Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group UGH lyrica.. pain nerve?????

Wow what a day. I mentioned in a previous post about heel pain. The heel pain has gotten really bad. short recap So my rheumy had put me on a med for a week. Something called a M????? pack (cant remember the name...I just know it had predizone in it) It did nothing then he did steriod injections and again nothing. My pain was the same and geetting worse. He also started me on Methotrexate. i am on my 6th week of the MTX. I saw my rheumy last week and he wanted me to see a foot doc. So I went to him today. He did a lot of things and asked A LOT of questions. My X-rays looked good. No bone spurs. He thinks my pain is from nerve pain. My mother and I have both thuoght the same thing. So he gave me some samples of lyrica 50mg. He also gave me a script for an inflammation drug that I think started with a N. I took the to get filled but I was getting so tired I did not want to wait for it to get filled. So I dropped it off at the phamacy. I took the lyrica and WOW I hated it. It made me feel sooooooooooo strange. I think it helped though. I am feeling so sick. since I have been on the MTX I don't eat much. I have lost a lot of weight. Today is the day I also take the MTX. So I dont know if that is why I also feel so sick from the MTX + Lyrica. The MTX has never made me feel this sick before. I just dont know how much more meds I can put in my body. My list is.... enbrel, MTX, prilosec, loritab, zanax (when needed for panic attack),cynbalta and now lyrica and another one for inflammation. I think that is all of them. Has anyone taken lyrica before? how did it make you feel? Does it come in smaller doses than 50mg? I was thinking about cutting it into but it is a capsules.

What is nerve pain?..... Where is it coming from?.... I know that I have 3 differnt kind of stenois in my lower back. I can remember there names. i know one of them is spinal stenosis. Antoher one is called i think bilateral recess stenosis. Have no idea the other. this was in a MRI i had in October. Is the nerve pain coming from my lower back nerves to my feet? Does anyone have any experience with this? When I was at walmart today dropping off my script and picking up my mtx I got some insure drinks since i have not been eating. Very strange to look for a drink that has the most calories. Usually I am looking for one that is low in calories. I need the calories cause i am not eating. the ensure has 500mg of potasium which i know i need according to my blood work. I have no idea if any of this is making any since or I am just rambling. i hope you can understand this post. I just feel so wierd and sick to my stomach. I am going go to bed now and sleep it off. If you know anything about nerve pain please let me know. i feel like I am losing my mind.

Raquel

Raquel
When I began Lyrica 50mg the lightheadedness, almost passing out when standing up too quickly, and generally a 'spaced-out' mental fog was to the point i was almost dizzy.
I have none of those side effects now but it took quite a while to tolerate this med.
Lyrica I was told helps most generally pains which are neurological in origin. Hope you feel better soon.
My nurse said of course move a bit more slowly and stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids.
Hope the info helps, you and Angelmom hang tough out there in the big OK!
good night, Russell

Hello Raquel,

I take Lyrica for neuropathy in my legs. I will explain what that later, but first, I am VERY surpried that your doctor would start out with Lyrica. Almost all insurance companies require that doctors try the much less expensive drug for nerve pain, Neurontin. That would be my best sugestion for dealing with the odd feelings from Lyrica. Although I do not get that feeling, my girlfriend says it is like an acid trip when she takes one. Of course, my tolerance to meds is VERY HIGH now, unfortinatly, which is why I don't respond to many meds. Oh well, that sucks, but I deal with it. That is the result of having LOTS of pain, almost all of the time, and doing something about it. i.e. taking meds, going to the hospital, etc. (My medical history is a long, colorful story. The short version is that it all started with my AS pain, then I started having SEVERE abdominal pain attacks, which at first sent me into the ER, usually resulting in admission. The first attack resulted in having my gaul bladder removed. The surgon said that it looked like the gall bladder of a 70 year old man. The next attack resulted in them doing an explority abdominal surgery, which found 2-3 pockts of infection which were free floating infection which the doctors could not xplain the source of. After that, I had attacks, severe enough to send me into th ER, and hospital admission manytimes, every 4-6 months. As of now, they still do not have any idea of what caused the pain in the first place, but think now that it is a viscious spiral, of pain meds to treat the pain, which cause more pain by slowing down my GI system, filling me with, well, you know. So, my plan of action now is to watch what I eat; cut down on pasta and cheese, (I'm a vegetarian) eat more fruits and vegetables, and lots more fiber, along with stool softners, and I'm going to talk with my GI doctor about taking a laxative every month or two. Well, sorry to bore you with my story, but I thought that it may help you in some way. I am a very big believer in sharing of information, to help each other in ways we couldn't have imagined we would by saying what we did. Well, I hope that something I say may have helped you in some way.

