Katie,
I am very sorry to hear about how your body reacts to different meds and about your allergies - this is terrible! I feel for you!
I generally don't suffer from allergies. However, my body dislikes the detergent they like to use for hospital linen - something I discovered after one of my surgeries - I broke out into hives and they said I had contact dermatitis. This is the first (and only) allergy I know about at this time - to hospital linen. This is not to say there are no others, just no others I know about at this time.
Like you, I can't tolerate Lyrica and Neurontin, but not because of an unusual reaction. I am very sensitive to the known side effects - these drugs make me into a mental retard - I lose all short term memory, have problems thinking and talking. And, these drugs don't do much for my pain anyway. With the opiods, which help me the most I must say, (Oxycodone, Hydrocodone) in high doses, I develop a very strong body-wide itch that will keep me from sleeping at night. My docs have told me this is an infrequent but well known neuro-psychiatric side effect. People who don't get high on narcotics tend to itch. I'd rather be high
So, I manage this side-effect by trying not to take these meds in the evening or at night.
I agree with you that we are given one size fits all solutions in medicine, while people are very different biologically and physiologically. Subtle genetic variations play a huge difference. Medicine should be highly personalized with drugs, procedures and devices tailor made for each of us. I believe, this is the future, but it is not here yet, and I doubt I will see it in my life time.