Feel really ill after stoppig all my meds....

[sarah jayne]

Hi, some of you will be aware that for nearly 2 months ive been having awful headaches. Due to a neck injury for the past few years ive been on 240 mg of codeine and 50 mg of amitryptine per day, the doctor thought that these might be giving me the headaches so advised me to come off them and start on something called gabapentin instead. He said i wouldnt suffer withdrawel symptoms.....what a lie, i feel so ill, ive got a headache, i feel sick, im aching all over and my stomach feels awful, i cant eat. Do you think this is withdrawal and if so how long will it last ? I dont want to go back to the doctor again because he always fobs me off with more pills and they just seem to make me worse..:ohmy:

[KK77]

Hi
I've been on gabapentin for chronic neck pain and it's the only medication that's really helped. I tried opiate type drugs but they made me feel really ill. Amitriptyline helped a bit more but didn't stay on it long because of the side effects. Gabapentin really has no side effects compared to these drugs and if your pain's neuropathic then it'll really help.

But in the meantime it definitely sounds as though you've got withdrawal symptoms from the codeine and amitriptyline - esp as you've been on them for a few years. It's terrible that your Dr should just take you off like that and I'm not sure how long the withdrawals will last but I wouldn't think it'd be very long. You just have to look at it positively, if you can, that soon those drugs will be out of your system and the gabapentin will help with your pain...

Hope you feel better soon. X