I'm way to far behind to catch up all that I've missed in here, but did have to jump in quickly on that. Gabapentin (neurontin) has been pretty much a miracle drug for me. And I know that even more now since I'm having to drastically reduce and probably quit taking it completely because of a bizarre side-effect (not something to worry about unless you have really bad kidney function) and I am literally hurting all over. Thus why I've been gone most of the last week.
I have Transverse Myelitis - think of it as sort of like multiple sclerosis but with just one really big lesion in the spinal cord, resulting in what acts a lot like a bad spinal cord injury. But one of the main effects is severe neuropathy and fun other nerve special effects. (The reason that I started
vaping is that the inability to hold onto a lit cigarette is a very immediate health risk.) And gabapentin has worked really well for that, and, apparently as a pretty good general pain control med.
I didn't have any of the more standard side effects that it can cause, but if you have lousy kidney function it can build up in your system and cause myoclonus - very weird random twitches. As side effects go it could be fairly benign, unless you use your computer a lot (like every waking hour) since random twitches can make typing and using a trackball pretty close to impossible. And trying to enter passwords can take 6 or 7 attempts.
So my neurologist has had me ramping gradually down in the amount I take, in the fond hope that there would be an amount I could still take that would still help with the neuropathy but without the myoclonus. Well, we hit the dosage where it no longer helps with the pain, but still causes side effects. Which is why I've been "staying home" sick all week. It looks like we're going to have to try to figure out something else that might work.
But the whole point of this rant is that there isn't anything else that works as well for neuropathy as gabapentin. i'm really going to miss it. I'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming once I catch up to the next 10 pages I've missed.
