Fibromyalgia brought on by major surgery has changed my life

Almost 8 years ago I was diagnosed with cancer which required removal of my left lung. Approximately 5 months after the surgery, I started feeling achy and flu-like with wide spread body pain that did not go away. Because of my symptoms and the fact that my mother has Fibromyalgia, my health care team and I fairly quickly determined that I now had it as well. I was immediately prescribed Gabapentin, and Tramacet. Not knowing any better, I just started taking them. With a few tweaks to the dosage these drugs helped significantly with the pain. BUT, I did not know about the side effects of Gabapentin. In fact, the medical field still does not seem to acknowledge them. Lack of focus, fogginess, and a serious impact on memory/recall are some of them. If I had known ahead of time, I would have researched other choices including non-prescription remedies. This is what I would like to see changed in our health care system. Education. Choices. Alternative therapies. Patient care that goes beyond the 5 minute doctor appointment. More use of Nurse Practitioners with focus on overall wellness.

Unfortunately, I feel fully dependent on these drugs now and trying to wean off of them would take a long time and I don't know if I could be helped in any other way. (A case of "the devil you know".) Because even with the drugs, I still have pain periodically throughout the day. Luckily I am retired and can lie down, stretch, meditate, or do what is necessary to reduce the pain when necessary. I feel really bad for folks who have to work or care for children or others while dealing with this horrible syndrome.

I'm happy the government is at least looking at pain management. Hopefully some positive comes of it.