I've very recently been given a fibro diagnosis after many years of not knowing what was causing all this pain.
My question is.....I've been on pregabalin for a few years ( it does help dull some of the pain some of the time) but the weight gain is awful!.
My consultant has now prescribed a higher dose at night time to help me sleep.
Has anyone else found this? Because as much as I try to lose it I just cannot shift it.
I'm still fairly active, still work, although now reduced my hours to part time, walk my dog etc but it still wont shift, any advice would be very gratefully received
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Weight gain was the main side effect for me, but the benefits outweigh the negatives for me (doesn't take pain away but takes edge of enough to allow me to line my life) xxx
Thankyou for responding, I know it does help to an extent, a previous doctor who I had never met encouraged me to wean myself off it over a phone consultation, once it was all out of my system I then realised what a difference it did make.
So back on it I went.....I guess i'm just going to have to try and keep up with my mad playful dog and burn calories that way...😂
I have been on this for 2 months. I started of 25mg. Then 50mg. Now on 75mg. Soon to be increased to 100mg. Morning and night time. The weigh gain is awful. I cant walk very far as i have a tinanium rod in my leg following a fracture as im in continual pain with my back. Over 9lbs at least and counting. I look like im pregnant. None of my clothes really fit. Trousers - cant get into a size 12. Im normally a 10. Has partially helped with the pain. Im also on Nefopam. I have never been over 8 st 3 ever. Im now 9 st 3!! I have no idea what to do. I tried a day without yesterday. Took them in the evening as the pain came back.
It's not advisable to stop taking the gabapentin /pregbalin as this is also used for epilepsy so it has to be done gradually.
I've been on pregbalin for a number of years and the weight has just crept on and on, I'm currently on 150mg x2 and my night one is now to be increased to 300 mg ( thats to try and help me sleep ).
I'm sorry to read that its affecting your weight to.
I tried coming off it a while back but the pain was unbearable, so like others have said its the best of a bad job, i'm trying to search other things that others may have tried to see how they get on.
Always happy for a chat /rant should you ever feel like one 🙂x
I had to come off both Gabapentin and Pregablin a couple of times, they are nasty to come off. I essentially ignored the GP's advice and gave myself two months to come off them as the two weeks the GP gave me the first times was awlful. I found once the withdrawal period was truely over I wasn't in any more pain than before. But I found that with all the meds in the end so I don't take anything for fibro now.
I put on weight with Pregbalin and other medications .
Unfortunately, a certain amount of weight gain , up to 9lb to a stone is a common side effect for lots of medications and approx. 3-7lbs is likely to remain as long as you take the medication even when you change your diet or can exercise more because it is weight gain that is medicinally induced.
Most people find that having a low carbohydrate Mediterrean style diet with very rare amounts of processed sugar and small portions helps stop the weight going up and up even if you can't exercise very much. Reduced sodium can also help counteract an increase in water retention that can happen with many medications.
A daily vitamin and mineral supplement taken with your fattiest meal and additional Vitamin B 12 can also help if vitamin deficiencies are effecting your weight gain because of water or sugar imbalance.
Exercising at a level you can cope with for 10 mins a few times a day also helps. Things like Walking or Tai Chi and gentle isometric or pilates movements or swimming or walking in water.
Some people take Amitriptyline as the night pain relief and as an aid to sleep rather than more Pregbalin , it is a regularly used combo of pain management for nerve and fibro pain and many people find Amitriptyline has an added benefit of keeping weight gain to a minimum. Others take a standard Antihistamine which can reduce pain and symptoms caused by hypersensitivity.
The most important thing is to find the right combination of Pain Medication that works for you and allows you to function Pain Managed rather than Pain Free. What works for some won't work for others but perhaps it would be a good idea to talk to your GP about other pain management drug combinations available to you based on what you can or cant tolerate before just increasing the Preg dose higher.
A referral to the Pain Management Clinic is a good thing to request to get further help and drug combination options for Fibro that your GP may not be aware of , ir are not allowed to prescribe without a clinic letter.
I really appreciate the time you have taken to write down all this info, it has certainly made me think a little more about this.
It was a consultant in rheumatology who finally gave me this diagnosis after years of being pushed from pillar to post and just plied with various meds.
I was lucky enough to see a different doctor who at first referred me to an ME specialist and she was brilliant, she currently hasn't ruled out ME but I'm convinced that isn't what this is.
I am certainly going to look at various suppliments, I currently take Magnesium, Vitamin D and Vitamin C but with some more research i'm hoping to find out a bit more.
Everybody has a different story and its so interesting to read.
Dont forget , you can have Fibro and something else.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and M.E are two conditions that have a link with Fibromyalgia, so you can have both. Then you need to find a Self Care and Treatment Programme that helps you to manage all the conditions you have at once.
Unfortunately , Doctors do have a habit of forgetting that people can have more than one illness at once and brush off any new symptoms as the one you were diagnosed for first.
That's why it's important to keep a symptom diary and note both persistent or new recurring symptoms in it then if those issues have more in common with another illness or syndrome you need to do a bit of research and then go and specify that you want things checked properly as it may not be your Fibro at your GP surgery.
Going back to the Consultant whom originally considered ME or getting a referral to a Pain Management Clinic to discuss a treatment combination that can help both conditions would be a positive step for you.
Hello, I recently completed a 6 week pain management course and the consultant, and other specialists including physio, psychologist all have come to the conclusion from their extensive research that medication does not ease symptoms for most of us. I came off all medication a few years ago after trying just about everything and this programme was aimed at providing me some guidance on how changes to my lifestyle was the way forward. I have changed my diet, removing gluten, sugar, dairy, caffeine. I don’t drink alcohol, i meditate every night which helps me have a better nights sleep even though I wake a 5am in pain and still have some broken sleep it’s far better than it used to be. I just use utube - Jason Stevenson is my go to guided meditation. I drink herbal tea of an evening and practice mindfulness after a heavy day at work that creates intense pain of an evening. My next step is now to accept that I can’t continue on my chosen career path as a project manager as it’s the root cause of all my symptoms.
It's so interesting reading other peoples experiences.
For me the thought now of not taking any meds is very daunting as having tried it once left me feeling like I just coudn't cope with life, the pain was immense and I couldn't function at all.
I totally understand the change of diet thing and as Blearyeyed had said the mediterranean diet is favoured by many professionals, my consultant advised this too so I will be giving this a try.
Sadly my go to is caffeine 😂 and I can't see me giving that one up in the forseable future.
I hope you can find a new career that you can do while dealing with fybro x
I am on pregabalin 300mg twice a day and have put on an extra stone. The medication kind of puts the pain in the background for me but mornings are the worst and the pain unbearable so I have codeine also. I try and use my excersise bike to burn some extra calories off and have lost 7 pounds in the space of a year plus eating plenty of veg. It's slow going and I feel terrible after excersise, no happy feeling and more pain to deal with.
Well done on your weight loss so far, you should be incredibly proud of your self thats a brilliant achievement .
I think we can all just try, its never going to be easy what with generally feeling like crap, but i'm hoping what I lose in weight i gain in a bit more energy.
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