Gabpentin for chronic post-op pain?

[rickyrickygrimes]

DH had surgery a year ago to remove his coccyx - it was seriously displaced after an accident and had developed a painful bone spur. One year on healing is apparently complete but he continues to have considerable pain and some inflammation (shown on ultrasound) in the area. He’s reluctant to use opioids long term so the surgeon has prescribed gabpentin . His explanation is that it will ‘break the association his brain has made between the area and pain there’ (we are not in the uk and the dr is a good but not native English speaker).

is this how it works? has anyone experience of using it for this? Nearly 2 weeks in and he can’t feel any difference so far.

Oh god, I had memory black outs on them. Worse drug they ever invented,

My dog has them alongside painkillers because they apparently enhance the effect of the painkillers

I'm on lyrica /pregablin which is a fairly similar drug to gabapentin. They are both nerve pain medications and work for nerve pain. It took 3 weeks for my lyrica to fully work. I take it in combination with solpadol for hip and sciatic pain. I personally think it's ok to try opioids if it's the only option to get out of pain. Solpadol is a (mild) opiate (paracetamol and codeine) and the two medications together have been life changing. I also use a TENS machine which is very helpful but the effects don't last long. Still, it's good for breakthrough pain and for when I need to wait for the next medication dose

I know a couple of people on gabapentin, both put on a lot of weight on it (which doesn’t help health/healing).

My cat is on it to stop her get stressed and disoriented at night. It works for her!

Not much help in your case but fascinated how one drug can do so many different things.

My cat had it and it chilled her right out she got a vivacious appetite and was obviously high and not there but it was needed at the time

I find it a really effective painkiller, but the withdrawal is significantly worse than opioids. Be really careful when he comes off it because the withdrawal is brutally unpleasant and can cause seizures.

I have been on Gabapentin for nerve pain but rapidly gained 2 stone and it affected my kidney function . So I now take a small dose of Amitryptiline even though it's not as effective as Gabapentin was.

Very addictive powerful drug.

I took it when I broke my back in 4 places, despite MSK insisting I only took paracetamol, because loads of other back pain sufferers suggested it, but it did nothing for me.

The thing with gabapentin is that it only works on nerve pain - it can be super effective though in pain where your brain is reporting pain where the source of the pain originally has gone. This doesn't mean at all that it is 'all in your mind' or not real, but how we feel pain is a combination of the signal from nerves and the brain interpreting it and this can get really dysfunctional esp where nerves have been damaged or compressed as your body gets into a bad feedback loop.
I think they are most effective combined with other pain relief initially, and working with other things like hydrotherapy, acupuncture and physio to get normal nerve feedback in place before tapering off.
I took gaba/lyrica for a while for my CRPS so I could work on other things that let me live with it

I suffered sciatica March 23 badly then Nov 23 I stood up from the kitchen table and my disc slipped, hitting the sciatic nerve. The pain was unbearable. I spent 2 weeks in hospital taking a cocktail of paracetamol, morphine, Dihydrocodeine, senna, laxatives and oxycodone (wasn't able to move my bowel for 12 days but an enema sorted that) Nothing hit the pain. I laid on my right side, couldn't sit, needed help to use the commode. After 2 weeks they offered gabapentin. I hate meds and I asked for 2 days for me to think about it. For me a miracle drug. Within 6 hrs I was able to sit up, within 10hrs I was walking again.. I took it until Sept 24 after tapering off it over a few months. I had no side effects. I read so many horror stories but for me it was fine and no side effects when tapering off too. This drug saved me massively from the worst constant debilitating pain ever and got me out of bed and back to work. Wanted to give my story for anyone visiting this thread too.