Diabetic Nerve Pain & Gabapentin
 

I am new here and need some advice. I have severe diabetic nerve pain in my feet. I am taking Gabapentin and I worry about being on this medication. It does help, but I have heard that Gabapentin is hard to get off of. I have been on Gabapentin since September 2009. Started on 300MG at night. Started an increase in February 2010, 300MG AM, 300MG PM. Another increase in early March 2010 600MG AM, 900MG PM. Was not able to handle the morning nausea, so part of my AM dose was moved to PM. So, I am taking 300MG AM and 1200MG PM. I have had some diarrhea as a side effect and had a couple of bowel movements during sleeping without knowing it. If going off of this medication further down the road is going to be a problem, then I would rather get off of the medication and deal with the pain. Any advise would be appreciated.

Hello Crazyhorses!
 

Welcome to NT ! :Wave-Hello:
I am sorry, however for the reason you've found us :( Not fun.
BUT, the good thing is, you have indeed found a wonderful place full of caring and friendly folks, and the knowledge here is unbelievable !

Here's a great place to get you started...it's the Peripheral Neuropathy forum.
Here's the direct link to click on to get you there:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/fo...aysprune=&f=20

It's a very active forum and everyone there knows the struggles of dealing with neuropathies of all sorts. The medications are discussed in much detail as well.
Start a new thread over there introducing yourself and your circumstances and you'll get good feedback. In the meantime, there's plenty of valuable info at the top of that page in a special section called the 'stickies'.....
It's like a crash course on battling neuropathy!

Also, you can use the 'search' feature at the top of the page and type in the medication you are on and it'll direct you to many previous posts and discussion.
I wish you the best
Caring
Rae
:hug:

Hi Crazy Horses
 

I am fairly new to Neuro Talk but there are some awesome people in here. I suffer from CRPS and I have tried many meds - Gabbapentin being one of them. In the end I was fed up with the weight gain and I could no longer cope with the feeling of nauseousness and bloatedness. The withdrawals arent pleasant, I came off the Gabbapentin very slowly, reducing the amount as advised but I still felt quite ugh - hot/cold sweats, nauseous, dizzy, headaches just generally feeling ugh. There might be other meds you can try out there. I am now on Oxycontin which I know is highly addictive but I cant cope with the pain without it, especially since it has spread throughout my body.

The best pain specialist I saw was someone who specialised in anaesthestics (cant think of posh name lol).

Good luck with it all. I did lots of research re Gabbapentin and made the decision to come off the Gabbapentin myself, went and saw my pain spec who supported me fully and helped me wean off the drug.

Take care

Jo

ps are you horse mad??? just going on your user name lol because I am :)

Greetings to Crazyhorses & also 2claws!!!
 

So happy to meet both of you! I hope you can find some answers to help you and I pray you will find comfort soon! Blessings to you!:hug:

crazyhorses hello ans welcome
 

Hi Crazyhorses,
I was up to 3600 mgs of Neurontin (Gabapentin) started lower dose in 2001 and then weaned off in 2006. It took a year. Many people switch to Lyrica, those with diabetes and nerve pain.

I took it for sensory symptoms and pain having MS.

I am sure you will find many ways to treat your pain. There are forums on here to help you. One is for Peripheral Neuropathy as someone already pointed you to. Good luck and nice to meet you. :)