine or the lasting ravigis of radiation and chemo therapy. The congress passed a law preventing the DEA from investigating the drug manufacturers. This was done because these same manufacturers are almost certainly selling their drugs on the black market to drug dealers just as the manufacturers of Quaaludes were in the 70's. Think about the number of overdose deaths and ask yourself if you raelly think well meaning doctors could be responsible for a problem of this major scale.
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1 ReactionI’ve personally found Gabapentin to worked really well for me. I’ve been on it for years for complex regional pain syndrome. I’m on a large combination of medications (for not just CRPS, but my heart and other issues) but the Gabapentin is one that I can definitely tell makes a big difference if I happen to miss a dose. I’m on a large amount 1200mg 3x day. So I definitely disagree to those that say it doesn’t do anything for pain. Because while it may not have worked for one patient, another patient may have a really good response to it. Each of us is different- we have different conditions and our bodies react to each medication in unique ways.
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2 Reactions@wsh66 - Standing ovation!!!
Well said
I agree. It’s not that alternative methods aren’t helpful, and I still try to use them. It’s just that the damage I’ve had from old injuries is only going to get worse and meds are my last resort. But don’t worry, the Feds will make sure that I don’t get the right amount of them, as to them every pain patient is a drug seeker. I’m 65. I’m pretty much medically at risk, but if I have to someday make the choice between being addicted to an opioid and not being able to get out of bed, I’d go with addiction a hundred times out of a hundred.
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2 ReactionsPREACH! Right there with you.
Good advice. Have them make notes while you are there. It focuses the Doctors mind and prevents stupid remarks. Also, men will say things to women they won't say to a man but you being a women probably know that.
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1 ReactionI had a knee replacement again. I had one 10 years ago also. This time he was a heck of a lot more pain. Of course, I am 10 years older at 76.I would have done anything to help with my 8,9,and10 pain scale. Thank God I had a pain Doctor that understood.
What did he prescribe?
Terrible drug as I couldn't leave the house for a week after taking it and then I finally stopped and I would never take it again. It got me so depressed that I thought maybe I would end it all. Don't take that kind of drug as it's bad.