ok first sorry about any spelling in not good at that
ok iv been on my new meds for a month now gavapentonn 400mg 3x times a day
and tramodol 50mg every 4 hrs
it has been working on and off sometimes it helps alot sometimes a liltle some times not at all
i go back to the doc tues for a see how im doing on the meds
should i see if the doc will up the dosage of the gavapenton
and take me off the tram and put me on a actual strong pain med
but i am having some side effects from the gav and i know it is the gav because i have been on tram before
iv had chest pain that sent me to the er onetime it was stopped with steroids that night it has only happened one time that bad but has happened again
iv have had full body musle spasems at sleep time night or day almost everynight atleast once anight but never more than 3 times
iv had weird head achs where i cant get up or they get way worce but iv had head achs everyday for over three years but not like this and yes iv had a cat scan
iv had where the pain comes back really bad and keeps me in bed or puts me back in one time for over 18 hrs but other times for only a few hrs
so that is my question
but keep in mind i have no insurance and i am having to pay cash for everything so really expencive meds are my last resort
also i am really bad with rembering when to take stuff so i have to write stuff down when i took so i rembere when to take again and so i dont take right after i already took it and if anyone knows a way to help that id be really happy cause it suxs everybody lol at me when i check if the door is locked right after i just locked it and walking in to the other room and not rembereing why but my memory has been bad long time it just seems to be getting worce
Sorry if I missed you on chat, if you were hailing me, I was on another page, off site writing an e-mail. I guess we'll start with the side effects of Gabapentin.
As for pain meds, didn;t you tell me you have had some allergic or adverse reactions to those?
I know about the muscle spasms, I used to get them so badly it was like having an attack, where my entire body would draw up and I had no control over it, but the Enbrel has helped significantly with that. Dehydration can cause this, not drinking enough WATER. Lacking in calcium/magnesium/D3/potassium vitamins can give you charlie horses/spasms that you will never forget as well, but injury and disease can do it too!
I am to take my shot every Friday at 5:00, to keep an even dose in my body at all times, so on Friday, I set my stove timer so that I do not forget to take it, it lets me set it up to 12 hours I think. Writing down the times taken in a notebook is a good idea too!
I do not responnd well to Tramadol, though I know that it helps many people.
To my limited knowledge there is either Gabapentin or Pregagabalin (Neurontin or Lyrica) for nerve pain, but I may be totally wrong about this.
Start your list to the Dr. Keep it in a place you can easily access it and post anything that you need to tell or discuss with your Dr.
I am not sure if you would qualify for any of the programs that I brought up for you the night we talked last, but perhaps 'needy meds' could help you if he changed you to a more expensive drug, like Lyrica, for nerve pain. Have you talked to a Social Worker yet, they have endless resources at their disposal, perhaps you can get some help there, brent.
This is the result of being in chronic pain as far as memory problems, it is all from chronic pain and lack of sleep due to chronic pain, according to my Rheumatologist.
I am NOT a medical professional, but I suggest that before you take any more Gabapentin, that you see your Doctor, chest pain from a meds is nothing to fool with! I hope this has helped, but you really need to get your list together, as far as what you need to tell or ask him and get there.
Welcome to our group!
As far as remembering to take your meds, what I do is set an alarm on my cellphone or if that would not be available to you setting alarm on an alarm clock every time you take your meds For the next round that you need to take.
I just come out of that group of no insurance it’s really hard.
Check out easy drug card.com there you can print out a discount card that will help you get some major discounts on your prescriptions.
I’m sorry you have such horrible side effects but I have some of the same affect some of the same muscle spasms the same need to stay in bed the same headaches
I’m on some very heavy painkillers is well. Some days they work some days they don’t.
The day that they don’t work I’m in a major flare up in hard to move at all.
I have been very lucky and the fact that the days that I have real bad flare ups I’m able to stay home…
That is, most of the time. If not I just move slowly and I look forward to getting home at the end of the day.
PERCOCET is a relatively inexpensive pain medicine Vicodin is well
this is the really poopy thing about fibro we have good days, we have bad days. Sometimes we have to go into the hospital with some really weird strange symptoms.
I just wanted to share that with you. Would you please keep us updated on what happens?
I'm sorry that you have to join us due to fibro. But you've come to a good place, as there are many knowledgeable people here who are happy to help you.
I can attest that Gabapentin gave me a horrible headache every single day that I took it, which wasn't very long. As for the rest of your symptoms, I can't say. It's possible that fibro might account for them.
