Neurontin

[Lido]

Hallo
I have living with HIV for the past almost 17years. Some years back i started having back pains and pains going down my right leg after a fall. My GP doesnt know what  is causing it just as my Hiv doctor. I have been on alot, of differnt painkillers which does help me. I have been to physio for 9months didnt help. Now i have been put on a strong medication for the pains called NEURONTIN and am taking 1800mg per day plus my hiv medicines (Truvada and Soctrin). After reading about this pain medicine i found out that it is given to people with Epilepsy, went back to my doctor and he says it also helps with chronic pains. THis medicine is killing me i feel  dizzy, headache and more pains now. I cannot sleep. I feel  numb in my right leg. When i wake up in the morning i have veins sticking out. Am worried what this medicine is causing on my health. I have talked this to my GP and he says it will go over.
Am woried of my liver and my kidneys as i have been on pain killers for 4yrs now. My GP wont even recommed disability pension as am not working now beause of my pains.
Can someone please help me.

[joemutt]

Hi. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a pain syndrome (meaning the doctors cannot find out what causes the pain after excluding most other possibilities through testing/ my pain is mostly neck, shoulders, knees) and was prescribed neurontin. I had extreme sleeplessness and more pain on this med so I stopped it after 2 days.
My doctor suggests off-label use of amitriptyline, an tricyclic antidepressant which goes back to the 1950's that is non-addicitive and with no major side effects, that works on several things in the brain at once and that is making a come-back as pain medicine.
I did not take this option but you might talk to your doctor about it.
I decided to apply more mindfulness techniques and do optimal exercise meaning doing some exercise every day and stop as soon as fatigue or a hint of pain appears but never going without exercise.
I have been poz and on meds for 15 years and the pain came up past September for the first time.

[Lido]

Hi. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a pain syndrome (meaning the doctors cannot find out what causes the pain after excluding most other possibilities through testing/ my pain is mostly neck, shoulders, knees) and was prescribed neurontin. I had extreme sleeplessness and more pain on this med so I stopped it after 2 days.
My doctor suggests off-label use of amitriptyline, an tricyclic antidepressant which goes back to the 1950's that is non-addicitive and with no major side effects, that works on several things in the brain at once and that is making a come-back as pain medicine.
I did not take this option but you might talk to your doctor about it.
I decided to apply more mindfulness techniques and do optimal exercise meaning doing some exercise every day and stop as soon as fatigue or a hint of pain appears but never going without exercise.
I have been poz and on meds for 15 years and the pain came up past September for the first time.

[Lido]

Thanks Joe mutt
I will visiting the doctor next monday. i will try to explain to him and ask him if he can try me on the medicine you are on. Can you work after taking this medicine? Does it have any side effects?

[joemutt]

I am not taking it for the moment (see before) but I have taken it in the past, I had no side effects but talk it over with your doctor. It's also very cheap in generic form.

[mikeyb39]

you might want to check into lyrica, I took it for a while and it didn't really make me sleepy or dizzy at all.  Unlike Neurontin, Lyrica does not have a generic, so you will have to pay full co-pay.  they do have a co-pay assistance program if you have insurance.

I was taking it for neuropathy symptoms in my feet, but changing my HIV meds helped with those symptoms, so stopped taking the Lyrica.

[osric]

I took Neurontin (the generic gabapentin, actually) for a month or so. I was taking it as an add-on for the Lamictal I take for a seizure disorder. It was supposed to help with tremors (my hands were shaking so much that I was having trouble holding things and tying my shoes).

It fixed the tremors and got rid of a nasty chronic pain I've had in my foot, but it made my already annoying suicidal thoughts much, much worse, so I abandoned it.

I have the tremors again and the foot pain is back, but I don't feel like I should kill myself all the time.

Now I take a nightly Klonopin to get through the bedtime suicidal thoughts and get knocked out for a nice 16-hour sleep.

[buginme2]

Pain that begins in your lower back and then travels down one leg is often caused by a herniated disk.

The term many people use to describe e pain is called "sciatica" as that pain travels down the sciatic nerve.  Neurontin and Lyrica help relieve nerve pain. 

If this is an ongoing issue, you should have an MRI done on your lower back to verify if you have herniated a disk.  If you have you can have a surgery done by either a neuro surgeon or sometimes an osteopathic surgeon called a Diskectomy and Laminotomy.  It's an outpatient surgery only takes about an hour and could relieve you of the pain permanently without further use of drugs.