Whats your thoughts on lyrica medication

Hi harper1,

I take Lyrica and yes, there was a small weight gain, but some people do not put on any weight. My main problem is that I can't walk terribly far so it doesn't take much for me to put on weight anyway.

I guess it's a matter of weighing up how much pain you are in as opposed to the risk of gaining a little weight. Epidural steroid injections work for some people and not others, but they usually need to be repeated - they are not long lasting.

If it was me, I would try the Lyrica before I went for someone poking something in my spine. But everyone is different, so what is good for one is not necessarily good for another. I think that when you read forums where there are people who are taking Lyrica, you are more likely to come across people who have gained weight because the ones who haven't are unlikely to be there commenting. As far as I know, Lyrica and Gabapentin are the same class of drug, so whether that means that you might put on weight with Gabapentin, I am not sure. Your doctor would probably know.

Good luck!

Mary

I agree with Mary on this I have been on Lyria for about six months and I have found it has helped with the sunburn feeling down my leg .
My pain levels fluctuate from day to day as is the norm , I saw my doc re. Cortisone shot and he wants me to wait another month I don't know if I can wait that long .
I have been battling my weight a little I have gone up to about 88 kilos I thought it was the holiday to the US , oh well I now have an excuse he he .

Going back to the lyrica I mentioned to my GP for about 2 years about a feeling of severe sunburn all the way down to my foot from my hip he didnt recomend anything to aleviate the feeling . I was lucky to have the help of people on this site and their experience with pain that I mentioned Lyrica to him and haven't looked back , I am on 300 mg morning and night except for a bit of shaking I haven't seen any side effects , I have a hip injury which also reduces my ability to do exercise .

Johnno

Are you saying 300 mg each tablet ?

I had my first lyrics tablet last night at 10pm woke this morning at pm8am and felt like i was drunk when i went to get out of bed was a weird feeling ....didn't want to drive that's for sure ... I don't think i could function if i took 150 mg morning and night !!

Harper 1

Hi harper1,

Lyrica is a medication that needs to be started at a really low dose. I don't know what dose you started on but it you have had problems then ask your dr. to lower the dose. You can start at 25mg and build up. I started at 75mg at night and found it a bit hard, but we couldn't get the 25mg back then. After I was comfortable with the 75mg at night, I took 75mg in the morning as well. That also took a few days to adjust to. I can't remember at what stage I ended up on 150mg morning and night but I guess it couldn't have been too bad or I would remember it.

Mary

Mary

I am on 300 mg morning and night and still work four days a week.
But I did start on a smaller dose and built up it really eases my nerve pain but I do get involuntary jerks every now and then like a muscle contraction .

Johnno

Hello Harper 1

I have now been on Lyrica for 12 months, starting off at 75 mg day and night and have now been on a dosage of 300mg morning and night for 9months. For me this drug has been able to control my post herpetic neuralgia extremely well at this dosage. It did make me dizzy and a little fuzzy in the brain, and although i have gained a lot of weight since i was hit by a vehicle, i believe the weight gain is mainly from my inability to exercise due to the accident, as before this i was working and walking miles in my job as a personal carer in a aged care facility, despite the pain that shingles had left me with . I have had such a good result with the Lyrica on my neuralgia that i am loathe to even contemplate coming off it in the future for fear the nerve pain will return. I do tend to forget things but this could also be due to the strong pain meds i am on from the accident.

i have been taking lyrica 300mg morning and night for several yrs now for phantom pain ( i had my right leg amputated 17 yrs ago)- it certainly has been more effective than the pther medications i have taken for nerve pain. I have been lucky in that i do not seem to have adverse side effects from the lyrica even initially, i started on 150mg twice daily and it did not seem to make me drowsy , unsteady etc. As for weight gain i am severly over weight but it does not seem to be related to the lyrica eg for the periods that i have had breaks from the medication i have not lost weight, like mRs shingles said, i think the weight is more to do with the inability to excercise, i am an amputee with MS, severe low back pain from crush fractures in my spine and i use an electric wheelchair for mobility. The only medical treat ment i have have that definately caused weight gain was when i had the spinal pump implanted to give me spinal morphine- giving the morphine this way really messes with a whole bunch of hormones, i went through early menopause, became osteo porotic and at one stage had massively increased levels of a hormone called prolactin (helps stimulate breast feeding!!) but evn so i still the biggest issue is the lack of mobility- I am 5ft 7 and i worked with a dietician to evaluate what calorie intake i needed to lose weight and maintain weght, it was 800 a day to slowly lose weight and no more than 1000 a day to maintain! i did lose a lot of weigjt that yr (over 50kg) but then had a series of ms relapses and spent a lot of time in hospital and regained a lot- basically at 800 caloreis one needs to weigh and measure and record every thing, but honestly i have not found the lyrica impacted on this

you asked about spinal steroids injections, i have had this done twice, the first time i got good relief almost immediately, not total pain relief but certainly a big improverment, it did not last all that long though maybe 3 months or so, they tried a 2nd one and it did nothing and he said this is sometimes what happens, i thought perhaps he missed the best spot- the procedure was not all that comfy but not too bad and was done under fluroscope

Wow both you guys haven't had much luck sorry to hear :S ...and here I am complaining with my pain, Its really good to hear the different opinions on this medication cause everyone experiences things in different ways.

