Hi Dearest Sjogen's Angels,
Well, I've been taking Neurontin since the middle of last week. Now I am so very dry at night! I dream about being so dry and then finally realize I can wake up and take a drink. But it doesn't help much.
What other medications work as well as Neurontin, or nearly as well?
Are they all drying?
We do have our problems, don't we?
Living with the rock and the hard place.
Hugs, Elaine
Most of them have that side-effect. Is it something that Evoxac would help...so you could keep taking it (since it's helping)?
If you are looking to elevate your mood try 8 ounces of carrot juice. A quart will get you high and more will turn you orange. Better stick to 8 oz.
The neurontin is for nerve pain, Joe.
I take Salagen, Anita, do you think Evoxac would be more effective?
I suppose I could also take MORE Salagen?
Especially at night.
I did check and all the anti convulsants cause dryness.
Pooh.
Hugs, Elaine
Elaine,
I have taken both Salagen and Evoxac and feel Evoxac works better. It also works better the longer you take it. I take one in the am, one mid afternoon and another at bedtime. If the Neurotin is really helping, it may be worth a try. If I recall correctly, you do not take the maximum dose of Salagen, so an increase in that might help. If you take one before bed, you could take another when you wake to go to bathroom. I just assume everyone is like me and has to go in the middle of the night. Ha :)
Good Luck!
Anna
I set up a poll (not sure if I did it correctly, but I guess we'll see). But anyway, thought it would be interesting to see what everyone's opinion is on which works best. Maybe it will be useful for you in this situation so you can keep using the Neurontin.
Elaine you could try using ORALBALANCE as well as the Neurontin.
It is simply a saliva replacement gel, and not a drug and can be used frequently throughout the night.
Dolly x
Thanks Dolly, I'll order it.
Hugs, Elaine
I know neurontin is for nerve pain. Endorphins help with pain. Carrot juice is what your body needs to make endorphins.
Salegen did nothing for me. Evoxac has done so good for my dryness and it does work better the longer you take it and I have no side affects other than mild sweating sometimes.
Kimberly
At bedtime I take Neurontin, and I take pilocarpine .. I sometimes drool, sometimes I am dry.. sometimes in the middle.
Same dose every night.. so I believe for myself, it is other factors causing the differences.
Ah QD, I take two pilocarpine in the morning (5mg each) and one at night. If I should nap during the day I usually drool.
Maybe two at night would be a good trial? I'll do that tonight to see.
It's always trial and error with us, isn't it?
That's the way it goes. On the whole I'm pretty happy these days.
Hugs, Elaine
Elaine,
You probably already know this having taken anticonvulsants before. But if you decide to stop the neurontin (to try something else because the drying effect to too much), you must slowly taper off and not stop suddenly. There is withdrawal syndrome with Neurontin when stopping too fast. This can happen even only being on it a short time or lower doses.
I'm hoping this isn't even an issue and you find that an extra Salagen at night helps enough to continue the Neurontin.
Have you looked at the poll I put up (for you, mostly)? If the extra Salagen doesn't help, then you might want to consider asking your doctor about Evoxac...the poll shows that most think it's is a better product over Salagen.
As ever, thanks Anita,
Yes, when I had taken anti convulsants for 5 years, and was on Trileptal, I tapered over a three month period to totally stop.
I didn't remember about the extra Pilocarpine last night until I was in bed, and was too sleepy to get up and find it. My dryness wasn't so terrible last night. Of course our humidity in NC is so high right now that all the windows are 'weeping' on the outside when they aren't completely fogged up.
I stopped the Trileptal three years ago, thinking it was the cause of my suppressed immune system (anticonvulsants can do that, it turns out) but that wasn't the case. I do think my five years of anticonvulsants is why I didn't experience the severe pain when my profound PN was developing, Anita.
Anyway, I see that all anticonvulsants are drying, so I'll just cope. I wouldn't avoid a medication that can hep me just because of more dryness. Fortunately my basic dryness isn't as profound as it is for many here.
Yesterday, I had the 'fun' of my 'incompetent esophagus'. I have a spot near the bottom of my esophagus that just stops moving sometimes.
So I can be eating and swallowing, and unbeknownst to me, all the food just stops and piles up until suddenly the last bite doesn't go down at all!
I can't take a drink of water, because the problem isn't one of dryness or stuff 'stuck', but rather one of my esophagus being completely closed.
If I wait, eventually things will move. But it is so unpleasant I have to force my esophagus to 'return the food'.
It isn't vomiting, it's another process altogether. Not exactly unpleasant, just weird.
I'm not in a lot of stress when this happens, thank goodness, and I don't panic. But it's just another example of odd things that happen.
Every day is just one adventure after another!
Hugs, Elaine
Elaine,
I know exactly how you feel when the food gets stuck as I have this as well. So far, with time thing move after a period of time. It is a weird sensation and especially so when the liquids will come back up.
Hang in there. I sometimes feel I have a hundred and one things wrong with me, but am thankful to still be kicking.
Anna
CAroline, If you are taking the neurontin for nerve pain many people have used Lyrica instead of the neurontin had better results. Might be worth looking into. Just a thought. Irish
Good idea, Irish, but I think the drying may be temporary.
Also Lyrica is related in structure to Neurontin. It's one of those reorganizations of the molecules things.
Related drugs
Parke-Davis developed a drug called pregabalin as a successor to gabapentin. Pregabalin was brought to market by Pfizer as Lyrica after the company acquired Warner-Lambert. Pregabalin is related in structure to gabapentin. Another new drug atagabalin has been trialed by Pfizer as a treatment for insomnia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabapentin
Hugs, Elaine
You're right Elaine, Lyrica is related...and it also has dry mouth as a side-effect. But in both cases, sometimes the side-effect will subside after some time.
Some people have better luck with Lyrica than they do with the Neurontin. I think that about 80% of the meds that we take cause dry mouth to some extent. I got dry mouth from my thyroid med which was about the first med that I started taking many years ago. Since then many other meds added that cause dryness. Heck, I was dry before I started the thyroid med but didn't know that it was from the undiagnosed Sjogrens. The Lyrica has been advertised specifically for people with the neuropathy of diabetes but helps other conditions also. Irish