Am off to the GP’s this morning for a consultation following a disastrous meeting at the pain clinic where I was told my 5yr old nerve pain after a spinal fracture was down to my ‘rather large belly’ and if I lost weight I’d be better. I’ve got an appointment now with a new GP at the practice and literally don’t know what to say? The pain clinic left me distraught and feeling like a complete fraud even though my pain is severe and has been there since day 1 when I was a lot thinner. The Pregabalin caused most of my weight gain and that was prescribed by the pain clinic!
Nervous to meet a new doctor tho, what should I say?
Written by
Toplady
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
So sorry you’re in pain & have been made to feel like you’re making it up, it’s very sad hearing this from people.
How about you tell the new Dr exactly what you’ve told us? Write it down with some other questions, get your notebook or piece of paper out, say “i’m feeling so nervous & upset seeing you after a disastrous appointment at the pain clinic etc etc etc “
Just a few things to add.
1. I don’t want to be in pain and need help to control it so my life can be more worthwhile.
2. iMy weight gain is due to not being able to exercise, it’s impossible because of nerve damage to my spine after it was fractured 5 yrs ago.
Big hug & go for it, you’re welcome to message me anytime & please let me know how you got on..can’t be worse than Pain Clinic Appointment Love Anne xxx
You say: "Am off to the GP’s this morning for a consultation following a disastrous meeting at the pain clinic where I was told my 5yr old nerve pain after a spinal fracture was down to my ‘rather large belly’ and if I lost weight I’d be better."
The pain clinic is right. However, the problem comes down to what is it I can do and how do I do it?
You say: "The Pregabalin caused most of my weight gain and that was prescribed by the pain clinic!". This is an excuse. I do not buy the excuse. If the new GP is any good neither will they buy it.
Nutrition is a very difficult and complex subject. The teaching of nutrition subjects is very bad. I have been to conferences and asked the very important question. How do I on benefits determine what is the cheapest nutritious food I can eat? The nutritionists run away and avoid attempting to give an answer. They are unable to give an answer.
The food you eat. You need to list what you eat and when. You want to know what you can change to make losing the big belly easier. Persuade the GP to send you to someone who can provide the answers. I,e. A nutritionlist.
Pain and reduced ability to do things plays havoc with ones ability to cook and eat well. You are dealing with fatigue issues and lack of concentration.
There is a human microbiome.
"The human microbiome is the aggregate of all microbiota that reside on or within human tissues and biofluids along with the corresponding anatomical sites in which they reside,[1] including the skin, mammary glands, placenta, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung, saliva, oral mucosa, conjunctiva, biliary tract, and gastrointestinal tract.
The human microbiome in the gastrointestinal tract is important for digestion. The Pregabalin would have caused an alteration in your gastrointestinal tract microbiome.
Hard Dieting as many a person has found does not work. Losing weight fast often results in loss of muscle. Loss of muscle is not good in the long run.
You need a diet plan which will.
Remove the additive foods. Some food combinations are very additive. ie sugar and fat combinations.
Give you nutritious foods that are easy to prepare
Give you the right mix amino acids in the proteins the foods contain
The right mix of essential minerals and vitamins
The type of foods that will reduce food cravings that you can cope with.
The GP is not trained to answer this question. They may try to fob you off with a NHS food leaflet which tell you nothing helpful.
Bland foods will reduce craving. Very tasty foods will cause you to eat more.
I’m not sure I understand what you are saying Johnsmith? Yes of course living with pain and taking pregabalin are a recipe for depression and also for weight gain.
Yes I agree that our society makes good nutrition the preserve of those with good income and often the cycle of poverty, pain and obesity go hand in hand.
If only the NHS would start to seriously re-apportion! A lot of the money it spends on useless public information flyers and on drugs which often cause more problems than they solve could instead go on talking therapies and targeted reconditioning exercises. If only pain clinics had the resources to refer patients for free or subsided Pilates classes, walking groups, food prep cookery classes, yoga and the arts as mindfulness - I think the NHS would save a lot of money.
