I am taking Gabapentin and other meds for pain following an operation to put my leg back together after an accident. Normally I am an optimistic busy person whose main way of dealing with pain/bad things is to pretend they aren’t happening. I know I am chained to my bed which I find difficult (21 days today) but I have a newborn (grandchild) to rock and love and yet am still finding myself regularly in tears. I have looked at the side effects of my meds and only Gabapentin lists depression and then only in 1 in a 100 people. I feel as if I must be the 1.
Nel
Oh, Nel, I'm sorry Gabapentin is affecting you this way. I am usually the "1" too. Last year I was on Flonase for a few months for sinus issues, and after weeping every day for about a week, realized it had to be the Flonase and ditched it. I hope you can ditch the Gabapentin soon and have no more pain. How many more days are you bed-bound?
Hi Dancermom
The carer just left and I had my hair washed which made me feel a bit better. I go back to the fracture people in two more weeks and they will X-Ray and tell me how long before they think I can consider crutches. Then a few more weeks before I can get out of the one room and go down a step to the rest of the ground floor. Oh these Victorian houses with all the different levels and curly staircases. Up to three more months before I can attempt going upstairs.
I think I will ditch the Gabapentin and see if that helps. My daughter needed to get something out of a cupboard the door of which is blocked by my bed being in the lounge and I dissolved again. I know it’s ridiculous and I know there are so many people in far worse straights then me and I should be counting my blessings but can’t seem to help it. I suppose too the meds are making it difficult to concentrate on reading or crossword puzzles and trashy TV just makes me more cross! x
I was on topamax (for migraines) and It didn’t cause depression but i just so happened to be the 1 out of 1000 people to have hair loss. The hair loss caused my depression so i got off of it and went on Zonegran. I am on Gabapentin now for My erythromelalgia and am noticing weight gain on me (even though I’m on a diet) and i find myself not wanting to go anywhere or do anything (first signs of depression). I see my doctor tomorrow and I’m gonna ask him if there is another drug i can take without so many side effects. I’ll make sure to let you know what he says and if there are other drugs out there for pain management and erythromelalgia. I apologize for my drawn out conversation. I really hope you heal very soon and can spend some time with that wonderful grandbaby. Just remember just because you’re bed bound doesn’t mean you can’t spend time with the baby. She can lay with you while she sleeps or even while she is awake. I was bed bound for a while due to a major surgery and I’m a mother of a 6 year old. I still had him lay with me and tell me all about his day. We played transformers and watched movies too. Being bed bound doesn’t mean you can’t do anything, just means you’re activities are limited to one area. I hope you get to feeling better though.
When you are somewhat mobile and working on getting back strength, it may be helpful to locate a facility that has an anti-gravity treadmill. There are many physio places in the US that have them -- I'm not sure about the UK. You can exercise longer with less weight on the injured leg. It may make for a faster recovery.
Thank you Tizzy. The EM has been a strange experience stuck in one place. I swing from flare to freezing all day long. I hadn’t realised when I was up and about and to some extent able to regulate my temperature how much that was happening. When I switch to cold it is just so hard to warm up and then suddenly I am flaring, burning to the tops of my legs and the bit of me I sit on and racing it get the covers off me. Ten mins later I am freezing again. I got pressure sores in hospital in spite of the water bed and am sure it is due to the super heat I achieve in any part of me that makes contact with bed/chair/pillow/clothes.
It isn’t like me at all to be down though whether my doctor knows that or not I am not sure since I don’t go near him if I can help it. I do have a box of Cymbalta somewhere which I hadn’t got round to starting when I had the accident so perhaps I should check online for compatibility with other meds and try them instead. I am fed up too because I have never had heart trouble ever but following the very long operation and lots of blood transfused I went into Atrisl Fibrillation and am now on a range of heart meds too. I wish you lived close by too - thank goodness for the Internet.
Nel
Yes!! I did notice a mood change with gabapentin, and significant weight gain,I suspect the figures are wrong… But…it was much much worse with Lyrica, even had suicidal thoughts… Which never occured before in my happy "normal life’… Hope this helps
Thanks Jesse and Dominique. Perhaps I had better concentrate on doing without rather than substituting. The pain in the leg is lessening day by day and anything is better than feeling blue all the time. I was due to start looking after my year old grandson next week as his mum has to go back to work and now I can’t which is not improving my mood. I looked after his big brother until he started school and I know what a precious opportunity it was to have been.
