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has anyone used gabapenten for pain?

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Posted 7/15/2018 5:16 AM (GMT 0)
My leg pain has gotten way worse since I took azithro for a month. I was off treatment for 3weeks, then started Alinia & doxy, and my leg pain, weakness, & twitching.., its SO annoying! In the past Ive only relied on detoxing methods and things to reduce inflammation;but now Im desparate. The pain doesnt prevent me from sleeping once I fall asleep. Legs are fine when I 1st wake up, but only takes about 30-60minutes walking around to feel it coming on.

Ive typically had good weeks-bad weeks, off&on; but now Im lucky to get 1 so-called good day!
Posted 7/15/2018 6:52 AM (GMT 0)
I tried Gabapentin....twice.


in 2016 I tried it - can't remember how much I ramped up to before I stopped...because it wasn't helping.

Then after going to the J clinic, they wanted me to try again.

This time I think I ramped up to 1800 mg per day. At approximately the 6 week mark, I weaned off. Never had any improvement with my nerve pain.

I was supposed to add another Epilepsy med (off-label for pain) called Oxcarbazapine to it...but I wasn't comfortable taking two off-label Epilepsy drugs.


I do know people who say it's helped them a lot with their pain.

I may try another one - lyrica.
Posted 7/15/2018 1:51 PM (GMT 0)
Gabapentin helped me when my neuropathy was driving me crazy, it took the edge off. But it turned me into a zombie. My doc had also recommended cymbalta which is supposed to help for pain, I never took that because I was on other stuff. But could be worth looking into.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of those brain meds, but if one is in a bad spot they can be worth trying, especially if it can help to tolerate treatments.
Posted 7/15/2018 2:28 PM (GMT 0)
Yes. It was recommended to me by a pain doctor. I wasnt using it for Lyme but for a pinching nerve pain in the thoracic area.

You have to titrate up to high doses for it to work and it can take a couple weeks to kick in.

I weaned off of it sometime last year as my tolerance was going up and pain was seeping back in. I could have increased the dose at that point but I began to taper instead. You cannot stop this drug cold turkey and expect no complications.

Oddly enough after increasing my magnesium intake substantially (building bowel tolerance to maintain higher dosing) I rarely have pain in the area that I was attempting to medicate .

I realized many medications leech magnesium from the body. I have been on Xanax for over 30 years and I am in a slow taper now.

The gabapentin affected my ability to complete sentences. My mind would search for the word and come up empty. This is very common.

It has worked wonders for people on this forum who suffer from the feeling of constant burning which I would surmise is nerve pain.
Posted 7/15/2018 10:31 PM (GMT 0)
I am on Gabapentin and, I tried lyrica, as well as SR gabapentin. I still have pain, but it is worse without it. Lyrica and SR gabapentin had too many mental side effects for me, I would just sit and stare into space, I get crazy dizzy when I tried to read... I fell down the stairs when I was on lyric.

I am not trying to talk you out of trying these, meds all work differently for different people, just trying to give you some idea of what to look out for.

I take the regular gabapentin 4 times a day now, after a year of treatment I tried a slow wean, and my pain shot way up. I am going to try again when I am a bit better.

My doc has also put me on 500mg of Agmatine (it's a supplement) twice a day. It helped with my pain, I have some GI fall out, but I think that is rare. You might want to check into it.

So sorry you are in so much pain!
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