Well my mornings are getting better and thinking about adding the other 150mg in the morning so i do a 12 by 12 hour that way hopefully have 24 pain relief that's the plan anyway ...that will make 300mg per day for me, I've also had alot of blank moments were I cant remember what i was going to do or get ..but if that's the worse I have to deal with well who cares can be my excuse and I'm sticking to that one.

Thanks again for the replies always great to hear.

Harper 1 🙂

Hi Harper1
I started Lyrica a year ago now and it has mad a huge difference to my life, I was nearly house bound due to my pain but not now I am still working 3 days a week. 🙂
When I first started Lyrica I nearly stopped it i the first week due to the side effects but luckily I had been chatting on here and knew they would pass.On the first day I could not co-ordinate my body and kept running into walls like a drunk and I was sooo tied. The drunkedness stopped the next day and the tiedness eased of the following weeks. As for the weight gain I gained about 5kg but this was also at a time that I decreased my work load and wasnt exercising as much so maybe it wasnt lyrica that did it. I do fine that my memory isnt always so great, Lyrica Brain. I deal with this by always writing things down just in case so I have notes everywhere.
As for the spinal injections, I have had 9 spinal nerve blocks. 4 worked really well but that lat ones didnt help much at all. I found this procedure very stressful; and painful but as you can see when it was working I went back for more. :unsure:
I hope some of this information is helpful. If you have any questions I am happy to answer them

Wendles

Hey There Wendles ,

Yes I know what you mean by the drunk and tired it knocks you around a bit thats for sure...I am past the running into to doors now tho haha but forget very I have to stop and think what I am doing sometimes and thats very much not like me.

I uped my meds from 150mg to 300mg a day, just 3 days ago the first day was a bit out of it but seems ok now, yesterday tho at 3am in the morning i woke with a horrilbe feeling in my leg which is exactly why I am taking this medication ...I am finding even tho I'm taken 300mg a day its still painfull by about 3 in the afternoon for some strange reason ...I take my first tablet at 7 in the morning and the other one 7pm at night, I really hate the pain and want it to go away ...how long should it take before the 300mg should work ?

As for the spinal I am not to sure about having this done 1 because of the pain and stress of having it done also the cost $498.00 maybe more if they find something else whilst doing the procedure. so heres to hoping this 300mg will start working very soon.

Sorry to hear you have been thu so much pain I really do feel for you as we share the same pain 🙁
I'm glad I joined this forum tho it has helped me hearing about other peoples experiences and what they are going thu

Harper 1

Hi harper1,

My experience with 300mg/day is that it certainly takes the pain levels down to manageable, but it certainly doesn't make it disappear entirely. I am not sure whether anything does at present. I guess it's a matter of how much your 3pm pain affects what you are doing. If it prevents you from working or otherwise functioning, then it's not as good as if it is just a nagging type of pain that you can tolerate.

If you are not sure about your epidural injection, then I guess the best thing to do would be to get another opinion if that if possible. Most people that have had them on here tend to say that they do get relief from them, but it is not long lasting. My husband had one once and it did nothing for his back, but it helped his knee for months!!!! We still laugh about that one.

Mary

Hi Harper1 ,

Is your Dr looking after your meds because if you are upping your lyrica without consulting with him/ her you may be doing the wrong thing ,my dr increased my lyrica dosage gradually so my body had time to adjust.
Initially it ( lyrica) didn't seem to make any difference we gradually got to 300mg twice a day and yep I am the same as you by about 3pm my pain returns , I take mine at 6am & 6 pm so for three hours the pain gradually increases till it gets to be unbearable then I have to wait until the pain gradually recedes until by 8.30 I drop off to sleep and yes it slowly increases in the morning till I get the next dose . Unfortunately the maximum dose of lyrica is 300 mg twice a day with my night time dosage I also have 100 mg Tramadol + 75 mg Endep so luckily I have the slow release pain killers ..
I know we all sometimes want to up the meds but we should always check with our Dr .

Johnno

My specialist has ordered 300mg per day so increasing as he prescribed ...I did mention that before somewhere I,m pretty sure I would never up medication without seeking further from specialist but I do have some knowledge when it comes to this.

Harper 1

Hi Harper1,

I only said about talking to your Dr out of concern for your welfare but if your working in with your specialist that's fine .
Honestly only thinking of your best interests .
I am sorry if there was any misunderstanding

Johnno