Anyway, there’s my goal, to get right off Gabapentin since it does nothing for my EM and avoid any substitute with the side effect if depression until I am off this darned bed!
Nel
Hello
I have been on gabapentin and gralise for several years. No weight gain (and I have fought my weight most of my life). Be careful stopping it quickly. When I was at my highest dosage a few years back, I "ramped up" to the dosage and when pain eventually left, I had to "ramp down". Certainly talk with you doctor about the side effects.
I know not everyone has access to a pool (believe it or not, that's true here in California too) but my community does have a small pool and aqua aerobics is a wonderful no-gravity way to exercise--stretch and rebuild muscle. I have been doing it since 1984. Most YMCAs and community pools offer classes. Exercise also helps relieve depression.
Best of Luck to you.
I can’t wait to get back in the pool again Jay. I have always swum and exercised in the water. I am so lucky to have a gym with pool ten minutes from home. I won’t be able to access the changing rooms or gym floors but the pool is at ground ievel. I joked to my daughter that if she could get hold of a wheelchair she could just wheel me to the edge and tip me in. Well perhaps not but as soon as I am allowed to stand up unaided that is where I will be heading. Dancermom, once I can get up the stairs to the gym floor you are right that the anti-gravity treadmill would be the way to go.
Thanks everyone for so much positive feedback
Nel
My husband had the same, depression with both Gabapentin and Lyrica, and he has never been a "down" person and I have known him for the last 50 years!!! He is down now as he has not left the house for the last 3 years apart from the medical appointments, with ulcers on his feet and a constant flare but he has a reason for being depressed :(.
Dominique said:
Yes!! I did notice a mood change with gabapentin, and significant weight gain,I suspect the figures are wrong.... But..it was much much worse with Lyrica, even had suicidal thoughts... Which never occured before in my happy "normal life'.. Hope this helps
Maggiebarb, can he go out in a wheelchair? It must be so hard feeling housebound.
Maggiebarb that is so sad. I am struggling with only a few months to get through. I was taken for a hospital appointment today and loved the feeling of the wind on my face during the transfer to the ambulance. The combination of depressive medications and forced inactivity would be bad for anyone but combined with the ulcers and constant flare it must be a nightmare.
Not really, he would have to have a bucket of iced water with him, and what would he do sitting in a wheel chair? He was always a very sporty person, ran, swam in the ocean even in our Australian "winter". He would like to do stuff, he is only 65. He cannot go to visit our children on the other side of the country, well this is it :(
dancermom said:
Maggiebarb, can he go out in a wheelchair? It must be so hard feeling housebound.
Hi Tizzy. I am so much better since I stopped the Gabapentin! The constant weepiness has gone and my concentration is greatly improved. It so wasn’t me to be really miserable however bad the circumstances. Of course I worry about my children and grandchildren when there is reason to but in a positive way! Not by constantly dissolving into tears.
As for the ivory towers, they are a complete mystery to me and stuck in one room I am fast forgetting that the rest of the house exists! My daughter remarked to my sister apropos something she was doing “I can usually only get away with this when mum is in Australia” but I am shutting my mind to how the family are managing ‘my’ household and just being glad that they are doing it one way or another. My son came over yesterday with my 4 year old grandson who played with me on the bed while my son and daughter cleared the back room into which furniture and prams, toys and baby equipment had been piled. I can now hop on my frame into that room and on a warm day will be able to sit by the open patio doors and smell fresh-ish (this is London!)air. The pressure sores are nearly gone now that I can shift position too. The physio visits 3 times a week and has seen my x-rays which I haven’t and tells me that the plate and all 9 pins are in the 4" above the knee. The thing was then stapled together with 33 staples so it looked like a zip fastener and just a dressing on top of that. So no cast for the cartoonists in the family to decorate. EM is causing weird responses from the damaged leg so I freeze or burn and nothing in between but I sleep on painkillers at night and all in all am doing well and I have the baby on my bed most of the day when he isn’t being fed which is beyond precious:)