Thursday, January 19, 2006

Journal: Lyrica update


I've been taking Lyrica for a few weeks now, and I'm up to about 400 mg a day. I've also cut the Neurontin to about 600 mg a day.

Pain-wise, I think I'm finally starting to feel like I've made a bit of an improvement over Neurontin-only. It's 2:00 in the afternoon, and I'm feeling just a bit of burning pain in my thighs and bottom. Just a few days ago (with a lower dose of Lyrica), at this time of day, I was quite uncomfortable and squirmy.

As far as side effects, at first, I'd felt noticably less dopey as I dropped the Neurontin dose, but after bumping the Lyrica up last nite (more on that in a bit), I've felt a bit goofy this afternoon: hard to walk a straight line down the hallway, a little slow on the uptake at lunch, etc. Perhaps it will moderate as I continue at this dose.

Right now, I've still got the splitting headache I woke up with. Last nite, instead of taking 100 mg of Lyrica, I took 300 mg. I'd been told that I could go from 100 mg three times a day to 150 mg in the morning and 300 mg at nite. I probably shouldn't have gone to 300 mg last nite the same day I'd taken 100 mg in the afternoon. Anyway, I went to bed early because I'd gotten precious little sleep the nite before, and I was dog tired. Just to make sure I got to sleep promptly, I took a diphenhydramine at bedtime, too.

I woke up at 5ish this morning with absolutely the worst headache I've ever had- worse than any hangover when I was in college, worse than after my lumbar puncture. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked at one of those dejected migrant workers in a Dorothea Lange photograph. Ug. It's a little better now, but I need to take some more Tylenol to get through the rest of the day. The plan for today is: 150 mg in the am, 50 mg in the afternoon, and 200 mg at bedtime, then switch to 150 mg in the am tomorrow and 300 mg tomorrow nite.

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1 comment:

Beth said...

ugh! Hope you feel better!