When you were prescribed the amitriptyline, how did you feel about taking that?

I was open minded until’ Again I trust the doctor, but I was still optimistic that things would get better at that time, and so to be prescribed something else, to me seemed that I was going in the wrong direction. I went to my GP and then my GP met me at me local chemist and I asked about them, and he said, ‘They’re antidepressants’, and I says, ‘Well I’m not depressed.

So I immediately went home, onto the internet and I looked up amitriptyline, which confirmed that they’re antidepressants and it never cheered me up any. It was only later through the pain clinic website that I saw on the pain and depression page the use of amitriptyline, and I’ve since seen my GP and had a chat about that drug with him, make him aware that, you should have told me about the neurological, or the neuro side of things more clearly because I was quite disappointed that I’d been prescribed downers, or antidepressants, so a wee bit confusing, similarly the chemist came straight out with it, ‘They’re antidepressants’, so I was quite disappointed, yeah.

You’ve got, with the amitriptyline you’ve got dry mouth sensation and that is absolutely horrible and because I present in a, you know when I go down for meetings I’m presenting and when you’re talking for half an hour to forty minutes, it’s, you can almost feel your lips, you know, sort of like sticking to, and it’s just horrible and I’m sure people are not aware of it but I’m aware of it and that then has an effect.

I mean for example the mouth dryness has then affected my teeth, which again I didn’t even think of but I go for my regular check-ups and basically because the, I’m not having the same secretions, I’m not having the same anti-bacterial activity in my saliva because it’s basically not there, and that is starting to affect my teeth and now I have to use special toothpaste and you know it, one thing leads onto another and at the end of it you just sometimes think you’re a complete and absolute wreck.

And the most recent addition is gabapentin which… It’s what’s been amazing with pain management is they’re now using a lot of drugs that weren’t designed for pain management. Gabapentin was actually an anti-convulsant, but they found it has a really good affect on neuropathic nerve pain, which is the reason I’m on it. And I’ve had to increase the dose, I’ve had to increase it slowly, because in combination with everything else I’m on, when I first started taking it, I was just absolutely, I was not with the world for a few weeks, I was just absolutely asleep.

But, as times gone on, I’ve got used to it. I’m absolutely fine on it again now. And I’ve got to a level at the moment where I haven’t had to increase it for a few weeks, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep it at the level where I am for a while, with room to increase if I get worse again.

Do you have any side effects from the Neurontin (gabapentin)?

Weight gain is one that’s attributed to it because it apparently increases your appetite and also can make you retain water. I get a very dry mouth. Some of the symptoms it’s very difficult to tell because I’ve, it’s been so long since I haven’t had drugs of one sort or another, it’s difficult to tell how many symptoms I have from my condition and how many are from the drugs that I take.

Very dry mouth, I can choke very easily and part of that could be the restriction in the neck and part of that is the fact that I’m so dry from the drugs. Concentration and short-term memory, not sure again whether it’s drugs or whether it’s the condition. I think it’s most likely to be the drugs to be honest.

I don’t see why the condition should particularly affect my memory. It’s not that it’s disastrous, I mean I have got short-term memory, but it takes me a long time to remember peoples names.

I double book myself in my, somewhat slim, social calendar, I still manage to double book myself and things because I can’t remember that somebody’s said in passing ‘Lets do something on a Friday night. I end up doing three things on one night and nothing for the rest of the month kind of thing. But people have got used to me now. ‘Write it down. Mum bought me a notice board to put up in the kitchen so I didn’t forget things quite so much.