What I found in my own experience in using Gabapentin in patients is that it was poorly tolerated, caused cognitive issues, peripheral edema, sedation and did nothing for pain. The truth is that medicine has no answer for chronic pain. Things like DMSO or chlorine dioxide which have shown to work in a multitude of illnesses have been disparaged and labeled as quackery. I am now just beginning my own journey into understanding how these two products work and how they can be safely used. The Midwestern Doctor from the Forgotten Side of Medicine has done a great job on DMSO and Pierre Kory has been writing about Chlorine Dioxide. There are many articles on both on substack. Wonder what other things are out there hiding in plain sight that are labeled as ineffective and dangerous or snake oil?
I was on Gabapentin for a short time & my husband noticed a behavior change right away. I was very irritable, & could not control my emotions. As soon as I stopped the Gabapentin, my issues resolved. Did not help with pain either.
You are so right Dr Brown. I was in the hospital last year for bad GI pain that could not be explained. Gabapentin was just one of the many cocktail of drugs they put me on. The only thing it seemed to do for me is to make my vision wavy. It did NOTHING else.
Also when i went to my PCP after being in the hospital she looked at the list of drugs (5) they put me on while i was in the hospital she said “you are over medicated”. And yes i was. I steadily got off all of them.
Several years ago, I was in the hospital, they put me on 3 different blood pressure meds. They had my BP so low that I'd pass out. My GP took me off all of them. I was fine after.
I have a question, I'm wondering if all hospitals are like ours is now. What happened to me was in 2016, before these new rules at our hospital took effect. Our hospital is owned by a very large university, along with WAY too many others in the state. You cannot have any doctor other than their hospitalists see you once you are admitted. Outside doctors are not allowed to see you, while you are there, at all. All surgeries are done by their employed doctors. You cannot have a surgeon you trust do your surgery.
Is this the norm now? Keep everything in house. Seems very sketchy to me. Thank-you for any insights.
I work for a large healthcare company, the only doctors you can see are the ones who work for the organization. Outside the hospital, you can see anyone BUT they will only pay for the ones that work for their company (if you have their insurance).
The best way to survive the hospital experience is have a person accompany you who can "advocate", meaning (go out to the nurse's station and wait for the nurse to come give pain meds, make certain you are given food, and most important, stay at night because many doctors do rounds at 4:00 AM. If you don't see the doctors when they round, it's very difficult to get your questions answered or be heard.
Thank-you, Dee Dee! I have no one to advocate for me. I have to do that for myself. Last time I was in the hospital, the doctor didn't come see me at all. 😂
The VA pushed Gabapentin on me a couple of times. I couldn’t recommend it. As I recall my pain intensified when I took it. As far as anxiety goes, no effect whatsoever. Seemed like a pointless risk to me, so I stopped taking it. This doesn’t stop the VA Docs from trying to push Gabapentin on me every time they see me. Gabapentin always struck me as a solution in search of a problem.
Subscribed for my little shih tzu by the vet - for his knee pain. Gave him one dose and he attacked me - bad bite on my leg. Completely out of character for him. Needless to say - i tossed the bottle in the trash.
My dog was given this too for arthritis and he was a stumbling, unbalanced wreck. At first I thought he had just progressed further but he recovered after stopping meds. I told my vet and he said yeah that happens but of course didn’t warn me beforehand. Animal care is just as dangerous as our medical system.
I learned to except my pain. I stopped asking Doctors to help. Nothing they ever gave me helped. I’m lucky docs never gave me opioids. So damn lucky.
What fixed me one hundred percent was cleaning up my diet. Dropping weight. Moving my body in spite of the pain.
My husband went through open heart surgery and never needed the pain pills. Told the docs no. He said it wasn’t so bad.
People need to get off the pills. Yes, there are some people I’m told that are in so much pain that they can’t function. Yet, they seem to function enough to pill shop.
My neighbor has saboxane delivered to his home. Maybe the ones in need could get on saboxane?
Honestly, the government should stop picking winners and losers. They supply addicts with needles and money, yet go after people in real pain. Makes no sense unless the government is encouraging street use. Why? Depopulation?
The only smart thing to do is stop playing their game. Stop begging and demanding help for pain. For now… it’s no longer the third rail.
Yes! I’m seeing this with all doctors. It’s ridiculous! Even the veterinarians are doling it out to as many pet patients as they can. Got a problem? Gabapentin! These docs are just incredulous & prey on the ignorance of people.
My dog got Gabapentin for a dental issue last winter. Liquid form. From a pet urgent care. My dog is a 15 pound Dachshund so it was a small bottle. When we got home with the doggo I opened the bottle and it was empty! It did have something in it as there was moisture residue in the bottle but no Gabapentin. Not sure what happened to it before it was thrown in our discharge bag.
