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← Return to Lyrica - Looking for Patient Experiences
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Lyrica - Looking for Patient Experiences
Neuropathy | Last Active: May 14, 2020 | Replies (64)Comment receiving replies
Good morning to everyone trying to find the right medication. @iceblue, I am very interested in your experiences with Lyrica and your comparison to gabapentin. Looks like you have quite an auditience. Thanks for introducing the subject. I think many of us made this decision or had it made for us in the early stages of small fiber neuropathy (SFN). Today, I would do a lot of research before changing. Do you just change...no tapering down or up?
Here's how new I was 7 years ago. My neurologist prescribed the gabapentin after cervical surgery. As things progressed, he wanted me to see a rheumatologist just to make sure there were no immunity issues. When I saw her, I remembered her because she introduced me to Voltaren cream several years before my TKR.
So here is how it went down. She was concerned about the gabapentin and wanted me to change to Lyrica. If I couldn't agree with that, she told me that I could not be a patient of hers. I returned to my neurologist and laid it out. I decided to stay with the neurologist and we would review options. Somehow there were some ethical issues floating around. I was way too new to everything including neuropathy. But that was how it all began. And that is when I knew that knowledge was power.
May everyone be protected and safe today.
Chris
Replies to "Good morning to everyone trying to find the right medication. @iceblue, I am very interested in..."
Chris, so did you stay with gabapentin or change to Lyrica? And how are you doing with your PN these days? Cheers, Terry
Hi Chris! It feels good to see the information sharing occurring here because I think it's really helpful for all of us to learn about each other's experiences. I was having bad side-effects with Gabapentin, although wasn't on a very high dosage. It wasn't doing much for my pain, my memory was shot - but mostly I was having HORRIBLE dreams. For awhile I thought they might have been related to my brother's death (and maybe they were) but they did stop when I switched to Lyrica, which was such a relief! I am only on 100 mg taken at night - and I simply switched from Gabapentin to Lyrica. I started at 25 mg of Lyrica and increased to 75 mg - then finally to 100. Personally, I would like to continue increasing as my feet still hurt every day, but my doctor seems reluctant to prescribe more. I would be thrilled if I could get an opioid, but doctors here are loath to prescribe them and my doctor does not know me well enough to be confident I won't abuse it. I know opioids work, so that makes me both sad and frustrated. I don't like Tramadol - it makes me nauseous so I wouldn't even accept a prescription for it. T3's work well and I would love to have a supply for my bad pain days. I haven't tried anything other than Tylenol 1's - which I currently take a couple of times a day.
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Hi Chris, hope you are well and successfully coping with this new “normal” existence we are all experiencing. I was wondering if you ever tried any of the suggested prescriptions for the horrible itching you had and if it worked for you. Thanks, Helen