Neurontin Question

Hello again. I haven't been here in years. :( I don't know how that happened.
Anyway, I have been dealing with sciatica for nearly 6 months now and my orthopedist prescribed me Neurontin as a way to try to deal with the nerve pain. I know some people have used it for fibromyalgia and I can't find an answer for my question anywhere so I'm hoping someone in here knows. Is Neurontin like a "pain pill", in that it starts working within a few minutes, or is it more like Lyrica, which takes a couple of weeks or more to take effect? Thanks for your help.

Thanks, Reanna. I'm hoping it will help with my sciatica. My fibro is <knock wood> not flaring right now.

Yeah, my doctor said to be sure to take it at night because it would make me sleepy. I took it an hour ago and I'm still awake, so that's probably not a good sign.

Hi, I am new here but thought I would jump in on this one. I have an interesting experience with Neurontin. First of all Lyrica did work for me but the side effect I got was one the "you can't take this ever again" list :( He had to pry it out of my hands.. he said Neurontin was close ..not the same but I am sensitive to meds so we decided to give it a try ... starting dose was 300mg 3x day. Well I also had started Baclofen 10mg 3x day I don't normally do two new meds at once but was flaring bad. The two of them together had me like a zombie so Neurtonin was cut down to 600mg at night. Everything was going well ... I keep a symptom journal which includes noticeable changes when on a new med and nothing seemed off..my moods were a bit up and down but not too bad and it was helping my NERVE pain somewhat .. I have Fibro/Lupus/Costochronditis/Inner Costal Neuralgia (ouch!!!!)/arthritis blahblah ..anyhoo fast forward to my pain increasing .. so doc changing Baclofen to something else and ups my neurontin dose. Here is where things get bad.

I notice that my heart rate is running high, this is common with some other conditions I have but it was running 130 laying down, and got up to 160 just standing. If I was upset it went to nearly 200. I went to a heart doc who said I had an arythmia and possibly was having TIA attacks .. mini silent strokes but no clue why, testing was ordered. Next day I notice this purple wringworm/lace pattern on my knees, spread to my legs, arms, chest.... my tongue started swelling, not enough to hinder breathing but enough to freak me out. My lips also started swelling. EMS took me to the hospital thinking allergic reaction, gave me prenisone to stop the acute swelling I was having and said to go see my doctor within 24 hours... thanks Doc.

This went on for about a month... I have a support group on FB I run and one girl was determined to figure out what was wrong. She kept asking if I was on new meds, but I said no ... (Increasing your dose is considered a new med ..mental note) finally she asked me for my meds and doses which is when I remembered the increase in dose, I noted that on the email I sent her. She sent me back a page of "rare" side effects of neurontin ... basically everything that was happening to me.

In part this was due to another med I was taking they had a moderate interaction which most of you know is acceptable in most cases ... just not the severe reactions. Ended up I have Drug Induced AEDS (I think are the initials) basically drug induced hypersensitivity syndrome. Which now means when we are talking about a new med, we read the "rare" side effects because those are the ones I will get.

I was actually contacted by a doctor who is on my site who did inform me that even though my dose had been upped, and even though neurontin acts when you take it, it still does build up in your system. So the more I had of it the stronger my reaction to it was.

I don't want to scare anyone, I've nearly died three times from medications. I think it is wrong how doctors prescribe things to us that they themselves don't even know the risks of ... now I check all my meds at rxlist which is really comprehensive. As for my pain, for nerve pain what has worked the best for me so far are injections. I get an occipital nerve block which has stopped all migraines, I am about to start getting them in my ribs for the nerualgia and of course my back. My best friend gets hers in her hip and she couldn't even walk before she started getting them. Needles are no fun, but worth it if it helps the pain.

Hi Gang, my wife take Neurontin for her Fibro and it has helped. She works for a Neurologist and he told her that Neurontin is one of the safest drugs as far as side-effects out there. Maggie takes it on a daily basis and it has helped her. Good Luck and don't be afraid to try it!

Chuck

Neorontine is an anticonvulsion drug. It does not take immediate effect, you need to slowly titrate it up to a level that your doctor recommends. And it is designed that you need to take it once you start them, unless you decide that it's not helping and you want to stop then it's again a matter of titrating it down slowly.

It is not lie a pain killer where it takes your pain away in 30 minutes, this is a long term drug with a whole bunch of side effects. Having said that, there's no modern drugs that doesn't come with no side effect.

Talk to your doctors and discuss if there's any other drugs that you're taking that may cause reaction to this drug. We take drug to help us get better, not to make us feel worse.