As far as prescription drugs are concerned, many companies will provide them to people in financial need for free for a certain amount of time. For instance, I got Lyrica for free for several months. You'd need to go to the parent company's web page and look for something talking about financial assistance. Of course, you'd need to get a prescription from a doctor first, and I understand your concerns about not having insurance.
Finally, there are little pill boxes made with the days of the week on them, so you can put your daily pills in the corresponding box. Some are made so that you can have multiple boxes for each day, so you can know to take the evening dose.
If finding the right time is important to you, I'd suggest setting your alarm clock. You could then put a note on top of the alarm, reminding you to set it each day.
I don't know if any of this is helpful, but I hope so.
i think u might benifet from a med that helps the all over pain that u take daily. i am on cymbalta and i get it free. there r programs that can help u get the meds u need for free. i dont think that once a med has a generic u can get if free but i am not tottaly sure. on of the meds i take for my asthma just came out with a generic and now i cant get it. anyways u can find out what meds u can get my looking at needymeds.com. in order to get the meds for free u 1st need the form u can get at the site i listed and then u fill out part and provide what they want which is usually tax forms and proof of income then your dr fills out his part and u send in a script and wait. some meds get approved quicker than others.
it sounds like u need a meds to help with spasms. there r different one and r usually not very expansive. as far as your dise effect keep a journal of them and mention all at your next visit. with fibro u will have to play around with different meds and doses.
not having insurance dosent mean u have to suffer without the meds u need. i am sure u have most likley called around to get the best prices. while using one pharmacy is a good idea because they will catch if u r given a med that will interact with another u r on. however w/o insurance u may need to get scripts and more than one. walgreens now has a program where u pay $20 a year and it saves lots on certian meds. some meds u can get for $4 at walmart and target. i recently found out that Costco which is like Sams club has a pharmacy that u can get scrpits at w/o being a member. the antibotic i am on now is around $65 at wal-mart and i paid $12.41 at costco. my friend just say an add at her drs office which is in a local hospital and the hospital has a pharmacy which will match and price from any pharmacy. u can always call and get the cash price for a meds before buying it.
the memory thing could be fibro fog or a side effect of a med u r on.
make sure u check prices at all pharmacys around u. check the warehouse pharmacys too. i hope u can get this all worked out.
Welcome! I had bad side effects from gabapentin too so the Dr switched it to lyrica. I have had no problems with lyrica. I am on 375 mg a day. I am also on 60 mg of cymbalta. Good luck the drug game is difficult. I loath this disease!!!
Glad to see you posted right out of the gate and with some very good questions. Many fibro patients are drug sensitive, I being one of them. Have tried savella and cymbalta and got severe reactions. Gabapentin didn’t help any but give me a headache daily and vision problems and I only got up to 150 mg at night. Been on lyrica since last Thursday, 25 mg morning and night and the vision problems are coming back. Pain is still there with no reduction. The only help I’ve noticed is better sleep combined with 3 mg Lunesta. Both are soooo expensive! I have a call into my doctor with the side affect problem - always let your doctor know when there are serious side affects. This is very important and as SK said, take plenty of water during the day, as our bodies dehydrate fast.
I hope your doctor can straighten things out. Ask him if he has samples instead of you filling a script that might not work. Most do. I’ve even seen people picking up bags of them at my docs office. Let the doc know without insurance puts a huge burden on you financially, causing more stress, which you don’t need. hugs~ Sandi
I would like to add that hypo thyroid can cause some of the problems you are talking about as well as low testosterone. I know, I’ve been there. I share many of the symptoms you are talking about. Hypo thyroid can cause many of these problems.
I’ve been on sevella and skelaxin for 3 months. The skelaxin helps well for sleep spasms for me. However the side effects for sevella is kicking my butt. It was starting to help but not know. So I could use some feedback as well
I know that many have good results on Savella, but it made me begin to tremble uncontrollably, and it had to be discontinued Skelaxin did me no good either, finally stopped that and Rheum game me Valium for night, it helps me get to sleep sometimes. It does help with the total body spasms though.
The people at this site are wonderful, helpful, caring and _really_ do understand what you're going through!
I just wanted to add my own experience with Gabapentin. It had a horribly negative effect on my already swiss-cheesed memory. I went from the normal forgetting what in the world I walked into a given room for to flat out leaving doors wide open -in the dead of winter!- forgetting what I'd just said to my other half and repeating myself -several times in a row-, couldn't remember how to log in for work (well, eventually I figured it out, but it took about 4 times the normal time to do it!), and so forth. I was on 300Mg 2x per day. It wasn't until that last increase in dosage that it became really obvious something was wrong. I stopped it, and within a week or two I went back to just being my normal "spacy" self lol
I've read a lot of other folks having that same reaction from it, but not in this thread, so I just wanted to let you know you're not alone with what it's done to you!
