I’ve been quiet lately, mainly due to busy life, family events, but also because of the dreaded hip.
Last year I was prescribed Alzain a Pregabalin tablet. A benzo I was to discover. And it was a wonder medication, it took 90% of my pain and had none of the side affects of Tramadol or Codeine. Perfect, or so I thought!!
Fast forward a few months and a hefty weight gain of 2 stone, which gives its own side affect for mobility. I then began to feel pain once more, so doctor increased the dose. Huge mistake, this made me fall. Well I wasn’t sure at the time if it was me just falling or the medication causes the fall.
With this fall I tore my right knee MCL ligaments, and I rolled over on my left ankle. I was a mess. Told the doctor who acted like it was a common reoccurrence. Clearly a medication that messes with perception and balance.
Was this really wise for someone already unsteady on their feet. I reduced myself back down to the 2 x75mg doses one in the morning and one at night, with tramadol when I was to do big days out. This made me feel a bit steadier on my feet. But now I was concerned about what was this drug… Why give it, when it can cause confusion, unsteady balance, change in walking pattern, slurred speech, rapid weight gain, doublevision, clumsiness, memory loss to name a few side effects. I decided to do some research, learn more about it and hope to come off it too. Even though it would mean my pain would be increased and sleeping disturbed, it was better than this medication changing my balance, and confidence. Â I found these Facebook pages which helped me massively Gabapentin Awareness and Lyrica and Pregabalin AwarenessAwareness
Now I was armed with Real peoples opinions and experiences, and through them I learnt how to reduce my doses to eventually nothing. Which I’m happy to state that’s where I am now. First I ditched my 75mg dose during the morning, made sense for this dose to go first, and it went well, though I did notice an increase of depressive thoughts, dark moods, and obviously pain crept back into my life. But I persevered and after 4 weeks I felt confident enough to tackle the evening dose. I decided to do this one slightly different, and instead of just dropping it, I took it alternative evenings for 3weeks until I felt like my sleeping pattern had regulated and I wasn’t feeling too much via side effects, then 5 days ago I stopped them too. So now I’m no longer taking it.
Bad news is the hip is horrendous and I feel miserable, I have my surgery date in 38 days though so I’m going to muddle through and see what surgery brings me. Back on codeine and paracetamol but at least I know where I stand with them. The plan with surgery is Arthroscopic so hopefully 2-3 scars ranging from 0.5-1 inch and to shave bony extras, and fix the labral tear if possible. They could go in and do lots of anchoring and bone shaving, or go in and confirm its too far gone and a Total Hip Replacement is needed.
The above xray is me, and hoping to investigate this extra white fluffy bone, could it be arthritis or extra bone growth?? I guess I’ll find out on 21st Sept.
debbiehipster 