Gabapentin side effects?

If a drug does not help and makes no difference, then agree - no point in taking it!

@pfbacon
Peggy, your plea is a just one. Everyone reacts differently to each drug. Unless someone experiences a side effect that has changed their life in a drastically worse way, they should simply stop taking it and move on. No need to start some crusade to remove it from the grasp of all those who do get benefit from it. Drugs that do permanent damage to some should clearly be removed from the open market. Those that cause unpleasant side effects that subside after stopping use should be eliminated for that particular person, but not for everybody else necessarily. Hank

I had very good results with gabapentin, for several years. I never took such high dosages, but did increase the dosage gradually as I needed additional relief, an additional capsule or higher dose gradually. It is a great drug for those who need it and can benefit. It helped me with neuropathy, restless leg syndrome, firbomyalgia pain, leg cramping, other nerve pain, but I began to need to adjust my medications for various side effects. I tapered off, gradually, under doctor's oversight, and now don't use gabapentin any more. It's not what I need to use at this time, maybe my age or whatever. But, my doctor has helped me find the best for me now.It's so important to discuss openly all our concerns and questions with our doctors. I've learned to be open and honest with all my docs. Otherwise, they don't know what's happening, side effects or good effects or fears.....Bless you in your journey

Another thing my doctor said a person needed to have it in their blood stream all the time. I've got 9 ruptured/herniated discs from getting hit by a tree fighting fires 23 years ago. Oh what I would give for pain relief. I had laser surgery on the four worst, but it didn't help. I've tried numerous things, and I'm having to deal with the harassment by Federal Workers Compensation. I've had a couple suggest being put into a ketamine coma, and hopefully the pain signals in my brain would reset. Has anyónehax this done.

No surgical fix possible? Sounds like a real big mess, literally, don’t mean that to sound offensive. My neck problem was work related and I had to fight it, got an attorney which finally did the trick. But dealing with the Feds is a whole other story. :<(
I have heard of the ketamine treatment. You might have to see someone who specializes in that, I don’t know? Is medical marijuana a possibility? Some folks swear by it.

Lisa why didn’t they give him morphing?

I have nerve pain in my back and part of my pain regiment I take every day is 4 pills (400mg) of gabapentin daily and 4 (50 mg ) of tramadol Tylenol and 1 muscle relaxer at night all of that helps but still I have pain

Yes, pain is transmitted by nerve pathway. Think about a badly sprained ankle or broken bone, or maybe orthopedic surgery. You have pain: throbbing, pulsating, likely aching and soreness. I had jaw problems which became severe. I’ve had sciatic nerve pain. Think of a hot, searing pain - like a knife slicing through you or being burned on a hot oven or scalding from a hot faucet. Does that help you picture the difference? It’s the best way I can describe it from having been the patient in those scenarios. In my jaw situation, when I woke up from having had my jaw joints surgically removed and new artificial joints placed which including sawing, drilling, etc. Once the local injected anesthetic wore off and I was out of the general anesthetic haze - I hurt, but it was a completely different type of hurting and I could tell the difference right away!

Eventually, he did, via an implanted intrathecal pain medicine delivery pump. But it helped him not. I was very disappointed in that outcome.

That would be very disheartening indeed. :<(