Hi everyone,
I have extensive bone mets in my spine, sacro-iliac joints and pelvis as well a some small liver mets. I’ve suffered from a lot of sacro-iliac pain. Morphine didn’t seem to help as much as it should. My onc prescribed Gabapentine ( in addition to morphine) which I didn’t take when I read the list of side effects. However, my excellent GP tried to persuade me otherwise and after much thought I relented. My goodness, what a difference. It took about 3 days to work but the pain is almost gone . It does make me sleepier than normal and I do get 8 hours sleep a night now rather than the usual 6. But I’m enjoying that. I can feel a little dozy in the afternoon but I read this does improve. I’d say it is worth a shot for anyone with nerve pain.
Best wishes xxx
That sounds great Waffles… Thanks for sharing.
Helen xx
Hello, Waffles. Yes, I agree about the Gabapentin! So good when I had my compression fractures in my spine. I found the drowsiness did wear off after a while. I didn’t drive while I was on it for the first few weeks (I couldn’t - it was too painful, even with the Gabapentin!), but with permission from my Onc after the drowsiness had worn off, I was fine. I did suffer with sickness while I was on it, though, so had to take antisickness tablets, but they worked.
Hugs. Barton.x
Hi Barton,
The reduction in pain since I started Gabapentin is substantial. I am pretty much pain free. I wish I had taken these when my onc first prescribed them. I am suffering from sleepiness still though. Unless I sleep 8 hours the night before I struggle to stay awake the next evening. I am heartened to hear that this improves with time. All the best xxx
Like you Waffles, I too have extensive mets in my spine plus pelvis, hips (all round that lower area in fact) and a soft tissue tumour on the spine has wrapped itself around the bundle of nerves that exits the spine at L2. The amount of pain, particularly nerve pain, from that is horrendous. I have struggled to get that pain under control for years. Gabapentin (Neurontin) and then Pregabalin have certainly gone a long way to help control my nerve pain. Some say that Pregabalin is better - one of the reasons being that it is available in many different strengths so a lower dose is going to have fewer side effects. Pregabalin starts at 25mg up to 300mg (with 6 other strengths in between). You might not need such a high dose as the1800mg a day Gabapentin (the lowest dose they do). I think the main reason Gabapentin is prescribed is to do with cost. The side-effects are quite scary but I think it pays to refresh your awareness of them from time to time. Sometimes it is hard to know if the symptoms we experience are side effects of the drug or of our cancer! For instance I struggle with tiredness (fatigue) really badly and that is one of the side effects of pregabalin/gabapentin, but it could be the cancer (tumour load) as my pain consultant puts it) It might also be because I am on quite a lot of morphine as well!!!
It does sound like you have had a very good response to Gabapentin and very quickly too. What dose did your GP start you on Waffles?
Dawn
xx
Hi Dawn,
It is only 100mg @ 3 times per day. From what you say that is a really low dose. I’ve read that morphine and gabepentin increase each other potency when given together. However, I was fairly certain morphine was doing nothing for me but this is possibly because most of my pain is nerve pain. xxx