Pregnancy Forums

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 4:49pm | IP Logged

Hi girls..........I'm after a wee bit of advice

My pain has gotten really bad this past month, so much so I'm pretty much housebound as I can't get out on my own  and the stairs are completely out of bounds, so I'm back to sleeping on the settee. My doctor has finally given me something that I hope will help, after much persuasion that I really am in a lot of pain I feel as if I've been banging my head off a brick wall....... no one here seems to have a clue about SPD

Anyhoo......the doc has prescribed Gabapentin for me, it's an epilepsy drug that's used to control nerve signals (I think). I'm due to start taking it tonight. I was wondering if anyone else has been prescribed it? I usually react  quite badly to painkillers, if there's any side effects I usually get them!....so I'm quite nervous about taking it

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 5:21pm | IP Logged

I have hypemobility ehlers-danlos syndrome - which also affects my hips and I was prescribed Gabapentin.  I was on 9 of these a day and my weight ballooned.  Didnt do much for my pain though.  I am now on Amitriptyline which are, im pleased to say, making a difference and helping me to sleep.

I totally sympathise with you hunny with the stairs, got so bad for me I had to get a stairlift put in.  Hope you get some relief with the gabapentin, it may work for you cos it does indeed control the nerve endings.  Let us know how you get on with these.

Nikki xxx

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 5:22pm | IP Logged

Thanks Madz

I tried amytriptaline too.....omg it was awful, I didn't sleep with it until around 7am when I should've been getting up with the kids lol And it did nothing for the pain....

I started seeing a chiropractor last week, in fact I have another appointment with her tomorrow. She thinks I have a problem with my spine too, it's affecting the nerves going down my right side. Needless to say that's one of reasons why I'm finding the stairs such a problem at the moment. Her opinion is that if this course of treatment with her doesn't work, then I should seriously consider surgery. I'm waiting on an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon, but who knows how long that'll take!

I've a tens machine, it's great but I can't use it at the mo.......my pelvis has become so unstable that I'm having to wear a support belt 24/7. As the belt sits where I'd put the electrodes, I'm forced to choose between them. It's more important that my pelvis is stablised so bye bye tens machine....

Your pain specialist sounds great.... I'm waiting an appointment with the pain clinic here, hopefully they'll have someone as good as yours

Thanks Nikki.... I'd read that weight gain was one of the side effects. Hope it doesn't happen to me! Although I'm sure Barry wouldn't mind

We're looking at moving...... a stair lift isn't an option for this house. Besides we need an extra bedroom for Caera, she's sharing with the boys and is desperate to get away from them! Fingers crossed we manage to find a nice bungalow soon!

Cherie x

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 8:36pm | IP Logged

Hi hun

I too have spd (lo's now 18mths) i am waiting to see madz pain specalist, but i have also tried gabapentin..... it worked ok but the main side effect i had was mouth ulcers....these appeared 2-4 days after taking them... if they are bearable then bonjella etc can help ease them till your body gets used to the drug and you stop having them but if like me you found you have so many where you can't shut your mouth and it's too painful to eat/drink then see your doc asap as this is a drug you can't just stop taking.....

Please feel free to pm me if you have any persific questions as i have tried almost all meds available and am moving to a bungalow in December!!

Take care hun Tsena

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 8:49pm | IP Logged

Thanks Tsena  Congrats in getting a bungalow...you lucky thing!

So far so good.... I took my first tablet a couple of hours ago and no side effects as yet! Fingers crossed it stays this way and they actually help with the pain!

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 9:03pm | IP Logged

Thanks hun but i move december, it's out of the village i currently live in but only 5 mins down the road (a bendy one which covers 8 miles approx).

Good luck with the tablets.....

I'm sorry i don't know much about you, how many kids do you have? Where abouts are you etc?

I live in Cambridgeshire, with dp and my 2 boys, 6yrs and 18mths.

I'm looking forward to chatting and getting to know you better.

Take care hun and i hope you get a good nights sleep soon x

Posted: 11 November 2007 at 10:17pm | IP Logged

Hi Cherie,

Jen here.. I asked Barry to let me know how you got on at the hosp, what is he like?? anyway, I tried gabapentin a while ago and we gradually built the dose up to 2000mg per day (500mg's x 4).  I did get some relief but as usual it was marginal and it wasn;t until I'd been on them for about two years that I was told that they'd contributed to the weight gain.. (at the time I was taking other meds to try and reduce my weight) so I decided to stop them (very gradually as the side effects were pretty bad coming off) and to be honest I hadn't actually felt to much of an increase afterwards so I haven't considered going back on them.  I've found that I can manage with my dihydrocodeine (df118's), my co-codomal & the patches or morpheine when it gets really, really bad (which has been quite a lot lately).. I too found the tens machine helped but more when I got to ly down for a while.. I would take off the belt and switch the machine on and it took the edge off for a while.. why don't you try that?

I'm off to the hospital tomorrow and to be honest I'm sooo scared you wouldn't believe.. Numerous times I've thought about pulling out but I'm at the stage now that I feel that I owe it to everyone to give it a go.. afetr all, it's not going to fix itself and I'm soo fed up fighting it and I'm running out of energy now.. I know it's going to be a very long recovery and it's going to be extremely painful (how much more painful that what I experience now I don;t know, in fact, it might not be much more at all!!).  When I think back to the first time that I had the plating (about 4.5yrs ago), I'm quite positive as the initial signs were very hopeful, in fact, I was walking around unaided for a while until the decline satrted (I now know that was because the plate wasn't put in properly and by then had started to move)..

Here's hoping everything will be ok though and good luck with finding the right meds for you hun, like me, you might end up trying quite a few different ones to get the right mix but I sincerely hope you get there..

Tell Barry & the kids I said hello and I'll try to drop you a line at some point.. I'm hoping to have internet at my bedside (god help the bill that Steven'll get for that - lol).. take care hun & I'll speak to you again soon..