I too am very overweight around the middle. I eat as well as possible on limited means. I have lost my sense of taste and smell so bland food does nothing for me and I think enjoying tasting food and pleasure in eating is one of the ways we can lose weight. I walk the dogs 5-10k steps daily and I’m a self employed artist with 2 or more autoimmune diseases, small fibre neuropathy everywhere, significant degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis and squamous cell carcinoma.
I don’t blame drugs for getting me fat because I’m only on a few and only take occasional paracetamol for pain. If anything I’m gaining weight now I’m off all meds because food is comfort and compensation for living with pain. However an improved social life, friends to walk and talk to and people to enjoy preparing and eating meals with are the things that help keep me on track.
It’s hard to find or keep friends when we are chronically unwell so being introduced to others in same or similar situation often works much better than drugs or diets for weight loss. Being in pain is isolating and eating becomes a comfort when we are lonely,
At my only pain clinic consultation they explained that they are very reluctant to take the pharma route these days. No one amongst my medical team mentions my weight, partly because they can tell I’m only too aware of it and partly because I think it would be rude. Many nurses and doctors struggle with their weight as well so dwelling on our weight in short consultations where we are facing real, physical obstacles is pretty pointless and depressing.
Sending someone away from pain clinic with advice to lose weight is to my mind unprofessional and irresponsible.
If a person in pain needs to lose weight then surely the job of the pain clinic is to make the effort to help the person with realistic practical support? This should include helping them taper off drugs like pregabalin while looking at ways to fill their days and nights with activities and positive thoughts that might actually help get us back on track.
After all no doctor actually can be sure which comes first - the chronic pain and fatigue or the weight gain. Neuropathic pain is one of the hardest types of pain to live with and treat in my experience.
So yes I do think it’s reasonable for AMK31 to blame Pregabalin and I’m not sure an NHS nutrionist will help because there is so much often contradictory information out there on diets. Also we need to understand why we eating too much.
I actually think a really good physiotherapist who can focus on core exercises such as Pilates ones and a tapering programme which includes mindfulness techniques - would be better than a nutritionist. I just wish we could be prescribed targeted group therapies rather than drugs on the NHS - or as a way of tapering off the drugs that they once so keenly prescribed us for pain.
AMK31 and Topgirl I hope you both get good GPs who are supportive and kind and can offer you practical advice. 🤗
Thanks for the reply. It is a good reply. It touches on the serious difficult issues that health disability patients have.
You say: "I’m not sure I understand what you are saying Johnsmith?". I am trying to get a firmer foundation for getting what is actually needed. Your reply highlights this.
We tend to be silent recipients of what the medical consultant has to offer. We need to have the words that highlights our ignorance rather than hid it. We need to be able to demand the education that we need, rather than what happens now. Which is to made to feel incompetent by the medical consultant concerning what appears to be a simple thing, but in reality is highly complex.
Managing a diet and not putting on weight when you have a health disability is difficult. Very difficult. It has involved me in a lot of research which has taken up a lot of time. I have a university education. Most people have not. To expect them to do what I have done is ridiculous and unrealistic.
What you have written in reply is very good and well crafted. This is what is needed to be presented to the medical consultant in their consulting rooms. Can we do this? My GP is very skilled at side stepping the issue. We verbally cannot get the words in because we are sensitive to the social nuances to what is happening in front of us.
Toplady I hope can go armed with some of the written replies on this forum to present to the new GP.
We need a nutritionist because they can hopefully suggest things that we would not think of. Tackling the health issue has to done on multiple fronts at the same time.
You see Johnsmith to me it’s quite a straight forward matter. We may be medically ignorant but we know our own bodies. So it’s all about being as well tuned into them as we can be and that doesn’t require a university education - but it requires enough self confidence to trust our instincts above all else and stick by them.
