Posted 8/9/2013 11:09 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Vitaka,
I have some experience with Lyrica, and it was not at all positive. Like you, I experienced some of the dizziness and what I call loop ones when I began titrating the dose...it's been a few years but I recall that my max dosage was in the range of 150 to 200mgs a day.
I started waking up with swollen fingers, and some puffiness in m ankles which I attributed to a recent increase in my Dilaudid (an opioid) dose. Morphine always gives me "cankles", so I assumed something similar was going on with the Dilaudid.
I kept taking the Lyrica, which my Doctor added to treat some nasty Fibro flares I had been having. Sadly, as much as I LOVE ocean swimming, pushing the exercise triggers my spine pain, and then it just becomes a trigger point free for all. I had 44 tender, painful knots all over my body (gave up counting after that) during one of those flares.
about six weeks to two months in with Lyrica, and I started to have a lot of knee pain. Swollen ankles and finger and knee pain that got progressively worse over the next four months. As the knee problems progressed, both knees began to swell.
My knees got so sore at one point IF I bent them to squat (which I must do at 3 to 7 minute intervals to relieve the axial load from my spine, or else the pain will escalate to truly unbearable levels within seconds to a minute), I could not get up without assistance. If I can't Get a bend as often as I need, then I am disabled by spine pain, to the point that I have to use a chair, and I have fought for almost 40 years to stay on my feet and not use a wheelchair.
It never occurred to me that Lyrica could be the cause of these changes. I should have reported these things tony pain management team...but my reporting is way off the scale...if I reported everything that hurt every month, well, I think I would never leave the office...yak yak yakkity yak...I believe that many many chronic pain sufferers grossly underreport their pain, for a variety of reasons (may e a subject for a new post?!). In my case, I just don't sweat the little stuff...so extreme knee pain hardly registers on my radar screen.
It was not until I saw a tv commercial for Lyrica which warned patients to report 'swelling of the hands, knees, or feet to their doctors immediately"that I made the association between the drug and my symptoms.
The scary thing about the ordeal was that it took months for the knee swelling to subside, and more time for the pain to abate. It took at least nine months from stopping Lyrica for my knees to recover to 80% functionality, and a little more than a year to get back to what they were before I started Lyrica.
This was away too high a price to pay. And I never perceived and real benefits from the drug. I do not believe it helped me in any way, and that I was harmed by it.
Of course your mileage may vary. Please do not repeat my mistake and communicate with your doctor better than I did.
I have tried so many different drugs over the years. It can be a long and grueling process of trying and discarding various drugs till you find something that works for you and your pain.
I know that I must have tried at least 75 different medications in the past twenty years. And I have three that are keepers, without which, frankly, my quality of life would be so poor as to be lacking a reason to continue the struggle. So for three keepers, that means seventy more or less that either did not work well, or worked but came with unintended effects so misery inducing that they were beneath consideration. Good heavens, I have puked up a lot of meds!
I wish you all the luck in the world in your quest for relief. I sure hope Lyrica works for you. Just because I tolerated it poorly, this has absolutely no bearing on your possibility of success.
Priscilla