It's been quite a while since I have felt like writing-ugh, the constant pain of sciatica that has started affecting my right leg and foot too! So, in absolute desperation, I went back to the doctor's office and got scary results. One was the supervising physician's insistence that I needed an x ray. BS! X rays don't reveal disc herniations and nerve impingement unless the problem is so severe that a significant amount of space between vertebrae is reduced. So, to me this imaging is an inappropriate delay and expenditure. I'm quite pissed. The second result is that I'm contemplating two prescriptions and not liking what I have discovered through some intense surfing today. Yes, I want to be in less pain so that I can do more than watch entire series episodes on Netflix and shuffle cautiously around the house at snail speeds. No, I don't want to mess the fully functional parts of my bod up in the process of pain relief! Gabapentin. I am afraid of it! Interestingly it has not been FDA approved for treating any conditions other than epilepsy and post herpetic neuralgia. The maker of Neurontin (which is/was a brand name for gabapentin) has been embroiled in lawsuits before because this drug was marketed by that company for many off label uses that proved ineffective and dangerous. There is a clinical trial seeking recruits for the use of gabapentin verses steroids for the problem that I am having. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01495923?term=gabapentin+sciatic+neuropathy+USA&rank=1 What do you suppose this makes me think?
Weeell..I am not going to be a free guinea pig! Or, am I? I'm pretty darn desperate. And then there is the Skelaxin. Yea, I'm afraid of it too. I've had so many bad experiences with pharmaceuticals and who can trust the research? Not I! The research for drugs is done by the companies that create them. How could any such study be scientifically reliable? But..I am SO desperate to feel better! The doses of these drugs seem ridiculously high to me too. 800mg of Skelaxin 3X a day and 100mg of Gabapentin 3X a day-Oh com on! That would be choking down six pills per day! That is SO not my style! Why is more better? I'm not into chemical lobotomies or chemically assisted suicide at this point in my life. If it takes that much of a drug for it to be useful, then the drug must be no good. I have read numerous accounts of patients that have taken much higher doses of these drugs and some have indeed had good results. Others have been afflicted with miserable long lasting side effects. It is disturbing to know that gabapentin has caused suicidal moods in patients before and that several people have actually committed suicide while taking this drug. Doesn't it seem like just the thing for chemical euthanasia? I am not ready to go! Heck, my grand daughter will only be a year old this month! Will I be one of the patients that benefits from these drugs that I have mentioned or will I be one of the patients that is permanently damaged? It's a toss up. One thing is certain if I do talk myself into sampling them-At the first sign of bad stuff happening to the bod, I am discontinuing immediately. What is up with this 'Do not stop using this medication until you have consulted with your doctor' crap? Does this make good sense? What if your doctor isn't available that day? The whole idea is to feel better and to heal. How can a substance that causes illness possibly heal? It is interesting to see the types of medications that are accompanied by that warning. Most of them are poisons such as antidepressants and anti-psychotics. I don't see pharmaceuticals doing much healing these days and I see a lot of conditions that have been invented purely to increase pharmaceutical company revenue. http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/drugs-medical/off-label-drugs-01288.html#.UzzDIfldWiU
(A week or so after recovering from the nasty effects) O.K.-I got brave and tried the gabapentin and the results were..Extreme Vertigo! I was absolutely sick for a whole day. No way was I going to spend two days like that! This 'let your body have time to adjust to the medication' sounds like crap to me, but I might feel differently if seizures were my problem. What if, rather than 'adjusting' a body became more sensitized and more side effects developed? This has happened to me before and I won't ride that cart again. I was not only dysfunctional from pain, but making it to the potty became a severe challenge due to the world around me moving as if I was on a small boat in choppy water. I never made it to trying the Skelaxin since the gabapentin affected me so negatively. I'll gladly keep up the meditation and biofeedback techniques since they do not compound the difficulties! Prayer is perfectly harmless too. I have ethical concerns with allopathic medical modalities. I wouldn't call becoming dead a cure.
Weeell..I am not going to be a free guinea pig! Or, am I? I'm pretty darn desperate. And then there is the Skelaxin. Yea, I'm afraid of it too. I've had so many bad experiences with pharmaceuticals and who can trust the research? Not I! The research for drugs is done by the companies that create them. How could any such study be scientifically reliable? But..I am SO desperate to feel better! The doses of these drugs seem ridiculously high to me too. 800mg of Skelaxin 3X a day and 100mg of Gabapentin 3X a day-Oh com on! That would be choking down six pills per day! That is SO not my style! Why is more better? I'm not into chemical lobotomies or chemically assisted suicide at this point in my life. If it takes that much of a drug for it to be useful, then the drug must be no good. I have read numerous accounts of patients that have taken much higher doses of these drugs and some have indeed had good results. Others have been afflicted with miserable long lasting side effects. It is disturbing to know that gabapentin has caused suicidal moods in patients before and that several people have actually committed suicide while taking this drug. Doesn't it seem like just the thing for chemical euthanasia? I am not ready to go! Heck, my grand daughter will only be a year old this month! Will I be one of the patients that benefits from these drugs that I have mentioned or will I be one of the patients that is permanently damaged? It's a toss up. One thing is certain if I do talk myself into sampling them-At the first sign of bad stuff happening to the bod, I am discontinuing immediately. What is up with this 'Do not stop using this medication until you have consulted with your doctor' crap? Does this make good sense? What if your doctor isn't available that day? The whole idea is to feel better and to heal. How can a substance that causes illness possibly heal? It is interesting to see the types of medications that are accompanied by that warning. Most of them are poisons such as antidepressants and anti-psychotics. I don't see pharmaceuticals doing much healing these days and I see a lot of conditions that have been invented purely to increase pharmaceutical company revenue. http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/drugs-medical/off-label-drugs-01288.html#.UzzDIfldWiU
(A week or so after recovering from the nasty effects) O.K.-I got brave and tried the gabapentin and the results were..Extreme Vertigo! I was absolutely sick for a whole day. No way was I going to spend two days like that! This 'let your body have time to adjust to the medication' sounds like crap to me, but I might feel differently if seizures were my problem. What if, rather than 'adjusting' a body became more sensitized and more side effects developed? This has happened to me before and I won't ride that cart again. I was not only dysfunctional from pain, but making it to the potty became a severe challenge due to the world around me moving as if I was on a small boat in choppy water. I never made it to trying the Skelaxin since the gabapentin affected me so negatively. I'll gladly keep up the meditation and biofeedback techniques since they do not compound the difficulties! Prayer is perfectly harmless too. I have ethical concerns with allopathic medical modalities. I wouldn't call becoming dead a cure.
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