Lyrica

Hi all. I'm Linda in Minnesota (Beads by Gundy). I've had fibromyalgia for 20 yrs now. I sympathize and empathize with you all. I try to stay on the positive side. Jewelry making and my grandchildren help me set some of the pain aside. I'm making fibromyalgia awareness jewelry on my web site to raise funds for research. My pain runs at 7-9 everywhere but my head; and I get migraines. I have most of the other illnesses associated with fibromyalgia. I try to encourage people who come to me recently diagnosed with fibro. I direct them to good fibro web sites, books, doctors, and listen to them. I try to give them hope and motivation to keep going.

Two years ago, I had to leave my job at Medtronic for 14 yrs because of severe fibro pain. I kept going as long as I could endure. I recently won my social security disability case and should finally be getting some help. I'm so thankful to God for this ruling in my favor. It was a long process. Any of you in this battle for disability should remain steadfast and encouraged. Keeping a pain and mobility diary can help your case, along with your medical records.

I have 2 questions:

Has anyone tried the new drug Lyrica for fibro pain? If yes, is it helping your pain threshold? Do you have side affects from this medication? I plan to talk to my doctor about this med.

I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. Have any of you been diagnosed with this illness as well? I thought I had IBS. Guess you can have that too according the the gastro doctor. I can't have anything with wheat, barley, rye, or oats in it. My husband says if it looks like cardboard and tastes like cardboard, I can eat it!!! LOL! If you eat a gluten free diet, the damage can heal. If not, lymphoma may become an issue.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to reading your response posts.

Regards,
Linda

Thanks for your post, Linda. Of course, I can only tell you about my experience and as you well know, yours may be entirely different. I have been on Lyrica for three months now and recently stopped taking it altogether. I saw no difference in my pain, which like yours is up there on a daily basis. What I did notice a difference in was my weight...in three months I gained 32 lbs on Lyrica. 32 lbs! (With no changes in my overall diet) Other than that I could not tell that I was taking it and could tell no difference when I stopped except that after only two weeks off of Lyrica, I have already lost 17 of the 32 lbs. I put on. My Neurologist started me out on 75mg each day, then when I reported no change in my pain he changed the dosage to 75mg twice a day. No difference except the weight gain and If you read my blog I wrote about it, then decided not to take it anymore. The added pounds were not worth the Lack of relief I got from it.
Just my own experience...hopefully yours will be different!

Thanks again for the post and I hope you will let us know what kind of result you get if you start taking it.
Tammy Elaine

Hi
I've been taking Lyrica since Oct 07. I'm taking 450mg daily. It makes me pretty foggy sometimes. I won't drive a car taking it.
Judy

Hey, Judy. Good to see ya. I was wondering if you can tell a noticable difference in the pain levels with the Lyrica? I don't know if it is just me or what but I couldn't even tell a difference! I mean, when I take my methadone, the pain subsides. I couldn't even tell I was taking the Lyrica at all. You say you get foggier too? See now, I didn't notice anything, any effect at all. I wonder if it is just the medication working differently on different people or what? Maybe my dosage of 150mg twice a day wasn't enough. (I don't think it would be worth the weight gain in my particular case even if it did though.) I hope others taking it leave posts so we can compare, don't you? I wonder if Linda ever started it.

Take care and keep in touch!

I think Lyrica gave me my life back! My doctor prescribed it for Shingles and the pain was excruciating. After 3 days I realized with a shock that my fibromyalgia was GONE!! All my body pain and muscle spasms- gone!
I know there is a long list of possible side effects but I was lucky and didn't have a one. Except after a year I really thought my memory was getting very bad. Also I didn't seem to need the pills any more. I was taking 60 mg twice a day, a minimum dose but it worked wonders. So I stopped and after awhile my memory improved or got back to normal.

Now, after another year I am in pretty bad shape again and I wonder if I shouldn't go back on Lyrica. it is very possible to manage conditions with an off and on program. I have been off it for a year. It seems as if it trained my brain to quit with the muscle spasms. And I think it may be osteo arthritis that bothers me more now.

I take many vitamins and they make a world of difference. I think I'd be in a wheelchair without them. But Lyrica really gave me back my life and I think you need to try for yourself to see how it affects you.Get a 10 day RX and if it hasn't helped within a week then I don't think it will at all. If it does help a lot then consider a low dose and taking it for a few months then going off it.

You won't know unless you try and it worked miracles for me!
Good luck!
Dragonfly in Canada