After trying to just do this on my own, I asked my doc for some help back in Nov. He started me on amitriptyline. I loved it. Other than being very tired in the afternoons, I had no side effects. The pain was gone after taking it the first time. About a month in, it became very difficult to swallow food. So, they took me off of this one and put me on nortriptyline.

Again, it was great. It actually made me feel a lot better, even hyper. I would work all day, come home run 6 miles, and then clean house. By the way, the pain was always there with nor. but I didn't really care. It was a great weird sensation. Around the middle of February I started having severe panic attacks in the middle of the night. Weird stuff like paranoid I was dying and wouldn't make it through the night.....oh and I would get angry very easily. This went on for about a week and then I just quit the nortriptyline. It took about 3 weeks for me to feel ok. I was sick to my stomach every day and my head felt awful.

Now, I am clear of all meds. But man it is rough. My legs are locking up pretty badly during runs again. My weekly mileage is down a lot, about half. My face goes into spasms from simple things, such as me bending over. I know that it seems like I should just quit running and everything will be ok. But it won't. When I don't run, the pain becomes unbearable and the dizziness is not something I can take. I don't understand why, but running keeps my blood pressure at a normal rate so that I don't feel like I've been hit by a train all of the time. Also, there is something extremely therapeutic about running for me.

So, the last time I talked to my doc he wanted to put me on gabapentin. I am a little gun shy because of my experience with the last two meds.

So, what should I be warned about with gabapentin? Will it help with the constant spasms? How long will it take for the side effects to go away?