How long does Gabapentin stay in the system..Still dizzy after 7 days.Will it cause damage?

I dont think most docs know enough about this med...went to my arthritis doc

for help with my fibro and told him about the gambentin and he said lots of people cannot take the drug.....no one seems able to fix the side effects i am still having!

  Go to the FDA website and report Gabapentin/neurontin.  It helps for them to know what side effects people experience. I was on gabapentin for less than two months. It was prescribed for pain in my feet. I was on a very low-dose. A neurologist suggested upping the dose and a week later I was in the emergency room with heart palpitations. I have never had palpitations in my life. I am 39 and the mother of two girls. Before taking gabapentin my biggest problem was my feet.  Now suddenly the doctor says that I am hypothyroid. I believe gabapentin affected my Thyroid.  I have heart palpitations even though I stopped taking gabapentin over a month ago. Coming off that drug was horrible! I'm still reeling from the effects. I feel like I have the flu. My stomach is upset my heart is constantly racing and I have this feeling of anxiety. I never had anxiety before. Aside from my feet  hurting I was happy. But gabapentin messed with my mind and my body so badly I feel like my life has been stolen away from me. I believe this drug is extremely unsafe. I would never trade my foot pain for what happened to me with gabapentin. Even though my foot pain can be excruciating  and means using an electronic scooter just to get around the grocery store. Gabapentin make me so ill. I just pray the effects will go away! 

I don’t know I’m checking on it tomorrow- it’s hierible — I can’t drive of think right - been one 400 three times a day - I’m scared right now 

I developed Peripheral Neuropathy from taking Lovastatin, at least 10 years ago. The pain was difficult, prickling, feet sensitive to touch and sheets and blankets touching feet excruciating. I was give a prescription for paragabapentin, the next step up from gabapentin,  Also Cymbalta. I just wanted to sleep, and had an assisted living home and had to give it up as I could not take proper care of my people if I am sleeping. They had to nudge me to fix the next meal. I was so drugged that I signed a contract with two unscrupulous ADT men for five thousand dollars for installation.  Fortunately I found out how to cancel that since it was an in house sale, and laws gave me three days to recind. They would not leave at five pm when I asked and were there til ten pm.  I just sat there. They had to know I was out of it.  So for the years since I went from Lyrica, paragapentin, and Neurontin, gabapentin. It was developed for seizures and it is given for pain, off label and not approved for off label. It is prescribed for post op pain and other nerve pain. Gabapentin is the cheaper drug, so I was taking up to 1200 mg a day for pain. Well neuropathy does not go away, although they are working on other ways to get the nerves to function properly again. It has been life devastating as I used to go on 8 mile hikes in the Cascades and mile elevation gain. Hoped to continue hiking for recreation into retirement and using dirt bike for 20 mile exursions. Not possible after nerve damage. (One class action suit filled up with all the numbers they want.)

But recently news reported that these two meds, Gabapentin and paragapentin are very dangerous and destroys mitochondria, and prevents new brain synapses from developing as is done through out old age.  It also makes the brain shring.  So I titrated the med until the only dose I took was at bedtime, emptying the capsule of some powder.  I got a lower dose and in the past week have not taken any.  I now realize some of the pain in my feet were caused by gabapentin, as the twisting feeling like feet being wrung like a wash cloth is now pretty much gone.  My balalnce has improved as I was so often feeling drugged and would feel I was being pulled toward the right when walking and would bump into the hallwalls. My recall of names is improving, and I feel much more alert and awake. Less fogginess. But the recall is still going to take time to improve I hope. I asked my doctor for a brain scan to see if my brain has shrunk after so many years on this junk. She refused. I had asked my doctors if the seizure medication would cause a change in my brain function,and asked the pharmacist too and they denied knowing anything about that. They had to lie since much of this info has been published since 2009. I now believe doctors are just representatives of the pharma industry. They had to notice my seeming spaciness. I am angry that two pharma drugs has stolen the last ten years from me. It is unknown if my brain will rebuild synapses. I have let so much go because it has interfered with my concentration and let many things to go like my banking statements and review of my finances. I have trouble recalling the date things have happened, and have been predatated upon because I must have appeared out of it. I am a retired registered nurse and talked to my doctor when on the statin of the cramping of my legs and arms during the night having to get up and stretch my muscles.  I could find no information at that time about damage of statins except for one medical journal report in one of the Scandinavian medical journals that statins could cause peripheral neuropathy and can lead to rabdomylosis, and death.

My visits to my doctor when I could not turn a door knob because of extreme pain was dismissed as carpel tunnel and she gave me wrist splints to put off the surgery in spite of my protest I never had carpel tunnel. My urine started turning brown and had an unusual odor, the sign that breaking down of muscle, including heart and other organ muscle was starting  so I quite the statin immediately. Should have called doctor to get a urine test to support this but just was told to quit bothering them.

But now to learn the pain medication has cased brain function is very frightening. My life has been very difficult without the fully functioning of my synapses, and dizziness, imbalance, and difficulty with recall. I could not complete tasks, and wanted to sleep, and some days slept until two or three in the afternoon.. 

I feel better in the past two months since lowering the dosage and have not had much time to see how my thinking and functioning was going to improve. The article said that gabapentin and paragabapentin are the most dangerous drugs on the market.  That the FDA knows it is being given off label but has done nothing about it.

In both medications when asking medical professionals about side effect was given false information.  The companies do not include these side effects of pain medicine and statins in their information sheet given when I fill the prescription. The doctors act as if they are oblivious to the dangers these meds can and have caused me to experience, some permanent and have lost much over the years. I hope to find a way to get my nerves in my feet and ankles now to function and feel normal. My muscle wasting is now making my arms look like loose flappy adipose tissue.  Do not take the pentins. They can kill you. Stop listening to these uncaring and indifferent doctors who give you no options.  I will find doctors who really care about my functioning and their part in causing me more more damage.  Sorry this is so long but it is six in the morning and am going back to sleep. Please feel free to reply to me. Don't consider doctors to be experts. They know little about medications and carry a little book that tells them what to prescribe for certain conditions. And pharmacists are just too busy filling bottles with pills, making pharmaceuticals rich.

I have had my life stolen from me. And it has cost me physically, financially and emotionally. They don't give a damn. Find a natural path doctor. But then I don't have experience with them except once when I was sold a couple hundred dollars of bowel cleanser and detoxifying concoction. Luckily now the internet has more sources where you can learn about the dangers of specific drugs. Do your research, and tell the doctor you want to get a second opinion.