The less than useless medicos have tortured my 79 year old wife with hydroxyzine, tramadol, baclofen, hydrocodone, methocarbamol, GABAPENTIN, and famotidine (and calcitonin that she did not take) since mid February for her back pain and increasing stomach/intestine issues due to some of these drugs.
We are still waiting for a further procedure for her fractured vertebrae which we have been battling with the numbskull hospital for about three months. Meanwhile she has been in the hospital for the last 11 days with a scar tissue blockage in her intestine that was successfully removed. Before that, she was suffering some extreme difficulties in her gut from all those pain drugs.
It is impossible to know which drugs have caused what problems. I know they are going to want to put her on a handful of drugs after she finally gets home. I hope I can talk her out of taking most of them. If this had been the covid era, I believe she would be murdered in the hospital by now.
I am so sorry. So very sorry. I have seen patients on the cocktail your wife is on…..with some horrific GI issues. I am praying for you and your wife. ♥️
The only med my dad took and needed was a benzo for anxiety (Klonopin), after he fell and was unable to walk again, they refused to give it to him. Fortunately, he died shortly there after. I say "fortunately" because he always managed his anxiety with exercise and being in a wheelchair without an anti anxiety med he had taken for years (for a man that lived to climb mountains), seemed to me, heartless and cruel. My mom didn't know how to advocate for him and depending on the Doc, may or may not have made a difference.
They had NO PROBLEM putting him on Haldol though, when he was in a nursing home asking for assistance to use the bathroom...
What helped my GI pain was to get a “ nerve block” in my back for pain. Took my last opioid pill the day i had that done. After 6 months of ER visits, GI doc visits and a week in hospital a Pallative care nurse suggested this to me! And it worked!
My physiatrist prescribed gabapentin for my C5/6 nerve pain but it never did any good at all and I didn’t like the idea of taking it. I get a cortisone injection every so often when it flares and doesn’t let up. Otherwise it’s ice and reclining with a glass of wine.
What I found in my own experience in using Gabapentin in patients is that it was poorly tolerated, caused cognitive issues, peripheral edema, sedation and did nothing for pain. The truth is that medicine has no answer for chronic pain. Things like DMSO or chlorine dioxide which have shown to work in a multitude of illnesses have been disparaged and labeled as quackery. I am now just beginning my own journey into understanding how these two products work and how they can be safely used. The Midwestern Doctor from the Forgotten Side of Medicine has done a great job on DMSO and Pierre Kory has been writing about Chlorine Dioxide. There are many articles on both on substack. Wonder what other things are out there hiding in plain sight that are labeled as ineffective and dangerous or snake oil?
I 100% agree with the DMSO option. MW Doc has a fantastic write up on how to use it.
I would bet there are numerous options out there they have carefully buried and hidden……. 🤦🏼♀️
I was on Gabapentin for a short time & my husband noticed a behavior change right away. I was very irritable, & could not control my emotions. As soon as I stopped the Gabapentin, my issues resolved. Did not help with pain either.
You are so right Dr Brown. I was in the hospital last year for bad GI pain that could not be explained. Gabapentin was just one of the many cocktail of drugs they put me on. The only thing it seemed to do for me is to make my vision wavy. It did NOTHING else.
Also when i went to my PCP after being in the hospital she looked at the list of drugs (5) they put me on while i was in the hospital she said “you are over medicated”. And yes i was. I steadily got off all of them.
Several years ago, I was in the hospital, they put me on 3 different blood pressure meds. They had my BP so low that I'd pass out. My GP took me off all of them. I was fine after.
I am so sorry. This has happened to a lot of people!! 🤦🏼♀️
Thank-you! I appreciate it.
I have a question, I'm wondering if all hospitals are like ours is now. What happened to me was in 2016, before these new rules at our hospital took effect. Our hospital is owned by a very large university, along with WAY too many others in the state. You cannot have any doctor other than their hospitalists see you once you are admitted. Outside doctors are not allowed to see you, while you are there, at all. All surgeries are done by their employed doctors. You cannot have a surgeon you trust do your surgery.
Is this the norm now? Keep everything in house. Seems very sketchy to me. Thank-you for any insights.
I work for a large healthcare company, the only doctors you can see are the ones who work for the organization. Outside the hospital, you can see anyone BUT they will only pay for the ones that work for their company (if you have their insurance).
