ONE woman has described the prospect of losing vital prescription medication as nothing short of a "tragedy".
The government is planning to reclassify gabapentin and pregabalin as Class C controlled drugs, despite both being used to treat serious life-long disorders.
Heather Wallace, the Edinburgh-based chair of Pain Concern, has been using gabapentin, also known as Neurontin, to treat chronic neuropathic pain and is distressed at the thought of her medication being taken away.
She described going on the drug as a turning point for her 20 years ago after botched surgery left her with nerve damage.
Prescription painkillers have been highlighted as a possible contributing factor in overdose deaths, prompting the government to try and crackdown on those who misuse such substances.
But Heather, from Haddington, said people with severe chronic neuropathic pain should not have to suffer due to the "wretched" minority of people who abuse gabapentin and pregabalin.
She argues the meds have been crucial in helping her to deal with the agony that left her unable to perform every day tasks and robbed her of her independence.
Heather told The Herald: "It was a real, real struggle. I used to have a lot of days where I had to lie down, and other days when I was slumped in the settee. It was quite depressing.
"It's just a devastating pain that completely overwhelms every aspect of your life. Particularly if you get shooting pains – you are left totally crippled by these lightning bolts of pain that shoot right through you, one after another, after another.
"It reduces the quality of life right down to the minimum, to the point where some days all you can do is lie down on the settee and watch TV.
"And it goes way beyond just pain – you often feel like you have flu and are exhausted. Sometimes you are left feeling cold. And when I say cold, it's like every single cell in your body is frozen to ice. It's really quite scary.
"When you get a really bad flare up, you can't think. You can't even tell someone you're in pain because you can't speak.
"Certain types of pain can even spread around from the first area you got it in. It is much different to acute pain and can be hard for people who don't suffer from it to understand.
"For me, I'd say it was worse than child birth."
Heather was initially given traditional painkillers but their efficacy left a lot to be desired.
However, gabapentin gave her a new lease of life and she has been able to go back to work and even travel.
She said: "Over the counter drugs done absolutely nothing for me and they had me on different strength opiates and they done nothing. They also tried tranquilisers, which worked for a while but then nothing.
"Even the strong opiates do nothing for a lot of people. But gabapentin and pregabalin do work.
"There is nothing that takes away all the pain, but it gets it down to a level where you can do things again.
"My family lives quite far away, but I am able to travel and see them.
"I can work more or less full time, thought that took years. I was part time and had to gradually build that up.
"I can also go one holiday, though I have to compromise and go through the airport in a wheelchair so as not to get to exhausted by it all.
"So, at present, I am able to do most of the things I want to do now. It's been a huge shift.
"But I still have nights where I wake up in the pain – let's be real about this – I'm not cured."
Heather added: "The tragedy is that these wretched people are taking this medication, which has helped me turn my life around, and they are abusing it. They have no right to do that to people in pain.
"Something has changed, but it's not the medication that's changed - it's society and the way it's being abused. I've got my condition for the rest of my life, so either the doctors want to take me back to being someone who spends half my life lying down, or they let me work and have a normal life."
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