I am sorry that you had such scary reactions with the med combo. I have been fortunate to not have that problem, I am more on a delirious high most of the time. The nortriptyline was added as I was starting to get pain despite the Gabapentin, and at 3600mg/day the neurologist didnt want to go higher. I have found I need to throw a movie on or something for me to focus on to even fall asleep which is completely new for me, I used to be no noise, no light kind of person. For the moment, the pain has eased with the addition of the nortiptyline, but I just really miss a good nights sleep without constantly waking up