Side Effect City

[violachic]

"Peripheral edema"- basically retaining water and/or fluid (which may or may not be the same thing) in your outer limb areas- is one of the more "popular" side effects of neurontin/gabapentin. For ages, I have not had a problem with it.

Now, I seem to be retaining water like a motherfucker. The last week or so my hands and fingers got puffy. The last couple days, however, legs are retaining so much water that my knees and ankles hurt.

And don't tell me its not water/fluid retention. I'm a woman. I know what retaining water feels like. Activity helps just the tiniest fraction, but I'm so sore and stiff, activity is hard to do.


Damn, this is uncomfortable. Really, really uncomfortable. Like, uncomfortable that first thing in the morning I'm calling my doctor to see what I can do. Probably water pills, but maybe he will tell me to just wait and let it go away. I hope not. I may kill someone in the meantime. It, on top of my pain, and the other side effects (lets not forget muscle twitching, now, shall we- or the incessant hicupping?) is very hard to deal with

Argh.

Is there a doctor in the house?

Comments

[dl76.livejournal.com]

it might be aggravated by the extreme heat.....

are your ac units working??

[violachic.livejournal.com]

the one in my room is, which- of course- is where I spend most of my time, when I'm not in the kitchen making oatmeal. I think it IS aggravated by heat, but funny thing is, being in the cool wit the ac makes them extra stiff. So I'm actually keeping my ankles under the blanket because it helps a little.

Its better today than it was last night, but Ive never in my LIFE had my hands and my feet this swollen. I have almost no curve in my body from my knee to the middle of my foot.

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

Isn't that crazy dude staying at your place again? I don't think he's there tonight but I find him a good person to yell at/strike/etc when angry at life! He will refuse any rectal examinations, though!

[violachic.livejournal.com]

yes, he's here :-) found a four-leaf-clover that he swears is a sign he's going to get back together with his ex. Crazy boy.

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

Ha! He told me that last night too! I told him he was crazy and should go bang someone else's butt! He didn't respond!

[subdermalglow.livejournal.com]

your hacking of his myspace account was both MASTERFUL (hee!) and HILARIOUS. yay you !!

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

Ha! Thanks! I save some screenshots on my myspace blog!

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

er...saved

[violachic.livejournal.com]

You got saved?!?


Hurrah!

[subdermalglow.livejournal.com]

heh......

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

isn't your doctor supposedly getting you off the neurontin at some point?! wasn't he waiting for you to get off that other med that you're now off of? yeah, i'd say it's time to give him a buzz.

or maybe a gentle smack upside the head. ;)

[violachic.livejournal.com]

*sigh* No, the doctors- and when I say that, I mean that my internist and my ostiopath/physiologist are in cahoots, and are constantly putting their heads together to make decisions for my fate, which I suppose is kind of cool, but I digress- have decided that neurontin is -IT- for me, at least for right now. When I complained of the head-fuzziness and stuff, we tried lowering the dosage- the idea being to go off it slight bits at a time until found the dosage where the pain started coming through again athuge levels and the n go back up one level- but I only went down two levels from where I was before that happened and so then I went back up one level. Gain two inches, then lose an inch. Kind of like that word problem in third grade about the ladybug who climbs a pole, and climbs two feet every day but slides down one foot atnight when she's sleeping, and how many days does it take for the ladybug to climb the pole that way. But if you don't know what I'm talking about- um, never mind....

The Doctors claim that Neurontin has the "fewest known side effects" of all the drugs they could give me, and have convinced me to just deal with the head-fuck, and promise it will all go back to normal when I'm off it.