I'm getting PM's asking questions about Lyrica that I can't fully answer because I've no first hand experience with it.

My sense for previous posts I read here is that it has some benefit for some people.

Which is to say that some of us can't tolerate the side effects including weight gain & some of us can tolerate the side effects but get limited relief & for some it gives significant relief but does not make the totally pain free. I don't think I've seen any posts that say it makes them totally pain or fatigue free.

If it does work for you & had reduced your pain please put a number on it (before my pain was a x & with Lyrica it's usually now a y)

The same with fatigue:

f it does work for you & had reduced your fatigue please put a number on it (before my fatigue was a x & with Lyrica it's usually now a y)

If you use it now, or have used it in the past please weigh in again so the information is in a common thread.

Post edited by: bshapiro, at: 11/07/2007 11:31

As for fatigue for me that's hard to say due to my work situation.

Hope this helps

Karen

Post edited by: Snoopy30, at: 11/07/2007 12:15

Post edited by: Snoopy30, at: 11/07/2007 12:16

Just got a prescription wired to the pharmacy anthough it may that a few days to fill it (special order).

As it's not a "formulary" drug for my HMO I actually had to go through 2 courses of Nurontien & one of Nortryptaline before they'd pop for it.

I am so bad at assigning numbers, but here it goes...my pain was around a 6, now no pain aslong as I take the pill 3X a day...fatigue was over a 10 before, now 1 as long as I take the pill 3X a day...hope that this helps...

chemically, i think the most simple answer is that it tells the part of your brain that makes us hurt, to shut up... without making us feel stoned, or goofy... both being good feelings, but not in a medicine you have to take all the time.

I am probably wrong on the chemical thing, but that is what was summarized to me.

pondering

Lyrica was what my pain doc first gave me in 2006 for fibro. Well a mix of it Lortab and Zanaflex and we knew from the past that Lortab and Zanaflex helped my fibro and other pain issues, just not enough. SO he said let's try Lyrica. Within 2 weeks on that combo, I felt well enough to take a trip from SC to Indiana. I learned on that trip how well it worked on the "don't touch my skin no matter how gently you try" pain. I was only a few hours past my normal dose time but couldn't get to my meds at the time and my son brushed against me and I almost screamed. Needless to say, I called for a rest stop to take meds. Within an hour, that pain was lower. It's never fully gone. I hate trying to rate my pain (grow up with pain and it's too normal and so very hard to give it a number) but since my pain doc uses that as a measure, I learned that when I first started seeing the doctor, my pain was at a consistent 7/8. Withing a few months on that mix of meds and with a nerve block to 3 of my rt lumbar facet joints, I was at a 3/4 most of the time. I'm generally a 4/5 now. Although my ins. did not cover Lyrica so we switched me to Neurontin. I just have to take 1800 mg of it daily vs 150 or 300 mg of Lyrica.