I think that it may very well be the MTX/Lyrica combonation. No, I don't think there is a lower dose then 50mg, mine is 200mg, and the one I took before that one was 150mg. Oh, yes, nerve pain. It can come from many different sources. It can come from, like mine, your nerves dying from lack of use, due to my being in a coma for a month. It can come from fibromyalgia, which is a new, very popular use for lyrica. It can come from more exotic diseases, strokes, traumatic injury, hemotoma, I think severe burns, among other things. Mabe you could do a search on nerve pain, or neuropathic pain.

I think tht taking Ensure is a VERY good idea; I had about 7days of severe stomach pain, which is now, again (When my abdominal pain first started, it was always accompanied with profuse vomiting. Now, luckly, that is not usually the case.) accompanied with vomiting, naseua, and lack of appatite, so I keep lots of Ensure on hand, and drank them, even if about half of the time, I'd just throw up half of it.

Well, I wish you luck with your quest for pain relief, and lessening your medicine intake. I wish you lots of luck, if you need any help, or want to ask me anything, please feel free to ask, and I will try my best to do what I can

Daniel

Couldn't get on with it. Felt like a zombie and put on weight. Prefer to rely on my tramadol and piroxicam

Russell
thank you so much for your help. Its good to know that someone else took it and the side effects got better.

I am hopeing to meet Lisa (angelmom) one day next week. She and I have been PM each other. She has been A LOT of help for me. Its going to be nice to have someone so close. Also Sharon (I think sharonB). She has also been great.

Daniel
Also thank you for your help. Yes i think it is useful to hear anyones story about other health issues and also has AS. WOW! 250mg. I would pass out. I have never had acid but if I was to explain how it made me feel it would be an acid trip. I really could not explain how it made me feel but it was very very strange. when I would walk I would all of a sudden start walking sideways. Kidda like when I have drank to much (wow been a long time since I have done that since on all of these bleep bleep bleep medications.) I am so glad it is morning now. I really dont want to take the lyrica again but I am going to for at least a few days to see if it helps my pain. I really think it did however not for sure if I was transfering it to my strange feeling or if I was really feeling less pain. did that make since? Thanks for the idea to how to find information on it on the internet. I googled nerve pain but not much luck. I will try your ideas to see if I can find some more information on it. I have thought for awhile my pain was from nerves. Last year sometime I had an ESI done because I was haveing numbness in my legs. I still have numbness but now also pain. Anyway the ESI came out saying everything was ok. So I dont know what to think about that. Come to think of it I think they put me on Lyrica at that time. I think I remember feeling strange then also however I took it before I went to bed so I slept most of it off. I remember waking up to go to the restroom and walking side ways. As I am sure you undertand in the past 4 years I have had breast cancer, AS diagnoses, chronic pain,and glalbladder taken out.... so medications and medical test ran it all runs together.
the nurse at the foot doc said that pain killers such as loritab will not touch nerve pain which makes since to me. I have been on loritab for 3 years and it really does not help my back or now my feet. i also still feel the numbness in my legs when I lay down. The loritab has never helped that. The docs say that my stenois's that I have.... I should not be feeling any pain from them since they are only moderate. I think they are wrong. I think they are what has been causing me pain in my back for 3 years. However when my SI joint was acting up an injection did help. My siactic has hurt off and on for 3 years now. Its not to bad right now but does still hurt. Ok I think I have rambled on enough.

Again Russell and Daniel thank you thank you thank you for your help. I felt like I am losin my mind when I took that bleep bleep lyrica.

