I’m currently taking Lyrica at 600mg a day and for the most part it does have the pain under control, however the side effects are horrendous, I feel like I’m losing the plot completely! Some of my family have told me to stop taking them but the thought of the pain coming back in full is terrifying! I can still feel it (Atn type 2) but it’s like a little throb in the background rather than a overwhelming nightmare. I’ve tried lots of other meds but none have helped other than this. What a crap decision to choose between pain and side effects…but for me side effects wins. Not sure some of my family get this though…
I have bad reactions to drugs as well but for me I would rather be spaced out,etc than in pain. Nobody gets the pain unless they have had it themselves. when you feel well enough you could always cut down a bit at a time, thats what I do. Hope you are well enough soon. x
I have had 2 gamma knife surgeries that failed. I have tried many medications. Gabapentin a trileptal help. (2800-3200 mg. per day gabapentin.) I also take Norco as needed. I have gained 30 lbs. in last year and have terrible side effects ( no memory, word loss, sleepiness, tiredness, brain fog). I still prefer side effects than pain. When someone tells me they would not take so much medication, I don't always verbalize it, but I think to myself, they have not felt bad pain. When you are in TN pain, you will take anything.
I would choose medication over the pain and deal with the side effects. I tried to keep my dose as low as possible which meant I was always telling my drs about my pain. My neuro just keeps upping the Gabapentin and some days I think it is enough but other days not even close. There has been about 10-15 lbs weight gain and word loss as well as tossed salad spelling. That one cracks me up because I was a great speller from the time I was a very young girl. Now I find myself skipping letters or inverting them. It is a little embarrassing to be in a conversation and just go blank. I usually just laugh and blame my meds. which is okay for friends.
http://www.livingwithtn.org/forum/topics/for-those-on-the-medicaion…
This is a list of our favorite meds… Sometimes you need a como…
http://www.livingwithtn.org/forum/topics/taking-a-poll-here-please-…
Here are topical creams and such…
Helps take less or can lower your meds… Can be instant relief
Shadow2,
I find it interesting that you misspell words, skip leters and find it hard to find appropriate words. It happens to me and many on this website too, however, I'm not sure if it's a side-effect of the meds we use or if it is due to the pain itself (perhaps having the pain does something to the brain that causes us to have all these "side-effects"). I was on Neurontin, then Lyrica then nothing for a long time - maybe a year? - and I thought I would get those abilities back but it never happened. I got my eye-sight back, which was blurred while on meds, and I am a little more energetic even now when I take amitriptyline, but I feel and act as if something has erased my memory and intellectual skills, I can hardly concentrate even on my good days, and I don't think I will ever read novels again because of complicated time-lines and complex characters (I pretty much only just watch movies these days because they're not much effort). I have difficulties spelling in my mother tongue like I never had before and when I must speak English it takes me a lot of time to come up with a sentence which would actually make sense. I'm half convinced it must be the pain itself because my dosage of meds is minimal. Then again, who knows for sure what pain or meds do to our brains.
shadow2 said:
I would choose medication over the pain and deal with the side effects. I tried to keep my dose as low as possible which meant I was always telling my drs about my pain. My neuro just keeps upping the Gabapentin and some days I think it is enough but other days not even close. There has been about 10-15 lbs weight gain and word loss as well as tossed salad spelling. That one cracks me up because I was a great speller from the time I was a very young girl. Now I find myself skipping letters or inverting them. It is a little embarrassing to be in a conversation and just go blank. I usually just laugh and blame my meds. which is okay for friends.
Thanks for the responses, I’ll have a look through the list. I went back to my go surgery today are saw yet a different new doctor (4 different ones I’d never met). The first was rude, the second was ok, the third looked about 12 and admitted it was over his head and the new one treated me to start with like I was faking it. She told me she didn’t understand why I was having side effects as I’ve taken Lyrica before. She quizzed me about why I was off work and she sat staring and rubbing so dry skin on her elbow before finally writing me a sickness cert for work and telling me she couldn’t help and I’ll have to wait until I see my specialist in 2 months. It’s a joke, my specialist has actually never prescribed me anything in the past. All the different meds have come from my gp. Unfortunately the experienced gp’s seem to have left and the new ones don’t seem to understand tn…so I guess I’ll continue in my foggy state for a couple more months…absolutely gutted as I am housebound and doe the first time in 4 years of this am really starting to feel depresses and can understand why people don’t want to live like this. Just lucky to have a supportive family around me
Ignore all the spelling and grammar errors!
I posted that before reading the above! For me it’s definitely the meds effecting my spelling, I re-read my posts and them lots and still seem to miss stuff. Didn’t happen when I was in pain off the meds though
It's refreshing to see that I'm not the only one with meds creating more havoc. I had to completely withdraw from school, I should be doing my intern now. I'm hopeful now that I finally have an appointment with a neurologists July 11th. The oral surgeon told me a neurologists couldn't help me and prescribed Neurontin. After 3 weeks I realized I still had pain - no facial twitching- but more problems to add to my list that I didn't need so I quit cold turkey. I've been healthy ALL MY LIFE until I had a root canal due to an accident in a chain restaurant. I don't expect this neuro that's only been practicing 4 years to treat me but hopefully he will refer me to someone who can. My spelling, perception of distance, eyes not focusing or sometimes just blacked completely out, fainting, and most importantly those three weeks I don't recall. When i wrecked my car I realized this was not me - no more meds for me, I'll take the pain. If it gets too bad I have a friend who will write me a prescription for antibiotics. While taking antibiotics all of my symptoms disappear. The endo who did the root canal along with his buddy the os had me on antibiotics from July 15, 2013 until March 2014 what's a couple more weeks gonna do?
Hi Southern Gal, the biggest relief I’ve had since joining this site is the knowledge that I’m not alone in what I’m feeling as selfish as that sounds as I wouldn’t wishc this pain on anyone! For a while before I was diagnosed and even afterwards I thouy I was going mad and became paranoid that everyone thought I was making it up. As for the spelling thank god for predictive text although sometimes when j re read my typing it doesn’t make sense as it’s suggested random words! I often attempt a big word but if the prediction doesn’t guess what I mean I give up and think of an alternative! However dispite everything I’ve said im staying with the meds as the thought of the painmakes feeling like this worthwhile