The best way to survive the hospital experience is have a person accompany you who can "advocate", meaning (go out to the nurse's station and wait for the nurse to come give pain meds, make certain you are given food, and most important, stay at night because many doctors do rounds at 4:00 AM. If you don't see the doctors when they round, it's very difficult to get your questions answered or be heard.
Thank-you, Dee Dee! I have no one to advocate for me. I have to do that for myself. Last time I was in the hospital, the doctor didn't come see me at all. 😂
Utterly criminal.
Scary for me.
The VA pushed Gabapentin on me a couple of times. I couldn’t recommend it. As I recall my pain intensified when I took it. As far as anxiety goes, no effect whatsoever. Seemed like a pointless risk to me, so I stopped taking it. This doesn’t stop the VA Docs from trying to push Gabapentin on me every time they see me. Gabapentin always struck me as a solution in search of a problem.
Subscribed for my little shih tzu by the vet - for his knee pain. Gave him one dose and he attacked me - bad bite on my leg. Completely out of character for him. Needless to say - i tossed the bottle in the trash.
My dog was given this too for arthritis and he was a stumbling, unbalanced wreck. At first I thought he had just progressed further but he recovered after stopping meds. I told my vet and he said yeah that happens but of course didn’t warn me beforehand. Animal care is just as dangerous as our medical system.
Hopefully next time the dog takes a bite out of the vet.
I learned to except my pain. I stopped asking Doctors to help. Nothing they ever gave me helped. I’m lucky docs never gave me opioids. So damn lucky.
What fixed me one hundred percent was cleaning up my diet. Dropping weight. Moving my body in spite of the pain.
My husband went through open heart surgery and never needed the pain pills. Told the docs no. He said it wasn’t so bad.
People need to get off the pills. Yes, there are some people I’m told that are in so much pain that they can’t function. Yet, they seem to function enough to pill shop.
My neighbor has saboxane delivered to his home. Maybe the ones in need could get on saboxane?
Honestly, the government should stop picking winners and losers. They supply addicts with needles and money, yet go after people in real pain. Makes no sense unless the government is encouraging street use. Why? Depopulation?
The only smart thing to do is stop playing their game. Stop begging and demanding help for pain. For now… it’s no longer the third rail.
Yes! I’m seeing this with all doctors. It’s ridiculous! Even the veterinarians are doling it out to as many pet patients as they can. Got a problem? Gabapentin! These docs are just incredulous & prey on the ignorance of people.
My dog got Gabapentin for a dental issue last winter. Liquid form. From a pet urgent care. My dog is a 15 pound Dachshund so it was a small bottle. When we got home with the doggo I opened the bottle and it was empty! It did have something in it as there was moisture residue in the bottle but no Gabapentin. Not sure what happened to it before it was thrown in our discharge bag.
The less than useless medicos have tortured my 79 year old wife with hydroxyzine, tramadol, baclofen, hydrocodone, methocarbamol, GABAPENTIN, and famotidine (and calcitonin that she did not take) since mid February for her back pain and increasing stomach/intestine issues due to some of these drugs.
We are still waiting for a further procedure for her fractured vertebrae which we have been battling with the numbskull hospital for about three months. Meanwhile she has been in the hospital for the last 11 days with a scar tissue blockage in her intestine that was successfully removed. Before that, she was suffering some extreme difficulties in her gut from all those pain drugs.
It is impossible to know which drugs have caused what problems. I know they are going to want to put her on a handful of drugs after she finally gets home. I hope I can talk her out of taking most of them. If this had been the covid era, I believe she would be murdered in the hospital by now.
I am so sorry. So very sorry. I have seen patients on the cocktail your wife is on…..with some horrific GI issues. I am praying for you and your wife. ♥️
The only med my dad took and needed was a benzo for anxiety (Klonopin), after he fell and was unable to walk again, they refused to give it to him. Fortunately, he died shortly there after. I say "fortunately" because he always managed his anxiety with exercise and being in a wheelchair without an anti anxiety med he had taken for years (for a man that lived to climb mountains), seemed to me, heartless and cruel. My mom didn't know how to advocate for him and depending on the Doc, may or may not have made a difference.
They had NO PROBLEM putting him on Haldol though, when he was in a nursing home asking for assistance to use the bathroom...
What helped my GI pain was to get a “ nerve block” in my back for pain. Took my last opioid pill the day i had that done. After 6 months of ER visits, GI doc visits and a week in hospital a Pallative care nurse suggested this to me! And it worked!
My physiatrist prescribed gabapentin for my C5/6 nerve pain but it never did any good at all and I didn’t like the idea of taking it. I get a cortisone injection every so often when it flares and doesn’t let up. Otherwise it’s ice and reclining with a glass of wine.