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I went years without anything (I just don't like meds).  To see my med list now you wouldn't know it, though.

 

Eeyore,

Too funny! I too never took medicine or went to the doctor. but now I feel like I have a mini pharmacy in my house and have a whole medical team to keep up with! My how things change.

 

Monique

 

petal31:

what is a fentanyl patch do?

Look here: http://www.duragesic.com/duragesic/

Discuss that with your doctor. From what you said about the Oxycodone, you would certainly be a canidate. As to whether or not it will work with you; different people react differently to different meds.

Dave

Fentanyl patches are an opiate analgesic used when oral opiates don't do the job.  The patch releases the drug slowly over a period of days.  One of the advantages to a patch is the constant delivery of the drug means, in theory, eliminating the roller coaster ups and downs of oral pain meds.

Personally, I haven't had a great deal of success with patches.Back to the Lyrica...like Monique I didn't go to doctors.  I was raised in a home where even a baby aspirin wasn't given without answering 20 questions.  When the pain began I went for years dealing with it before it had consumed so much of my life I needed something just to take back control.  Thus began the steady climb of meds, changing them, adding, trials....

Lyrica is just the most recent.  As I stated, I haven't been on it long and am still at an introductory dose of 75 mg AM and 150 mg PM.  It looks as if it is going to be more effective for me than Neurontin.  I was on 600 mg AM and 1200 mg PM, less than I had been using but the increase in dosage wasn’t bringing an increase in benefit so I stepped it back down.

Honestly the greatest relief has been from the intrathecal pump implant (Dilaudid & Baclofen).  It was also the greatest source of frustration but that was because of the doctor, not the pump.

I look forward to hearing from others who are taking Lyrica and what dose it has taken to find relief, if any.

 Eeyore

I take 75mg of Lyrica at bedtime and find it really helps. It's a low dose but did take away the nerve pain/"jumpiness" I had. I've been on it for over a year now and it seems to be holding well.

Hope it works well for you!

Michelle

I take Lyrica and Cymbalta. It seems as if the Cymbalta really isn't working for me. However, I have doctors who kind of don't want to hear it, when I say so. Now, when I ran out of the Cymbalta, the constant pain in my lower back worsened so...I guess it's doing something. I haven't noticed a weight gain with the Lyrica. I am on 3 100mg caps morning and bedtime. It has helped me and I noticed it right away. 

As far as being in "relief", that I believe will never come. NONE of my doctors want to dispense pain meds. I was told by my neurologist that "they wouldn't work" for me. Pish Tosh! lol   My pain still "gets my goat" so often, and I do fear becoming addicted to pain meds.

Hi Eeyore                                                                                                                                                

I feel like you just wrote my post lol. I'm also new to Disaboom. How low of a dose did they start you on? They started me at 75mg at bedtime, i did have ALOT of dizziness & drowiness for about 4 days but it's getting better now. Have you gained any weight? 

Welcome to the site Eeyore. I've had fibro for 15 yrs. I've been taking Lyrica for about 4 years now without any side effects. The only thing you need to be careful about is stopping the drug quickly. You need to wean yourself off of it slowly or the withdrawls can be a real bitch. Talk to you again soon.

Hi Dawn & Terry.

Dawn, my doctor put my on 75 mg capsules for AM and PM with a standing order to increase after a couple of weeks if needed.  I did and it is working better than the Neurontin did but I am hoping more will work better.

It is so odd to think that way since I was anti-doctor all of my life.  I just wasn't raised to take OTC's for anything that wasn't simply beyond tolerable.  Now my medication list is longer than my grocery list.  It takes a good part of the morning to refill my weekly containers.

And no, I haven't noticed any weight gain.  Yet.  If I do I know where I can assign the blame! <grin>  No dizziness or drowsiness either.

I stopped the Neurontin cold when I switched over to the Lyrica.  Someone said you shouldn't do that with Neurontin but I didn't notice anything.  With everything I feel all day I suppose it might be difficult to pick up on something that wasn't really up front and in my face. 

I appreciate the warning about the Lyrica, Terry.  I hate that withdrawal feeling.  Yikes!

Eeyore