Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

@lioness I don't understand why the doctor wouldn't prescribe Lyrica. Your pain specialist should be able to help. Did your doctor give his reason for refusing to prescribe?

I was gradually increasing my dosage of Lyrica when all of the sudden I had such a reaction I was in the hospital for 3 days. The bummer is that it was helping my neuropathy pain.

Jim

Hello,@summertime4, Mamacita here , aka Jane. I tried to do a little bit of investigative work here before giving you an answer.

I live in North Alabama, and we, unfortunately, have the dubious distinction of having one of the highest opiate consumptions per capita in the nation.

Hydrocodone works great for me. But neither the Rheumatologist nor the PCP will prescribe it for me. This was at my request. From many years ago.

Hydrocodone affects perception. I told the medical folks not to prescribe anything for me that might affect my ability to drive, make decisions, or care for our precious Grandchild.

Little did I know back then, in the 90's, that Fibromyalgia would get progressively worse. I have come to regret that decision.

But in this environment of drug users, drugs are frequently used in ways that they were not prescribed. I have heard of people injecting or smoking or huffing just about every drug you can imagine.

I have not located any articles to back that up.yet. But I will be looking for them. I did look at an article by Ramsey Archibald, @al.com. Where the opioid epidemic hit Alabama hardest. Two counties that have the most drugs in the state are a short drive from my door.

Foster care numbers are at an all time high. Families are torn apart. Children don't know who they can trust anymore. Enabling seems to be the name of the game. But someone with diabetic neuropathy and severe Fibromyalgia like me, well, I have to be convincing to the medical establishment so that they understand I really am in as much pain as I say I am.

To be fair, they do not wish to get in trouble themselves. Around this town, one of the high schools was known as the "pill" school. The other the "alcohol" school. I personally knew of a Sunday School class that refused to have their social at my friend's house because alcohol would not be on the menu .

I hope I have answered at least some of your questions. Thankfully, the medicines that truly help us are not as difficult to procure in your part of the country. May it remain so.

Mamacita

@mamacita What are they doing to us who need these drugs. Ridiculous I'm going to see my pain Dr. tomorrow and talk to him . I,ve been taking supplement also for the fibro but they aren't working as well any more.

@jim, Alumni Mentor. I hope you have not suffered any dangerous complications with Lyrica. You mentioned that you had to be hospitalized for several days. I went back to see what were some side effects and was reminded that there are some serious ones, indeed.

All medications have side effects. Even serious ones rarely happen. But when they do we must be strong and take whatever steps necessary to guard our health.

If I could have received pain relief from the supplements I was taking, I would gladly have continued taking them. Sometimes they just stop working for no particular reason.

Saying a prayer for you and all of us who work so hard to maintain our health.

Mamacita Jane

@mamacita
The day that the Lyrica disaster hit, we were meeting with the financial advisor and I think I said some weird things. Then we had lunch at one of our favorite joints in Bend, Oregon, and I couldn't eat. I just put my head on the table. My wife decided that we needed to go straight home. Fortunately she was driving. I would start a sentence and couldn't complete it. I became increasingly incoherent, had a fever and had no memory. When we went to the ER, my wife expressed her concern that I might have had a stroke. That brought a quick end to the check in. They got me in an ER room and put monitors on me. Then alarms went off when I went tachycardic. Things happened fast, but by the time they got me on a defibrillator, my heart rate went back to normal. That night I thought I was having a cardiac event, but we figured out that I was having a panic attack - awful things - because of the endotracheal tube. I've had those tubes in several times but this was the first time I had a panic attack.

So no more Lyrica. Bummer.

But I started taking Imipramine and I'm up to 75 mg and the neuropathy pain has gone down from 4-8 to 2-3. I'm going to step up to 100 mg tomorrow. I can walk through the stores all day and my feet hardly hurt! Unfortunately my BP went up when I started taking it, so I think it might be a drug interaction with any one of several meds. I have to play around with meds to find the culprit. I just hope it's not a medication that I really need. I was going to stop taking the Benadryl at bedtime tonight, but I thought about it as I was swallowing my nightly pills. But I'm going to enjoy the pain relief while it lasts.

Jim

@jimhd So glad to hear your heart is better . You want to stay that way. Does Imipramine act like Lyrica? Never heard of that drug. What ever you can take for pain relieve is what we all want.

@lioness Imipramine is for depression, but is prescribed for other things. I think it's a cousin of amitriptyline.

Good afternoon, my name is Tom