Learning how to communicate this information is all important. It’s not about one diet fitting all it’s about learning by trial and error with food and drink. Also we need to request/ insist on getting copies of our blood results, clinical letters and imaging. If we have systemic illness we need to learn enough to understand our own normal levels. We need to work out how to enjoy food and life, despite pain, in a way that suits us.
None of this requires a good education as such. But the better we are at dealing with health professionals the better we will probably fare.
I think we are saying quite similar things but I think, as a man (I’m presuming by your name) you are may not allowing for the degree of misogyny that prevails in the medical profession about middle aged women and the prejudices that allow ideas about weight and hysteria, hypochondria, functional neurological disorder, fibromyalgia and other conditions associated with chronic pain.
Also some of the most educated people I know are absolutely useless at describing pain and at dealing effectively with the medical profession!
Unfortunately it is not a straight forward matter. If you knew your body you would know it is not.
Trusting instincts can lead to disaster. And often has.
You say: "Also some of the most educated people I know are absolutely useless at describing pain and at dealing effectively with the medical profession!"
You are actually describing many people here on this forum. Who happen to be struggling to get the needed help from the medical profession.
You brought up the matter of being educated in the context of this post, not I!
But I’m not sure why because, at the end of the day, there are good doctors who can elicit the truth from most patients from any background - and there are others who are prejudiced from the off by our appearance , accents, age and gender?
We will have to agree to disagree about knowing our own bodies. Broadly I know mine well enough to know whether to trust a diagnosis or not. For instance I knew that I had been misdiagnosed with RA and I was proved correct after 4 years of being told I was in denial. I knew I didn’t have the cholecystitis my GP kept diagnosing and I was proved correct when I actually had pancreatitis. So many other times my instincts have been proven correct that I heartily dislike doctors who try to mess with my instincts now.
I think most of us have dr Google and our instincts and the combination has certainly got me a long way and many others I know too from all different backgrounds.
But anyway this isn’t relevant to the subject of this post so I’ll stop now.
I brought up the issue of being educated to try and point out how difficult it is. And I still have not had the answers needed.
A diagnosis does not mean much to me. I am concerned with how do I handle the problems I have and how do I predict what happens so that I can make valid judgements.
Alexander technique teaches a lot about how feelings cannot be trusted though experience. Meditation and mindfulness in the Buddhist perspective also teaches the same the same though careful examination of experience.
The whole purpose of the exercise is to give Toplady the means to get appropriate help from the Gp.
Again I completely disagree with you on this. I think his instincts guided him in much the same way as a good detective is guided by their instincts. After all we human beings are animals at the end of the day and our survival as a species depends on the sophistication of our instincts.
Perhaps your definition of instincts is different to mine? So here’s the Oxford dictionary definition. If we apply this definition to encounters with the medical profession I do honestly think it will aid communication but if you still disagree then that’s fine.
“instinct
noun
plural noun: instincts
/ˈɪnstɪŋ(k)t/
an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response to certain stimuli.
Subsidised Pilates!! YES!! I'm far too weak for this now, but a couple of years ago my spinal physio recommended Pilates to me (hypermobile, so yoga is a no-no). I looked and looked, but the cheapest I could fine was 4.50 per class, and that was if you bought 10 classes at a time. 45 quid? Yeah, sure, I have that down the back of the sofa.... Oh wait, no, I gave it to my landlord to help with my rent arrears.
"Mice consuming a high-fat diet show increased levels of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), a hormone produced in the gut that is involved in managing the body's energy balance. The study reports that the excess GIP travels through the blood to the brain where it inhibits the action of leptin, the satiety hormone; consequently, the animals continue eating and gain weight. Blocking the interaction of GIP with the brain restores leptin's ability to inhibit appetite and results in weight loss in mice."
Pregabalin may be messing with various hormones.
Mind reports: "Pregabalin (Alzain, Lecaent, Lyrica, Rewisca) is an anticonvulsant drug which is sometimes used as an anti-anxiety medication."