As for the poverty thing, I'm fighting that myself. I suggest checking to see if there are any indigent care programs in your state (although if you can see a "real" doctor instead, definitely go for it!). I also suggest, if it suits your situation, checking with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Through them I've finally gotten to see the first real doctor I've been able to see since I was a kid. He actually knew how to do the fibro test (that was a first and omgolly did it ever hurt... for 2 days... but it was nice to finally have it done right, and to actually see a doctor who had a clue of what he was doing!). Voc Rehab paid for the appointment and everything. In my case, I'm trying to get flexible hours at work so I can work around the worst of this horrible disease. That may or may not be enough, but it gives me some sort of hope, and good golly we sure all could use all of that we can manage to muster!
Please let us know what happens, and please feel free to ask for help or advice from any of us here. We all care and know to hug _gently!_ :)
No insurance is hard I know. Headaches can sometimes be caused by Chiari malformation and that usually needs an upright (standing) MRI to diagnose it. In my case, the fibromyalgia is most likely caused by Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I have the hypermobility type. EDS is a genetic connective tissue disorder that causes the body to make bad collagen, which is everywhere. I was born with it but because doctors think it's rare, they don't look for it. Many doctors know little to nothing about it. I'm not sure on the meds because Gabapentin and Naproxen Sodium work for me, so far. Vitamin D helps but I know I didn't have enough of that because it showed up in bloodwork. I take vitamin D and magnesium every day which does help some. Nothing takes all of the pain away but those help keep it down.
As for remembering the meds. I put mine in weekly plastic boxes. I have four but I got mine free from freecycle. Sometimes the dollar store has them. Mine have four little boxes per day. I put all my meds in them once a month, that way i can look and see what I've taken for that day. I got four because it was a lot easier on me to do it once a month instead of once a week. If I feel extra confused when setting the boxes up, I have someone double check them for me. Hope this helps.
I think you should check with your doctor about the meds. And don't feel bad about writing things down, it is a good accommodation and I do it all the time so I can remember! LOL! I have trouble focusing anyhow and shutting things out and can't think if someone is talking. Do what you have to do to take care of yourself and make your life easier!
well now idk what im going to do most of the side effects have stoped execpt for the head achs but even those arnt as bad long as i dont go over 12 hrs inbetween gav doses so im taking my last dose right before bed and thats helped and i figered out what caused the chest pain it was a combo if the gav and tooooo much caffeen well i am always tired so i am always drinking coffee 2-3 pots a day plus rockstar and if im really bad expresso like 2 dbl shots
and every time the chest pain happened it was after the 2 dbl shots so im not drinking those anymore and has not happened again
and i think the meds are fully kickin in cause my pain has lightened up alot like 50% most of the time and yesterday i only drank 1 pot of coffee cause i dident need any more and the sleep spazes have lightened up and im sleeping more normal for me anyways
so what im thinkin is when i go to the doc on tues i will explane what happened but what is happining now he said the meds would take 3-8 weeks to fully start working and he was right so i will see if i can stay on the gav and maybe even up it and switch me to something other than the tram
i mean if iv gone this long like i have before meds and gone almost a month with the side effects and they have lightened up or stoped on others i havent felt this ok in a long time so a diffrent combo of the gav and something elce might work better so why not give it a try cause i deffentaly dont wanna go back to what it was before and if i go off the gav thats what i an afraid of so i wil talk to him tues when i go in and see what happens and let u all know what he dose
wow great job at figuring out what was causing your side effects. not everyone can do that. i hope that u continue to have good days with less pain. u may be sleeping better with less caffine and sleep is important in how we feel.
rxlist.com is a great place to find info on a medication. However, we are not doctors. You should tell the doctor what you are going through, including type of pain, severity, and additional changes (headaches, memory changes, vision changes etc.) When I see any of my doctors I bring a complete list of everything I take, the dose amount and how many times/day. One doctor found that I needed less of a drug because the other was helping more Another doctor began to prescribe a medication, checked my list, and noticed that the prescription would have interacted severely with another med. He changed the prescription and the possible crisis was ave
One thing I note is that you are taking tramadol. I have that Rx in my "arsenal" of meds. The directions say not to drive on this med. I only take it as a last resort, as it is a very strong med.
Great job figuring out what else might have been interacting with your meds!