I hope you both have a wonderful day
BIG HUGS TO YOU BOTH
Raquel

Hi Raquel,

I am on 200mg Lyrica for neuropathic pain in neck and left shoulder due to DDD. When I first started out 3 years ago I was on 50mg too and boy can I relate to what you are feeling! My tongue did what it wanted and I couldn't even talk right forget about concentrating on something and walking was a chore to say the least. I stuck with it and gradually increased to my dose of 100mg twice a day and it seems to have helped my neuropathic pain tremendously. I used to have a wicked surface numbness on my shoulder blade that would burn, almost like I was on fire, and it would itch (I know it sounds funny) way deep down so I could never get relief. With your nerves dying all types of sensations are felt, the slightest touch would send me into a fit it hurt so bad. I still get a sensation of ants crawling under my skin on my neck but the painful burning sensation is gone.
Try to stick with it if you can I saw relief. I am also on MTX and would be curious to know if you are able to feel okay with Ensure as taking MTX does decrease the appetite? Do you find that the MTX is helping anything or are the side effects outweighing the benefits? I would love to be on Enbrel but my rheumy said I needed to try MTX first before my insurance will cover Enbrel. But a lot of people on this forum have relayed the huge benefits of Enbrel so I will push my doc next time I see her.

I hope you are able to see relief soon and feel better. Heel pain is absolute hell! Good Luck!

Jen

hi rachel,

as someone said, nerve pain can come from a lot of different sources. i'll tell you about mine.

i get sciatica when my SI is inflamed and the buttocks muscles spasm. that muscle spasming irritates the sciatic nerve. when i ice the SI and buttocks, the sciatica quiets down. i get pain all the way down my leg.

i get sciatica recently when the scar tissue from my healing hamstring tendon right at the knee presses around the sciatic nerve. i can make it a little better with stretching and breaking up the scar tissue, and then ice and heat to quiet it all down. thankfully the worst of it didn't last too long. i have the sciatica from my knees down through my feet. i didn't even know this was possible until it started happening.

i will also get nerve compression by spasming muscles in my back. a neurologist thought the nerve might be compressed in the neck by the spine, but an MRI checked out ok. no matter what is compressing the nerve or where, the referred pain down the nerve will feel the same.

and then of course there are other reasons for nerve pain that others can address better.

i've been able to get rid of the nerve pain by getting rid of the muscle spasms or scar tissue, but that's only because my doctors and i could figure out the cause and treat the cause.

sounds like you and your doctors tried to figure out why you were getting the nerve pain and couldn't. if mine were as constant as yours seems to be, i'd have needed medication too, i'm sure. the little bit of sciatica was enough to test me.

as for your stomach, i have a lot of things i do to keep my stomach under control, but my problems are genetic, not from drugs, so the solutions may be different.

please read alohaben's posts from this week in the pharmacy forum (two different threads), i think his advice is good in regards to being careful where the stomach is concerned.

i'd talk to your doctors about the drug induced stomach pain and nausea, so they know what's going on. maybe even see a GI doc if your stomach is that bad.

in the meantime, i'd continue on the prilosec (though for some, prilosec can cause gastro symptoms itself; i think i've been good on it for 15 years because i'm a hypersecreter (of stomach acid) so it just helps level me out). i also keep my stomach full of food, that keeps it from attacking itself. since i can't do that at night (without getting up for a 3 am feast), i also take mylanta at bedtime (not the antacids with calcium, as calcium causes the stomach to produce more acid). i also avoid caffeine and acidic food like tomato sauce, cranberries, and underripe fruit. and too much dairy bothers mine as well, not lactose intolerance, but the calcium causing an increase in acid production.

but, taking away the cause of the symptoms is much better long term. for me, i can't take away the cause. but if you can figure out which drug(s) are causing the stomach issues, i'd find alternative(s). alohaben gave the same warning from experience.

i remember ensure. i took it in 1993 when i first started with stomach pain and not digesting my food well. i dropped like 10 lbs in almost no time. it did help while i was really sick. but i stopped drinking it because it reminded me of when i was really sick. i never wanted to feel that way again, so i'm extra careful with my stomach. its not perfect, but i'm doing ok with it, and i have a great GI doc, who takes it as seriously as i do.

sue