I have seen all other responses and can relate to all but didn’t see any mention of NHS pain management programmes. I have attended a whole course and was able to reattend any I needed more support in. These courses included all the subjects NHS is being slated for not addressing in many of the posts here. Subjects covered: medication; communication; CBT; exercises, including stretches and T’ai chi; nutrition; energy budgeting; goal setting; relaxation, meditation, muscle relaxation, breathing techniques. It was totally holistic and run by physios, psychologists, pharmacists so not just a medical model. The course did not give any promises of taking pain away but helped to manage and live a better quality life with pain.
Maybe ask your GP if you could be referred. We came away with a very comprehensive manual that we can refer to again and again for support.
Hi Toplady I saw my 5th doctor (changed many times) last week I was in bits no sleep, my anxiety level was soaring at the thought of explaining my condition and reason for seeing him. I just went in and said immediately (before he got a chance) just look at me and listen to me, don’t interrupt ! he was unsure but he listened as I talked. I found it easier eventually to be totally honest with him and then I started crying (with relief). I felt so proud of myself and we had a good chat. So feel anxious it will help and force you to be open and get it all out. Best of luck I’ll be saying a prayer for you love Pip x
"Persuade the GP to send you to someone who can provide the answers. I,e. A nutritionlist."
Can I just point out that if anyone wants help with their diet they need to ask for a referral to a dietician. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, only full trained and reregistered people are called dieticians which is a protected name like a physio. There are 14 Allied Healthcare Professional titles and GPs will only refer you to those. If you request a referral to a nutritionalist they may refuse thinking that you want to see a quack (not saying all nutritionalists are quacks, but it is more likely that they will be untrained).
Apologies again for being pedantic. "If only the NHS would start to seriously re-apportion! A lot of the money it spends on useless public information flyers and on drugs which often cause more problems than they solve could instead go on talking therapies and targeted reconditioning exercises. "
It is not NHS England that pays for those useless information flyers, (and I agree with that) it is Public Health England along with the County and District councils. So the money will come out of a different budget.
That is why until recently Social Prescribers in GP surgeries were not paid for by the surgery but by the council. Then NHS E decided to provide funds for a social prescriber for each group of surgeries called a Primary Care Network.
"I think we are saying quite similar things but I think, as a man (I’m presuming by your name) you are may not allowing for the degree of misogyny that prevails in the medical profession about middle aged women and the prejudices that allow ideas about weight and hysteria, hypochondria, functional neurological disorder, fibromyalgia and other conditions associated with chronic pain."
Too true. It was suggested to my son that he get a TENS machine (he is 22 and the son of a very strong women who is also an academic!) and noticed straight away that the examples of where to position the leads was misogynistic; all the concrete causes of pain had male models, the stress and anxiety ones were female.
It works both ways. As a man I well versed in manspeak with other men. Heaven help me if I use manspeak on a women. I can get quite an ear bashing.
Men on the whole with exceptions of course tend to be long term thinkers and physical doers. Biologically men are hunters searching for prey to eat. As well as physically defending the group from predators.
Women on the whole are short term thinkers and into talking about feelings and building nests. Biologically women are gatherers who also have to instantly protect children from lurking dangers.
Boys are into physical games. Girls are into talking in groups about topics that are of interest to them.
Toys that boys engage in are different to toys that girls engage in.
There are of course the exceptions because of Gaussian curves of the population spread of characteristics.
The two sets of thinking complement each other. But can lead to massive miscommunication difficulties because of different language viewpoints.
Many men I know have been on the receiving end of mind rape from a women. Men tend to get physical. Physical responses from the man are well documented. Mind rape of the man by a women tends to be ignored as if nothing has taken place. Mind rape can inflict quite a lot of psychological harm.
Academically both sexes are the same in their thinking. In the caring professions the two sexes are different in their approaches. In the psychological and psychiatric professions the two sexes are different in their approaches.
