Quote:
Originally Posted by canagirl
Ugh, with all the pain I'm in u would think I would have started GABapentin. However, my husband convinced me that I didn't give nortriptyline a long enough enough try at the dosage the neuro recommended (40, although my pcp said 50 which I did get up to but only stayed on it for one day before dropping to 40). So I went back up to 40 on nortriptiline. I am feeling better pain releif but my twitching and jerking is really ramped up. I'm scared that the nortriptyline will cause this issue to worsen permanently or worse develop into a serious movement disorder. So I want to get off The nortriptiline and stay off for awhile to see if I return My previous levels of twitching and jerking. But I soooo scared of the pain returning cus it's dampened right now. Then I will start gabapentin. I don't know if I can handle that though. Can't go back to the full blown pain, ahh I don't know what to do. I can't figure all this out. I'm scared of staying on and scared to get off.
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Obviously, everyone is different, but I can tell you that Gabapentin has reduced my twitching and cramping issues by about 90%. The twitching and cramping were my first symptoms, and I got to a point that I was having a really hard time driving (which I obviously need to do for work). The doctor prescribed Gabapentin - I had used it previously, and I didn't necessarily like the side effects, but felt I could tolerate them if it kept me functional and employed.
Of course, I'm trying to find other ways of controlling things through lifestyle, diet, and supplements. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a point where I can reduce or eliminate the Gabapentin.
As I mentioned in a previous post, you are in a critical phase. You need to find a way to control your pain so you can return to some level of sanity. Once you have your pain under control, you can work on trying to resolve the underlying condition (and ultimately getting off the medications). The Gabapentin + Nortriptyline combo seems to work well for many people. And, I think some people find that smaller doses of multiple medications have lower side effects than large doses of a single medication.
I do have to warn you though - Gabapentin can be tough to withdraw from. You need to taper off really slowly. But then, many if not most of the medications we use for for pain have similar issues.