Changing tablets and maybe a new diet?
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Hey everybody!
Wow it is May and there seems to be a lot going on with me right now, it is a little overwhelming but I am excited at the same time. Right now I am looking into changing tablets and maybe a new diet?
Changing Tablets
I think by now everyone in the chronic illness community and beyond knows about the opoids crisis. I really didn’t think it affected me but then because of my memory issues my husband sorts out my medication so I didn’t know what I was on.
Then I saw a post on Twitter about how the NHS was going to start making it harder to get hold of certain medications. One of my tablets pregabalin was being changed to a class C drug which meant I would have to keep getting it re-prescribed every two weeks.
This in itself made things harder, but when we got muddled and I ended up not having the drug for a weekend we had a wake up call! I was having major withdrawal shaking, restless legs, nausea and sickness, and honestly it was so bad we ended up going to hospital to get help.
A few days after this, I received a call from my GP saying they wanted to review this drug. I will be having a phone call with the pharmacist on the 13th of this month to discuss it. After seeing how it affected me I want to come off it but I think it will take a while to be able to taper off it.
I hope they will be able to give me other solutions for the pain rather than just throwing more tablets at me. I don’t necessarily mind changing tablets but maybe a new diet would help?
My diet
Generally I am a healthy eater, I always try to find products with fewer ingredients and to cook things from scratch. I am not very adventurous when cooking these days but we eat well and I didn’t think much about it.
However, I have been doing some research and found to be honest it is a little confusing. I would love to know more, to start juicing to manage my symptoms and to choose foods that help. But there are so many books and articles and people claiming things it is so hard to know!
Can anyone offer any advice for me? Have you taken up a certain diet which has helped? Do you know where I can find reliable information? Please if you do let me know in the comments or contact me via
email
Namaste xxx
6 Comments
Kath Ballantyne
Wow. For years they pushed Neurontin and Lyrica as these miracle alternatives to opiates. First drugs specifically for Fibro! Not addictive, fantastic alternative. Take these instead! For some people they work well. When they were first suggested for me they weren’t covered on the government meds sceme & we’re expensive. Doctor suggested borrowing money so I could take enough of them to get well enough to work & pay it back. I wasn’t going to do it as the samples hadn’t made a difference & not all drugs work for all people. No way I was getting in debt for that. The doctor was useless for a lot of reasons. That one was Neurontin/gabapantin, the earlier one.
My mum used Lyrica/Pregabalin more recently when she had a pinched nerve in her neck. It meant that she could keep working in the time between the pain starting & her nerve decompression operation. She’s had 4 or 5 of these over the last 25 years. Lyrics is the only med that has helped enough with the pain that she could keep working. It made her super sleepy & out of it so she had to take it when she got home but it worked.
I had hopes it would help my pain after that but I went up to a very high dose and got very little benefit.
It made me a bit tired and very hungry & I put on more weight again but a lot of my meds do that. I came off it slowly.
It’s not the first anti-seizure med I’ve been on. I’ve had a few for migraine prevention. I’m on one now. Unfortunately they all have those awful side effects when you miss doses. It’s dependence, not addiction. It’s the same as antidepressants or a lot of other meds. It means you can’t stop them cold turkey but it’s not the same ginger as being addicted to a drug. Unless you are increasing your dose all the time & craving the drug & doing what you can to get more of the drug and thinking about it all the time then it’s not addiction. There is no problem being dependant on a medication. I’m dependant on pain meds but also asthma medication & allergy meds and heart meds. Those of us with health problems need treatments. Unless you are allergic to or Intolerant of foods then changing your diet isn’t going to take the place of proper medication. It can help support you & keep you healthy but won’t take away your pain. Especially if it’s from your joints sublaxing each day. Food doesn’t have enough in it for that.
If Lyrica isn’t doing a miracle job of fixing your pain & they are worried about it then there are other meds you can try but all of them have side effects. To be honest I’ve had way worse side effects from alternatives to opiates than I have had from opiates. Lyrica isn’t an opiate by the way.
I was on Endep (a tricyclic antidepressant Amitriptyline) for over 10 years. It was meant to help with pain, migraines and sleep. It caused incredible fatigue (I nearly set the kitchen on fire so many times because I’d turn the wrong hotplate on or forget I was cooking etc) and weight gain. It didn’t work in the end.
Non Steroid Anti-inflamatories Drugs have helped a lot with the pain and swelling but cause me gastritis and asthma so I can only take them very occasionally.
I was on Norspan patches for a while. They’re slow release morphine based but because they absorbed through the skin they don’t have to go through my dodgy digestive system. They were good but I’m allergic to the adhesive & I’d get massive welts from them.
I’m now on Palexia. It’s a slow release opiate. Best thing I’ve been on. Makes a huge difference to my function levels. Get very few side effects from that. I’m on Topamax & botox for migraines, Ivabradine to try & stop my blood pressure dropping & lower my heart rate, I have asthma meds and double the normal dose of Fexofenadene (antihistamines) to try & stop my throat swelling up & the random rashes I get. It’ s better than it was but I still get them.
I have a bunch of other things that need sorting but everything is on hold until after my disc removal surgery in my neck. Still no date on when that is.
Did they say why your feet/legs are numb? I know you got an EDS diagnosis recently & hacked a Fibro one before that. But numbness rather than just pain suggests nerve compression.
Kath Ballantyne
Oh I did mean to say they recently found that there is research to suggest that taking Lyrica can stop you forming new memories properly so there are legitimate reasons for getting off it.
Just that most pain meds will have side effects but being in serious pain also has dramatic effects on your body. It’s really stressful for it. It causes a lot of problems all on it’s own, wear & tear on the heart & adrenalin systems. Like being in danger all the time. The body is under constant stress. It makes it more likely that pain will stick around. Treating pain properly is good for you.
Despite Pain
Hi Beverley,
I recently came off pregabalin due to side effects. I did it very, very slowly and managed ok. At first the doctor suggested lowering one dose every few days, but I’d read it can be difficult to come off. I told her that so we agreed to do it much more slowly.
But if it’s helping, do you really need to come off it? Your doctor should still be able to prescribe a 28 day supply at a time.
Selina
I made several diet changes and found it very helpful for my fibromyalgia and Lymphocytic Colitis. I wrote a blog article about it if you would like to read it. If you have any questions, let me know. Wish you the best!
http://survivingisnotenough.com/2018/04/07/marvelling-splurging-balancing-and-investing-in-diet-changes/
Selina
In addition to changing my diet, I tried using exercise as pain management for my fibromyalgia. Medication wasn’t managing the pain well, so I was willing to try exercise even though I wasn’t able to walk more than five minutes a day when I began. By going slow and increasing amount of exercise over time I’ve seen great results without medication. Everyone is different of course, but my pain was severe and debilitating but it’s manageable now. I’m so thankful! I wrote a blog article about how I structured the walking regimen if you would like to read it. Wish you the best!
http://survivingisnotenough.com/2019/02/27/how-to-exercise-with-chronic-illness/
BeverleyButterfly
Hi thank you so much for the links, I have pinned ready to read when I am chilling this evening. Yes I do want to try using diet and exercise to treat the pain this is how we have dealt with illness for thousands of years so I think along with medication we can see great results. I am excited to speak to my doctor about it in a few weeks when I have started to come down off my meds so I will keep you all posted xx