Lyrica for nerve pain

Hi, Sherry! I am sorry to hear the Epidural wasn't the answer for you. It didn't work for me either, but I was hopeful that after you had a little initial relief it might get better for you. I did try Lyrica, but without any success at all. They started me with a lower dose (I don't remember how much - sorry) and then when it didn't work they kept bumping it up and up and up until it became clear it just wasn't going to work for me. I didn't really have any side-effects that I noticed from this one though, so that was good. When they tried neurontin, it didn't do anything for the pain, but it made me unable to remember my own name or complete a simple sentence! UGH! I couldn't get off that stuff fast enough.

I've heard some people have really good success with Lyrica, so hopefully it will help you. But if it doesn't, ask your doctor about Zonegran. That is what they've got me on now for the nerve pain, and it is the first one they've tried that actually helps! I'm going to ask the doctor if I can increase it again at my next appointment since the burning has come back with this latest flare, but before that, it had really seemed to settle it down a bit! And here is the best part... Zonegran is NOT a brand new drug that costs loads of $$$. It has a generic (zonisamide) so it's super inexpensive. Also some other news that some people may like is that it does not have weight gain as a side-effect. Quite the opposite, actually, although I've not noticed a difference one way or the other. I actually haven't noticed any side effects at all with this stuff - just a decrease in the nerve pain. My only wish is that it worked on all the other pain too!

I am glad to hear the swelling and redness have gone down for you, though. That had me a bit worried for you. I will still hope and pray the the epidural will increase in effectiveness if that is possible and I hope you get some relief soon.

Ry

Thanks for the replies! Actually I'm not worried about the cost of any of my meds. I have great insurance with a $5 copay for generic and $11 for brand. Good thing too because I added up my meds one time and it came close to $1,000 a month!

I don't see my neurologist until August but I am thinking of calling him up and asking him to start me on Lyrica. These sharp shooting pains in my neck are driving me insane! So I guess basically this is one of those meds that may or may not work and like many other meds can lose it's effectiveness over time huh? I have been on Neurontin and Skelaxin; both of which hardly helped at all. Skelaxin was the better of the two though because it took the edge of it but it didn't get rid of the pain. I'm hoping that Lyrica can do better then those 2.

Lyrica is a really good med. It's been the only "preventative" medication I've been able to tolerate long-term. I started at 50mg, but didn't get any relief. 100 gave me some relief, but 150 was the best for me. From what I hear, that's still a low dose. I know plenty of people who take 450/day so no knowing what will work for you, but no matter what you have to step up to higher doses. I never got used to the sleepiness, so I mostly took it at night (when I needed help sleeping anyways). Also, as a positive for me, I gained about 15 pounds. I was super sick before I started it, so that was good. After being on it for 3 years, I got a new pain problem and got real sick again and lost the weight & didn't put it back on. I do know some people at my neurologist's who put on like 150-300 lbs. from Lyrica. It makes you really hungry. If you already have a problem and don't feel much like eating that is a huge bonus, otherwise "buyer beware".

I'm not sure what you're being treated for, but I know when I only got partial relief from epidurals, my pain specialist tried RF (radio frequency nerve ablation). They burn little lesions on your nerves to keep them from transmitting pain. It's much happier because there's no drugs involved (just a little bit of local for the procedure for them to put the needle-like thing in that makes the lesions). Before they actually burn anything, they do injections under flouroscope.

I've had a lot more success with the injections (including epidurals) when they are done under a flouroscope because it removes most of the guesswork & the doctor can mark the exact place you got relief (or didn't get relief) and use that as a reference in the future. Since you've got good insurance, it might be worth asking about. It generally has to be pre-approved, same as surgery, but I think it's usually been worth the wait.

I just wanted to add in about the muscle relaxer - I was started by my new pain management doc on baclofen - I'm on the smallest dose -10mg and it has done wonders for me. I was on soma previously and all that did was give a small amount of fast relief,the baclofen has made it where I'm not dealing with the spasms even 1/10th as often as I was.

I began taking Lyrica 25mg 3x day. I was bumped up to 50mg 3x day.
I started having strange dreams as well as mania. I woke up one night on the floor trying to get into this white wall, my deceased father was motioning me to come in but the wall turned black and my father disappeared. I do not know if these strange dreams were from the Lyrica/mania? I also had to keep one eye shut as I had double vision. This was the main problem for me.
I too never felt full after eating, I was always hungry and my hands and feet swelled up. My doctor wanted me to ween off lyrica but I just stopped cold turkey without any problems. Looking back maybe I was on it for 3months max.
Hope all is well!
Cloe

Yeah, I don't understand Blue Care Networks reasoning on some things. Like for instance, a few years ago I was on Ambien. The Ambien worked great in the beginning but I was becoming tolerant to it and I was still waking up in the middle of the night so my doc wanted me to try Ambien CR. My insurance denied it. I didn't persue the matter because shortly after I tried a few samples the doc gave me of Ambien CR, my gma who lived with had to be rushed to the ER in the middle of the night. Of course there was NO way I could drive so my hubby had to drive us. We were there all night and I don't remember a thing. Which is NOT good considering that I am her DPOA! So now I take Tylonel Simply Sleep and I am able to wake up in the middle of the night now with no amnesia affect. But I have had my insurance deny more meds then they cover. It's like pulling teeth sometimes. Other then the prescription denials though, I have never had a problem with them with referrals to specialists and/or covering my many tests.

I had my second epi yesterday and other then the injection site being a bit tender, I actually feel much better today. Though I got almost NO sleep last night because steroids make me a jittery mess. But at least some of the residual pain is subsiding already. I could tell that the last epi was starting to wear off because I was having the neck pain again. So I am hoping that by the time I get my 3rd injection, it will take care of it for a long time.

Lyrica is helping me immensely with the deep burning pain in my low back and shoulder blades. I take 150mg. twice a day. (total 300mg per day) It took about 3 to 4 weeks to really kick in and reach it's maximum effect. I do wake up with a headache every morning since I started taking it, but it goes away with a half an hour. I was started on a lower dosage and then worked up to 300mg daily.

My pain doctor never tries anything new. I suffer ALL the time. I'm sure there are other modalities.
Red_34 maybe I didn't go on Lyrica because insurance didn't pay for it. In the beginning I was given
a boat load of samples from my psychiatrist. I go to the psychiatrist because no other doctors will give
me Xanax since I take Methadone. I also started with the psychiatrist because of late-diagnosed ADD.
(That is chronic pain of a different stripe. It's awful. No one even knew what was wrong with me.) I
understand ADD now and it's a good thing because I couldn't take the medication required to cure it.

I'm not sure I have Neuropathy. I'm going to have to find out. I sure do have something.

When I first came down with pain about seven years ago, I scanned for doctors to find out just why the
pain was so bad. Because of the location of my neck pain, they didn't want to do surgery unless it was
absolutely necessary (incontinence or not being able to walk) I'm learning a lot on the board and I think
I'll try to get some good medical help.
Pamela Neckpain