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.

technorati tag: multiple sclerosis