Has anybody recovered their overall body strength after tapering off all meds?

months ago when I was on 300 mg lyrica and then added 20mg of elavil, I noticed extreme difficulty in climbing stairs with very wobly legs. Also the cement leg syndrome was with me permanently so I figured I was going downhill pretty fast. Another thing i did was clasp my hands together like praying and push against them hard, the reaction being my arms and elbows would wobble like crazy. Just no strength.
I also staggered a lot like I was drunk.

Fast forward and down to .5mg Elavail only.I can climb stairs no probs, cement legs gone and pressing my hands together and applying pressure (hard) creates trembling but no arm wobble which would be normal.


My question is since neuro drugs like neurontin, lyrica etc all work in changing the way the brain receives signals from damaged nerves. So wouldnt it make sense that the brain would have trouble in reverse , being difficulty in commanding those same nerves?

Being off these drugs I have a spring and bounce in my step which I cannot contribute to anything else.
Any thoughts anyone?

Yes, several.

Earlier this morning I posted (on the Medications & Treatments board)
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread145455.html
a quote from an article that states the way gabapentin and similar drugs work is to halt new synapses from forming. Since synapses are the nervous systems communications relays & connections, what you postulate about commanding nerves seems to make sense - to me, anyway.

I've felt similar feelings at different times - that I was getting weaker/sicker and rapidly going downhill. Changing dosages of different meds has definitely helped. One example would be the lighter "as needed" doses of gabapentin that work for me (which have been none since starting R-Lipoic last week).

One of the tenets of medicine is to use the smallest dose of any medication necessary to achieve the desired effect/goal, which requires titration & monitoring. With as many drugs as we have in today's pharmocopia, this is not always practical (for doctors) so they rely upon guidelines provided by drug companies and other sources which have ostensibly been determined by studies & trials on large numbers of patients & controls. But these are still guidelines*, and since everyone is different, it's up to the patient, as advocate, to report findings to their doctors and assist in establishing their own individual regimens.

I had more, but it's slipped away.... probably due to some side effect....

Doc

* I have often likened drug dosage guidelines to dogfood guidelines. These companies are in business to make money by selling product, and their guidelines seem to contradict the "smallest dose necessary" tenet. If I fed my dog what it says to on the bag, I'd be buying dogfood twice as often as I do, and my dog would be morbidly obese. Purdue Pharma was fined millions for marketing Oxycontin in such a way that more was being prescribed than necessary.
http://tinyurl.com/66gxa9l

Hello,
Sure hope the spring returns to my legs, since taking all the brain food for PN (six years) I now use a wheel chair around the house as the legs are weak and unstable. Since switching to amitriptyline (3 weeks) hopefully I can get the strength back using the walker, and spring can't arrive soon enough for me. Best to all

Stagger, amitriptyline would work in a similar way I would imagine. Anything the interferes with brain-nerve conduction surely must have an equal and opposite effect. Newtons law? Im only guessing of course and really hope you get the bounce you deserve

Doc, very interesting link.

"I've felt similar feelings at different times - that I was getting weaker/sicker and rapidly going downhill. Changing dosages of different meds has definitely helped. One example would be the lighter "as needed" doses of gabapentin that work for me (which have been none since starting R-Lipoic last week)."

Do be honest I was a bit skeptical that a few 100 mg of gabapentin would even touch nerve pain however having been nearly med free for a few days (stopped .5 alevil last night) I doubt i may even need your small dose but will wait n see.