Hi Sally,
I agree with you that suppressing the nerves from firing may possibly
hinder their recovery. Thats why I didnt even start looking at pain
killers until I was about a year and a half into recovery. By that
time, I suspect the majority of the recovery had occurred.
I have to say I've not noticed any reduction in feeling after starting
on the Gabapentin (or Amytryptyline for that matter). But then I never
lost "touch" feeling, just hot/cold & sharp/dull. As far as walking -
well, I'm gonna be stuck with a limp for good now, but other than that
I'm pretty mobile.
I think if I did start experiencing obvious numbness or lack of feeling,
I'd probably just stick with it - if the pain was reduced. Providing
obviously that it didnt start impacting on walking or balance...
But it seems to me that each person's experience of TM is completely
unique, and what holds for me obviously doesnt for you.
Still, interesting to know how other people are affected and how they're
dealing with things.
Good luck....
James
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
James, I already thanked you for your question about GABA, but I want to
do so again! Because in writing the explanations, it made me think
of something that has helped me.
I have this picture in my mind of a toddler trying to learn to walk, but
of course he keeps stumbling and falling down. The parent gets
impatient with him and yells at him saying, "If you can't walk without
stumbling, just don't walk at all!" So of course, the child never
learns to walk, b/c he was never allowed to practice until he could do
it perfectly!
I have wondered if meds that relieve nerve pain don't work in a similar
fashion. Our nerves have been damaged by the inflammation of the myelin
in our spinal cords. Now they are struggling to 're-learn' how to
fire. In doing so, they are making a lot of mistakes - they over-fire a
lot, giving us weird, irritating, and sometimes just plain painful
sensations. So we grab a pill, saying to our damaged nerves, "If you
can't fire correctly, then just don't do it at all!" So they stop
firing and they never get the practice they needed to become
strengthened enough to eventually re-learn how to fire /correctly./
Okay. I may be way off. Or if I'm even close, this is surely an
over-simplification. And the real problem would still come for those
people for whom the pain is just unbearable. But I /still /wonder if
/STOPPING/ the source of that pain is really beneficial to our healing???
So when you asked me about GABA, I remembered my little theory, and
realized that if there's any truth to it, GABA would have the same
effect as meds. However, it would be better in one way - it's not so
dangerous as it is with meds, to increase and decrease the dose,
ourselves, in order to find the minimal amount needed to be helpful to us.
As for my own problem, about the time I answered the question, I was
wondering to myself why, when a few weeks earlier, my legs seemed to be
getting more feeling, and healing a lot, they were now (then) seeming to
get more numb again and I was feeling way less functional, physically.
Then I realized that I had been increasing my GABA from 1/4 to sometimes
3/4 a day. (You have to note here, that I'm super-sensitive to meds - I
can usually take about 1/6 of what is prescribed.) Anyway, when I
realized that, I cut back, and started getting more of those weird nerve
feelings - but then my legs seemed to improve and I can walk better again!
And in thinking back, I also remember a night when I hardly slept for
all the nerve pain. It was pretty discouraging, but then I was
surprised to find that the next day, even though I was sleepy, I could
walk so much closer to normal than I ever had since I got TM!
Let me know what you think here.
Sally
