To ask about gabapentin and nerve pain/sciatica success stories?

I would go with what’s been recommended and wishing you pain relief

Can I ask are you in parallel doing physio , and are you overweight ? If not - disregard but what fixed my ongoing lower back was daily physio and weight loss . I had to ask as it wasn’t until a kind NP told me I was 2 stone heavier that the penny dropped

And naproxen saves me
In bad days

It’s ok, thank me later, SpamChaudFroid & of course, best of luck with the spine regeneration!

Pregabalin changed my life. Tried most other drugs mentioned, but pregabalin was the only one to take the edge off the horrible nerve pain.

@SpamChaudFroid As for mouth dryness, I found this settled over the first few months. I just keep a bottle of water to hand at all times.

Paramol is paracetamol and dihydrocodiene

I mean paramol is a brand name of a tablet which blends paracetamol and something else which was the only thing that fixed my dh. You can only buy it over the counter.

Paramol that should say.

Did you try paramos over the counter? Worked for my dh when nothing else did.

It’s also great for lessening hot flushes. & makes you high as a kite when you start / if you take infrequently. one dose every half hour in the evening, one with a fizzy drink 3 x 300mg total, oh & one dose with food. Like mdma but excellent sleep.

I posted on here about a month ago about my lumbar spondylosis which was giving me pretty horrendous sciatic pain from buttock to calf and had been ongoing for over a year. The only time it was eased was when sitting, even turning over in bed was waking me up with the pain so I wasn't sleeping.

I have forced myself to go to the gym pretty much every day since then, light cardio to warm up then mostly using weight machines concentrating on lower back and legs and I would say that the pain has reduced by around 80% and I can walk pain free (still have slight pain when standing still like in a queue, at school gates etc) when I had to stay sitting on a bench near the entrance while DH and DS went round the British Museum in the Easter school holidays as just walking from the tube was agony! I have incorporated a 30 min walk as well which really hurt for the first 5 days.

Whenever I feel like I cba to exercise, I remember sitting on that bench. The less I move the more pain I find I'm in.

@ SpamChaudFroid

It has a lot of the same side effects and is as equally dangerous as pregablin were you to stop suddenly. The withdrawals are also nasty as fuck. They are similar drugs , absorbed differently - so while I was not referring to you and gabapentin, I was slightly derailing in response to posters who mentioned pregablin.
I would do a pile of research about it, as I do with all my meds that I am prescribed before making a decision. I don't view Drs as omnipotent and like to make very informed choices , not saying you don't but it's saved me from a couple of ones with nasty side effects post my Lyrica experience.

This is an interesting article about it. www.therecoveryvillage.com/gabapentin-addiction/gabapentin-safe/

I had horrendous sciatic pain from a slipped disc and couldnt shift it. Physio was amazing and I am pain free. I was as stiff as a board, but doing the set exercises worked very well for me and got me moving.

@StarStruckStarGazer I was actually thinking I was some kind of special freak loathing this drug, after all the songs of praise from the other posters, so thanks for commenting. Glad I'm not alone.

I do wonder though with all the other PP's - have any of you been on Lyrica for a substantive period of time, and have any tried to stop? Because if you do any serious reading on it , it's one nasty ass drug , that will give you seizures if you stop it suddenly. It may work for pain in some circumstances but I couldn't personally justify physical dependence on such a thing ever again. And I'm looking down the barrel at a lifetime of increasingly severe chronic pain.

Hi OP, you sounds as bad as i was pre-surgery.

Surgery was the best thing I ever had. I went from not being able to walk without acute pain to walking with a "background" dull pain that is nothing like the sciatica/nerve pain.

Have you had an MRI to confirm if this is temp or perm situation?

Following surgery I have done a lot of mindfulness stuff and started to understand that I am not actually "injured and in pain" any more and that my brain simply receives the message that I am in pain when actually everything is ok - I have residual nerve damage. The mind is very powerful and I do not use any pain relief on a regular basis - only for flare ups when I use Naproxen and Tramacet for 1 week tops.

Good luck - back pain is hell and nobody truly understands unless they have experienced it.

I’ve taken pregabalin before for fibromyalgia I also have bad sciatica/SI joint pain in my right hip. Didn’t really work out on half a stone in about 2 weeks.

Ive just weaned myself off duoxetine which was horrible would give me brain zaps. Currently just on tramadol for my pain.

Just wanted to say it was a sanity saver for me although I was only on it temporarily whilst on the waiting list for surgery. It made life a little more bearable.

Amitriptyline also worked for me. Without it I was regularly up and wandering the house/garden whilst waiting for the codeine to kick in so I could grab a ew more hours sleep.

Wandering the garden at 2am in early summer was quite lovely - quiet, the dawn chorus - but that was a pleasure I was more than happy to give up.

@Peopleshouldread Don't mean to hijack the post, but I was almost in tears reading your post. I came of baclofen which is the same type of medication gaba a receptor. I did try gabapentin, I had grim side effects. Coming off baclofen was the worst experience, or one of the worst of my life. DH bought magazines thinking it might help, it was around Will & Kate's wedding. Nothing I did helped at all, I honestly said to DH, I don't think I'll sleep, I really can't cope with this. I don't know why your GP can't medicate you to help, it was literal withdrawal.

I honestly wouldn't want anyone to go through that. I can't even remember how it came up with a checkout person, something was said, she explained how she had to go through the gabapentin withdrawal to go on pregablin, which also didn't work. Like me coming off medications that affect gaba a receptors, her family called paramedics & all sorts as she was so bad.

I just really feel for anyone that's had that experience.

I'm on certain meds and have been for a while, I don't get any high or anything.

Sorry spondyloarthrosis. I didn’t preview and check spelling. This is the name given to all degrees of spinal arthritis (ankylosing spondylosis is technically supposed to be when the spine is fused) as it’s recognised as a spectrum of disease now.

Op read up about sacroiliitis/spondyloarthtosis. The stiffness in the morning is a classic sign. You may actually be starting with that. Mine started with sciatica type pain and the sacroiliac pain does radiate down my legs. For this you need a rheumatology referral.

Btw I haven’t been told about not taking anti-inflammatories with prebabalin by either my GP or consultant. I take a strong nsaid daily for my AS alongside it which they are both aware of.