Lyrica was quite the buzz kill

I have a few questions involving Lyrica for treatment of what we may think is Fibromyalgia. I have been in chronic pain for now almost 16 months now and the past few months it has been quite debilitating. I am only 18 year old healthy male, work out every other day now but was couch ridden every other week or so. I try to fight through the pain thinking working out will slowly help me get back into things but it appears no help. I do yoga, swimming, meditation, attuned diets, magnesium and fish oil supplements, the whole shibang.

I have tried Cymbalta (up to 120mg), lyrica, seroquel, etodolac, zanaflex, physical therapy, chiropractors, acupuncture, massages, and pinpoint injections and still no relief. I am at a 9 in my pain level and was recently given Lyrica to try to help.

I was told to start at 50mg for a few days and then go to 100mg. The first day I took 50mg and I felt amazing, my pain went from a 9 to around a 7 which being at such a terrible any relief seems amazing. I thought it would only get better. 2 days later I went up to 100mg and noticed not much more relief, I am now up to 150mg and back up to a pain level of 9. I was given quite alot of examples because my doctor has a good amount of trust in me. Today I tried 300mg desperate to see if dosage would fix anything but I went from about a 9 to an 8. I don't want to have to take up to 600mg a day for just partial relief and I dont know if Lyrica should get better with time.

Should I continue to try to take Lyrica or talk to my doctor about other methods? I probably will continue it as it does have potential to take minimal pain away but not enough. Any advice sounds great!

Lyrica didn't help me. It caused brain fog, but did not dull the pain for more than a few days at the start. My dr just told me about savella. You might want to do some research on it. Sorry that you are hurting so.

Hi there,

I would talk to the doctor about something different if 300mg didn't help your pain much. You need something that works. There are many different pain relievers. Being you are young, I doubt that they would give you any narcotic pain relievers, but we have members that get relief from tylenol or ibuprofin. Take a look at the thread called "fibro101". You might get some valuable information for you there. There is a thread on malic acid and magnesium. That has helped me.

I hope that you feel better soon.

Hugs, Karen

So I am with some others who have not ben able to use the Lyricas, savellas, and cymbaltas, among many others! Savella for me made me evil that stuff was satan in a pill!!! Didnt even stay on it long enough to go up to full strgnth, when i hit 25 mg twice a day I became satan! Lyrica and cymbalta both failed for me also, so now I am on my origional antidepressant prozac which besides the weight gain at least helped me stay somewhat happy! Though it does nothing for pain!

As far as pain meds, I have also run the list of those as well. I have a pretty much standing prescription for percoset as needed. Motrin and those things ate my stomach up. I was given dilaudid in a pill form but it does not absorb well apparently through pills form. When the oain is unbearable I would get either IV or IM Dilaudid or Toradol which actually worked great!

I am now on 25 mcg/h Fentanyl patches which are a godsend for me and take pain that was consistantly at a 8 or 9 down to a 2 or 4 with only a few bad breakthroughs requiring percoset. I still wished they would allow us to take our own torodaol shots cause for me that stuf was great and non narcotic, although it was very short acting. I also have valium for when my muscles act up.

My kitchen cabinet has pretty much any med for any thing from pain, to vertigo, lots of pukey pills, hormones, you name it i got it. I hope they can find a happy solution to at least dull the pain, that is what I am learning is the best I can hope for. Gets tough on days like today where i couldnt get the strewngth to turn my gas cap, and I wanted to throw in the towel , but know were here for you..... even if i dont post much cause usually forget what the original topic was about! :)

gentle hugs~