Chronic Pain Support Group
Physicians and professionalsdefine pain as chronic if it lasts longer than three to six months and is persistent. It's distinct from acute pain that is a direct result of injury or trauma. This support group is dedicated to those suffering from chronic pain. Discuss treatments that have worked for you, find advice for your specific experience, and find support. You're not...
Hi all,
I've been going through periods where my left hand and forearm have gone dead and useless. I'm unable to use my hand for even the simplest task and it's supremely upsetting. I saw a nerve doctor, whatever his title really is I'm not sure, and he did tests to see how the signal was traveling along my nerves and I had a small deficiency but that visit was at a time when my hand and arm had healed. It only took a few weeks to come back that time.
He told me it was probably from compressed nerves up in my bicep. This past Boxing Day my arm went dead again but this time during the healing process my forearm has been exceedingly painful, not muscle pain but nerve pain, and even when my hand regained it's usefulness it continues to hurt so I made another appointment with the same nerve doctor and hoped that he could do something about it since it's into it's third month of healing.
At the same time I've been seeing my regular pain management doctor and since I am already on Lyrica for fibromyalgia he raised my dose from 300mg to 450mg and within days I had terrible tremors in my arms and body and some dizziness and confusion to go along with it.
Today, even though as of yesterday afternoon I've gone down to my old dose while I wait to see him for an emergency appointment I had to cancel my appointment with the nerve doctor because of the symptoms I'm still suffering and now won't see him for another month.
My question is: has anyone else ever had such a strong reaction to Lyrica before? Was it the same as this? My pharmacist was pretty sure that the new dose was responsible and since it's the only change we made I'd have to agree. What a nightmare. I should have gone up slowly from 300 to 450 I suppose but instead I get to live through this.
John
I've been going through periods where my left hand and forearm have gone dead and useless. I'm unable to use my hand for even the simplest task and it's supremely upsetting. I saw a nerve doctor, whatever his title really is I'm not sure, and he did tests to see how the signal was traveling along my nerves and I had a small deficiency but that visit was at a time when my hand and arm had healed. It only took a few weeks to come back that time.
He told me it was probably from compressed nerves up in my bicep. This past Boxing Day my arm went dead again but this time during the healing process my forearm has been exceedingly painful, not muscle pain but nerve pain, and even when my hand regained it's usefulness it continues to hurt so I made another appointment with the same nerve doctor and hoped that he could do something about it since it's into it's third month of healing.
At the same time I've been seeing my regular pain management doctor and since I am already on Lyrica for fibromyalgia he raised my dose from 300mg to 450mg and within days I had terrible tremors in my arms and body and some dizziness and confusion to go along with it.
Today, even though as of yesterday afternoon I've gone down to my old dose while I wait to see him for an emergency appointment I had to cancel my appointment with the nerve doctor because of the symptoms I'm still suffering and now won't see him for another month.
My question is: has anyone else ever had such a strong reaction to Lyrica before? Was it the same as this? My pharmacist was pretty sure that the new dose was responsible and since it's the only change we made I'd have to agree. What a nightmare. I should have gone up slowly from 300 to 450 I suppose but instead I get to live through this.
John
( in particular SSRIs?)
Did your pharmacist recommend anything to try?
( for the side effects?)
I'm sorry you're experiencing this, John.
It s#*KS when we react to a Med..
And there's little or nothing to do but wait
To see if and when it will pass.
Let us now how your emergency appointment goes, would you?
..I'm assuming your Dr and pharmacist are aware of any Lyrics/other Med combination... potentially causing SeratoninSyndrome?)
Hugs
jc
My pharmacist only mentioned raising the dosage of Lyrica slowly to avoid this rapid shock to my system. She knows all about the drugs that I'm on as well and she should know about this syndrome as well wouldn't you think? Colour me pissed off!!! I'm Canadian and we use a "u" in colour, lol.
One more thing to mention. I've been going through this pain in my forearm for a lot longer than I thought. i just re read my last post from January and it mentions that I'd already been suffering from it for a couple/few months even then so it's been five or six months. In all this time my pain management doc hasn't been able to do anything for me because I'm on disability and my drug plan sucks. He says there is a cream that might work but it costs about two or three hundred a month and it's not covered. Lovely.
I don't know how I could forget about so much pain but the brain works in mysterious ways doesn't it?
John
Don't stress. Well.. not overly so.
I just mentioned SeratoninSyndrome because
I saw Bipokar on your profile..
So.. thought you might be on a psyche Med or two.
It's just something I' m hyper aware of from my own bad experiences..and that of a couple of DS friends.
.. there's no reason to assume that has anything to do with anything going on with you..
But..I never think it's a bad idea to ask the PHARMACIST ( not the Dr.s..they're sometimes shockingly uninformed about Med interactions)
So..anywaaaay..
Don't panic.
Ha..I learned how to read and write in England..
So..I used to misspell colour, too.
Hahahaha. :-) :-)
I think a in really can warp time.
It makes the hours draaaaaag
While the years fly by
:-)
Not ... I think a in really. ......
C'mon, spell-check, seriously?
:-)
It's not misspelled at all. There's a U in colour no matter what anyone says. lol.
Trying not to freak so don't worry.
John
Lyrica was really bad for me as well. I got very suicidal within a week. I was awful. Switched me back to gabapentin after that and I haven't had any problems since.
As far as the serotonin syndrome goes they should have told you what to look out for. You can call your pharmacists to get a list of things to look out for with that cause it can be very serious. I knew somethings to look for but not all. One of my many docs figured it out and took me off a butt load of meds it seemed. Well good luck with this.
I've been on Fibro strength Lyrica since '06. I can't take more than 300 mg due to side effects. I wonder if you might have done better had he just increased it by 75 mg at a time. I guess that's why there are doctors out there who know specialize in pain management. You should feel better going back down in a short time.
Good luck on finding a suitable treatment for your forearm!
Thanks for the luck. Unfortunately as of this morning at 4:00 when I woke up I still feel shaky and simply not well and this is the start of my 2nd full day back on 300mg. It was my pain management doc who raised the dose so quickly in the first place so I don't know what he was thinking. Now I'm terribly afraid of this med and after reading what some people have said about coming back off of it for whatever reason I'm even more afraid of it. It sounds like hell. I don't think I want to go to 450mg at all now and I might just wait until I see the nerve specialist to see if he can suggest something to kill the pain in my forearm. It only takes a few days like I've had to really turn you off when it comes to a med and I'm there. I can't remember feeling so bad since an experience with lithium for my bipolar 2.
John