Gabapentin withdrawal (new to forum)
 

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and I have been managing hashimoto's symptoms for 7 + years. Pain, migraines, fatigue, weight gain, etc... I have some old injuries that were more painful because of hashimoto's. I ended up having a knee replacement in November of 2017 which went well but I had low back pain (also a hashimoto's symptom I'm told) so my knee doctor prescribed gabapentin.
Until this point I had been maintaining my weight at a reasonable level. I am 5' 10" and I weighed 197 which is still overweight but not horribly. I started gaining weight and becoming fatigued after starting gabapentin near the end of December. I ended up gaining more than 30 lbs but I still didn't connect it to the gabapentin. I guess I just thought I was having a hashimoto's flare up.
Around July of this year the fatigue had become so bad that I could barely function. It wasn't until September when I went into a store that sells cbd products that I started to make the connection. The owner asked me what medications I was taking for pain. She's the one who pointed out that this drug commonly causes weight gain and fatigue. When I looked up the side effects of the drug I immediately decided to wean off of gabapentin.
I had mostly been taking 600 mg once in the evening but occasionally when I would drive a long trip at work I would take another dose during the day. I only did that occasionally so I don't know how much that contributed to the withdrawal symptoms. I reduced to one pill (300 mg) for 3 days and then 150 mg for 3 days then 0.
The first day my ankle hurt so bad that I realized how much the pain was being masked even during the day. I started having trouble sleeping, nausea and itching badly (also gabapentin withdrawal symptoms). I have also noticed that my temperature has dropped but I don't know which that's related to.
I would like to know how long I can expect the symptoms to continue. I also would hope that anyone reading this would seriously reconsider taking gabapentin if their doctor has prescribed it for them. I have read some other people having way worse withdrawal symptoms than mine.
Thanks for reading and good luck on your journey :hug:

update
 

This is my second day since zero gabapentin. I slept slightly better last night but all the pain that had been masked is back. I'm using CBD cream aleve & tylenol. My face is breaking out badly so I hope this clears up soon. I didn't experience any breakouts while taking it. I hope to start losing weight soon but I have to say I already have a little more energy.
I hope this helps someone out there
Debbie