In this age of equality you may disagree with my non PC viewpoint. I am speaking from experience.
The different language styles and psychological thinking styles cause a different response from a GP and consultant depending whether the GP or consultant is male or female and the sex of their patient.
The problem is less about prejudices and more about the use of language. Quite often the parties involved do not notice the language issues.
In painconcern I posted a piece called "2rd Post Series Part 3 Male - female pain"
This post reports on a Nature science journal article about the drug differences in the two sexes. The article in Nature was quite an eyeopener.
You may like this on evidence based medicine past, present and future.
It is more than just language. In med school both male and female students are taught that if a man comes to the doctor and says they are in pain then you have to take them seriously because they really are. if a women presents in pain it is likely psychological. The average time it takes for a man to be diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is 4 years. The average time for a women is 16.
And I am not talking from experience but from peer reviewed evidence.
Was told that by a friend who is an ER medic. He was also told that black people tend to be drug seeking more often than white people (although this was in a person-to-person conversation, not a lecture!) Bollocks! Studies show that black people, on average, feel pain more intensely than white people (genetics, apparently, and possibly trauma from racism), but are almost always given less pain meds, and it takes longer for them to be given pain meds.
You say: "Was told that by a friend who is an ER medic. He was also told that black people tend to be drug seeking more often than white people (although this was in a person-to-person conversation, not a lecture!) Bollocks! "
What is missing from the equation is the social background of the people visiting ER. People who are of low income tend to visit ER because of the lower cost. While more affluent visit their doctors.
This social affluent-educatated versus low income-not so educated tends to get left out of the equation,
Quite a lot of prejudice dressed up as science - societies exist where our western gender/sex roles are reversed.
Are these societies genetically different to us? No Are their conceptions of how men's and women's roles are? YES
Given all the debate about transgender and social conditioning I'm of the view that articles that still claim mens are this.. Women are that.. Are questionable.
A younger woman than I would probably suggest you get 'woke'.
You say: "I'm of the view that articles that still claim mens are this.. Women are that.. Are questionable." I agree with you they should be. The full range of humankind responses to an an event is large.
There are different gender responses to many a situation that follow different Gaussian curve of responses.
You say: "A younger woman than I would probably suggest you get 'woke'." and I would add would also try and "mind rape" me. Mind rape is the psychological destruction of someone's self worth.
Hi there, you are right in saying pregabalin does make you gain weight. I did put on quite a bit when I was put on them. However I have to agree with John as well. I was horrified when I realised how much I had put on and started to kind of try to eat less and healthily. As obviously being overweight does not help matters.
I suffer from continuous nerve pain and back pain after 3 spine ops. Anyway I also found that cutting out bread as a daily item helped a lot. I only eat bread occasionally now and don’t snack or virtually don’t snack in between meals and my meals are smaller. It stands to reason that as we move less due to pain we don’t need as much food. It was really hard to start with, especially the no bread bit, but I have lost about 8 kg so far and look and feel better for it.
If you mention the dietician to your GP and the fact that you know you need to loose some weight but that you cannot be without the pain killers than the GP can see you want to do something yourself instead of just relying on him and the next prescription.
Hi Emma, that's so me, I have put on 3 stone since November due to pregabalin and being less mobile, due to back and hip pain and arthritis in my knee, I have to eat little and often due to other chronic illness I have that is and always will be ongoing, so I'm always snacking, fruit I have but that does not curb my hunger, I eat healthy ish, don't drink alcohol or smoke, I tried to cut out bread but told I needed carbs due to my liver you see, I'm a bit of a complex case lol, but I'm going to ask my doctor to refer me to a dietician as this weight is making things so much worse yet I need the pregabalin. Thank you for your post
Life is a b@tch at times. Carbs are in lots of other foods as well. It has been proven that bread does make you fatter especially when you are not in your twenties anymore. I replaced it with rice mainly. Carbs are definitely needed but not necessarily in the way that this world is used to.
