Neurontin.. but a weird question about it

[Lizard Leg]

About 4 months ago, I went from being perfectly healthy to a cough that kept me awake for a month and sent me through a slew of doctors and specialists. Nothing helped. I coughed until I couldn't talk, my wife of 20 years (or me) slept in the living room, and my life was miserable.

I had to see my neurologist to get the results of my MRI on my neck about a month after I started coughing (found out I had arthritic bone spurs C4,C5 and C6). She prescribed Gabapentin (Neurontin) to help keep the nerves from causing the muscles to spasm - and my cough went away. I stopped taking it. Cough came back. I started taking, cough went away. Hmmmm.

After a conversation and another look at my scans it appears one of the spurs is slightly rubbing the common laryngeal nerve causing a tickle in my throat all the time, causing me to cough. I take the meds, I hardly cough at all - no more than normal allergy season coughing. No problem clearing ears, etc.

I have no drowsiness or narcotic side effects from the medicine at all, and when questioned my neurologist said no problems at all diving since I tolerate the medicine so well (I was on MUCH higher doses than this at one point, but that is a different story).

Wanted to get some opinions here as well. I did two pool dives and never had an issue, but never any depth either.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[TSandM]

Well, the major concerning side effects of gabapentin are related to sedation, so if you are not experiencing any such symptoms, I think diving would be fine. Be aware that any subclinical effects may be additive with nitrogen narcosis, so it would probably be good to be conservative with depth, until you figure out how that goes.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Very interesting case, thank you for sharing!

 

[Lizard Leg]

Just wanted to post an update - I did 3 "deep" dives while taking the Neurontin (July and September 2013). 112', 114', and 107'. All on a 32% mix. No side effects - FOR ME. No noticeable narcosis either. Since then I have stopped taking the Neurontin though - the other side effects weren't worth it.

 

[Americana_Mama]

I took Neurontin for a while and it completely made me an airhead...worse than I had ever been ;o) Took it as someone would take Lyrica for neuropathy issues. Dulled my reaction time and thinking. Got off that one after a couple of months. That's just me, though. May help others tremendously.

 

[Lizard Leg]

Definitely helped me, but the other side effects - nah, not for me. I would rather deal with the headaches/arm numbness from the impinged nerve. I was pretty used to the Neurontin from taking it before but yeah, as long as I was doing something I was fine. If I stopped, I fell asleep

 

[chillyinCanada]

What about your cough?

 

[Lizard Leg]

The cough, well, I think I just got used to the tickle. Still cough a lot, but not anywhere near what I was. I would cough so hard and long, I would pass out. Now, I guess I've just "trained" myself to ignore the tickle. Kind of like ignoring an itch until it goes away. I pretty much always have a water or Propel with me - keeping my throat wet seems to help a lot.