Mimic Costocondritis pain disapeared with Gabapentin

Here is a weird one. For years I have had this chest pain and rib pain everywhere coming and going and was told it was Costocondritis, so I have been tossing Ibuprofen, Percocet, muscle relaxers and even nervine herbs at it to little avail. The only days I would get serious relief was when I would use the Nervine herbs and that was only effective if I only used them once in awhile. This got me to wondering if this chest and rib pain was actualy nerve pain.

Couple of years ago my Doctor prescribed me Neurontin and I used it once and it made me so dizzy on top of the other drugs I was taking that I didn't use it, but kept a couple of bottles with me.

The other night, the pain would just not stop on my sternum and ribs and back and my stomach was killing me. I had already taken all of the usual drugs. So I went over and took a Neurontin capsule. After about a half an hour I felt about 50 percent better. I took a second capsule and in another half an hour all the pain, everywhere was gone. When I woke up at 5 am as usual, I took 2 more, went back to sleep and for almost the whole day had none of the usual back, chest, rib pain or sense of breathing restriction. The only time it bother me some was when I had to walk about a block to a store. When my back started getting hit with the movement, I started getting the pain, but when I got back to my store where I am either sitting or standing or walking around short distances, the pain disapeared again.

I find it interesting because I never would have thought Neurontin would help with this kind of pain, but it definitly is. I am considering going to my Doctor and asking him to just skip over the period of treating it with Neurontin, that is going to just lose its effectiveness anyhow and go straight to Lyrica and see how well it works. I might be able to get myself completely or almost completely anyhow off these darn opiods and rediculously high dosages of Klonopin because I have become so tolerant to it and they don't mix well with me on the Neurontin being used also.

The only thing I have noticed about this though is that during the day, I am preaty much in a fog all day, but at night I am totaly clear headed. So much so that I am laying there until midnight.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of experience where their back, chest and ribs were just driving them crazy and narcotics, muscle relaxers, over the counter meds would barely touch it, and Neurontin or Lyrica took it away?

That is what it did. Presto! The pain is gone!

The only thing is now I really have no idea what is really wrong. Not that I really did for sure before. I just more or less accepted the diagnoses of Fibro my PCP laid on me, but I always sort of felt like it was more of a diagnoses of I don't have any idea why you hurt all over, so we'll just call it something so I can justify writing you a bunch of prescriptions that might give you some relief. The problem is it didn't and never has fit the diagnostic profile they have for Fibro. Basicaly the tender point thing. I have chronic fatigue. I have brain fog, memory impairment, stomach and bowel issues, and so on and so on. Essentialy it does fit into the myriad of symptoms that Fibro can express as, but the tender point test doesn't work on me. So, I am stuck with many of the symptoms, but not a true diagnoses other then what my PCP tagged it as, and that was probably more out of his frustration then anything else.

The one thing I do know at this point is that whatever it is, the pain is in some form neurological. If I can throw Percocets and Ibuprofen and muscle relaxers at it in high dosages and have minimal effect and then hit it with 600 milligrams of Neurontin and it disapears, its neurological from somewhere.

Isn't this how Doctor House does it? Just guess and treat it enough times in different ways and sooner or latter you get a answer or you accidentaly kill the patient?