Eating small meals often is fine, just make sure they are small and do not creep up to bigger than needed. I have reduced the daily amount by more or less recording the calories and it is surprising how that incentivises you with or without other issues and then about once a week I eat more which seems to help. (I suffer from colitis which when flaring makes me eat more and the tablets I take for that don’t help matters either)
It sure is, I love rice and pasta, I'm going to cut out the bread, thing is I never used to eat Bread at all untill my mobility issues, I do often wonder if there is an emotional link to all of the bad eating so to speak, I'll deffo see my Dr, thank you Emma and great work on losing the weight x
too many Doctors take the easy option ie Lose weight,stop smoking,drink less,Its stress etc ...My GP seems to blame all and sundry on poor control of my type2 diabetes since diagnosed 3yrs ago even tho the pain and ailments were well established before any diabetes diagnosis...Gave up Alcohol 10yrs ago, lost 5 stone 6yrs ago and gave up smoking 1yr ago, so i limited his ''options for blame game but he just moved onto poor blood sugar control!!
I can believe that, I've been told the same old, catch 22 situation but I'm putting my foot down now and doing what I should have done months ago.. Making my voice heard, not only with my Gp, but pain management, they are bloody useless too
Good on you...I made an appt this morning with a different GP at the practice as the pain and especially the fatigue are off the scale now...Spending 2-3wks in bed at a time were even going too the loo is an absolute chore ,,And these 2-3 wk spells have become extremely frequent which in turn ignites depression and anxiety symptoms to max levels ,its a vicious cycle that i need to try and break somehow...Good luck with your quest for Help and some answers
I can relate to your toilet issue!! I have a disability seat on my toilet to make it higher for me, but it's the bloomin trek to get there in the first place, if I don't get much joy off this gp then I shall change surgery as I've only been here 12 months. Sorry to hear your pain issues, but your not on your own, if ever you need to offload then always pm me
You aren’t being taken seriously. The doctors don’t believe you live with severe neuralgia. They gaslighted you.
Nerve injuries aren’t caused by weight gain.
Be honest with the doctor. Is the Pregabalin even working for your pain relief?
Lyrica is a dangerous drug. I gained a lot of weight while I took it and it didn’t help my nerve compression pain whatsoever. It had nothing to do with my diet. I don’t believe it helps nerve pain.
I suggest you try a nerve pain modulator like amytriptyline or nortriptyline. Have you ever tried these?
If you can’t get help, call a lawyer. People have rights to receiving medical care.
What a great reply, I wished I could come off pregabalin, it does take the edge off my restless legs but to be honest my waking is no better than when I started taking them. May I ask what's so bad about pregabalin please x
@johnsmith I usually find your posts interesting, but I couldn't get beyond the first bit of your response to Toplady . It was really nasty and unsupportive, especially when she's already feeling distressed about being fat-shamed and dismissed by the Pain Clinic guy!
Yes, losing weight often helps with pain, but fat-shaming is often causes serious distress to patients, and can result in them avoiding treatment. Focussing solely on excess weight also ignores/dismisses other possible causes/solutions to health problems, which can result in undertreatment, and even serious problems such as a missed cancer diagnosis (@Toplady, I'm not suggesting you have cancer!) Shaming people doesn't help.
@Toplady said that her pain began when she was thin. Sure, losing weight might well help, but it obviously isn't the cause of her pain.
@Toplady didn't say that she wasn't willing to try to lose weight. She was expressing her hurt and frustration at how she was treated, and her anxiety about seeing a new doc, in case it happens again.
Her statement about Pregabalin causing most of her weight gain is NOT an excuse. You're ignorant about it if you think that. Many medications can cause weight gain, often severe weight gain, in some patients, and Pregabalin is one of them. I'm lucky to have been thin my whole life, and am currently underweight for reasons I won't go into, but a few years ago I took Mirtazipine for ~6 weeks and gained 25lbs! It was like some kind of magic. At first I was happy to reach a normal weight, but it just kept going... Once I stopped the med, it slowly came off again.
Chronic pain can also make it very difficult to exercise. I also have chronic spinal pain. I do what I can, but more than 5-15 minutes (depending on meds, type of day, etc.) of sitting, standing or walking often triggers a back spasm, and there goes the next few hours-days. I have to lie down, have limited mobility, severe pain, and basically take meds and use other methods until it lets up. I don't get a lot of exercise.
You're right, nutrition is complicated and people don't know enough about it. I don't. You have no idea whether @Toplady knows a lot about it, eats really healthy, can cook for herself (I can't), or can even afford enough healthy food.
So. Your suggestions and knowledge about nutrition may well be valuable, but remember, we're supposed to be supporting each other here.
Waylay, thank you so much for your support. Your comment said exactly what I would’ve said and I thank you wholeheartedly for your reply.
As you said I wasn’t looking for pity or for blame; I was simply asking for some support after a truly humiliating appointment at a pain clinic where I had previously had such wonderful support. I have never said I was unwilling to do anything that would help my pain but many of us who have been prescribed Pregabalin have experienced the same weight gain.
Thanks again, your words were hugely appreciated x
Totally agree with you toplady, excellent support post by @waylay, I was normal weight before diagnosis so it's very true weight was not the cause, no it does not help, but what are we to do, I really hope you find some help soon x
So well said. I don’t normally use this community much but I stumbled across this post and @johnsmith’s response and felt very upset for Toplady - who’s dilemma I can relate to.
To be sent away from pain clinic having been told to lose weight is to my mind unethical. I also agree about these drugs so often being a cause of weight gain in much the same way as oral steroids have always been for me for me. Hence my own responses here although I admit I got rather sidetracked - sorry Toplady!
Take some one with you if you possibly can safely in numbers
Make it clear that you are very dissatisfied with the quality of 'care' at the Pain clinic - consider making a complaint.
Do your GP records have a record of your weight before u started pregabalin?
Take a side effects leaflet with you you showing weight gain is a common side effect (I put on nearly 2stone in a couple of years - felt like I was being blown up with a bicycle pump)
There's lots of info online re weight gain an pregab-american patient websites are good.
Thanks to everyone for their comments, I appreciated them all.
When I wrote my post, I wasn’t looking for sympathy or anything else, I was simply asking for some support before a worrying appointment. I have never been unwilling to do anything about my pain or my weight; it was the manner in which he did it that upset me not what he was saying.
I have always found this forum to be a very supportive one which is why I posted in the first place, I am now waiting to see a different GP as when I arrived for my appointment, it was a locum. I spoke to the practice manager who was lovely and she is now badgering the pain clinic for the letter from the last meeting (which even after 7weeks has not arrived) so I can discuss it with another permanent GP.
Take no notice of him he is a complete knob I'm sure he sits in his bedroom making up stories and pretending did I tell you I'm a rocket scientist don't you know I'm sure you wouldn't understand as I have a university education . We all have problems with weight gain I'm veggie my diet is I would say superb but still put on weight . I was a professional climber before my fusion since then 15 years have steadily gained weight . I lost nearly 2 inches IN HEIGHT from six two down to six and gained weight . It is difficult to face especially if you are used to being fit or slim but hey ho don't sweat it more important things to worry about . I do my best but have spoken with the in house pharmacist at my GP surgery she explained why you gain weight on opioids it's a number of factors like lack of meaningful excercise of which we cannot do and the fact that the opioids slow down your digestion to nearly a stop . I'm pescibed fibre drinks to try and hurry things along but have still gained weight I do my best I'm sure we all do . Do not let one dickhead ruin your day because he has little empathy or manners and maybe a little retarded . All the best Neil x
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Osteoarthritis in the neck
New GP won't prescribe Tramadol 
Pain meds
