Sorry this post is so long.

I am new to this kind of thing, online chatting, forums, etc. I have been an internet technician since 19996, and never really gotten into this sort of online area, never really been much for it. However after reading a little bit of info on here after doing some research on Lyrica yesterday, I figured this was a good place to start.

Now that the basics are over, a little history.

In 1995, I injured my lower back picking up a cola canister at a McDonalds I was working at, they sent me to a few doctors, gave me a lot of pain medication, and after a 5 day stay in the hospital a month later, they told me their was nothing wrong, and I just wanted more pain medicine. Over the last 13 years, I have been to doctor after doctor, Pain Management, General Practitioner, Orthopedic, you name it. Every one telling me the same thing, after MRI (contrast and no contrast), Cat Scan, X-Rays, there is nothing wrong, none of them ever saw a problem.One Pain Management in 1996, finally gave me 2 options, a Facet Injection, or they could cut the nerve causing the pain. Since I didn't want to pay for (no Insurance at the time), or deal with the fact of the problem a cut nerve could cause, I chose the Facet Injection. It did provide some relief for quite some time, but it all came back like it always did.

Where I'm at now.

I finally got insurance last year through my job, and started seeing a General Practitioner, still nothing, he sent me to therapy for about 2 months, and my pain just kept getting worse. Finally he just said he didn't know what to do, and sent me for another MRI, which again he stated showed nothing, so he referred me to an Orthopedic Surgeon.

The Orthopedic Surgeon looked at the MRI report, and the pictures themselves, and 5 minutes later came in and said I see your problem, and know exactly how to fix it, you have a Herniated Disc, and we can fix it with surgery. I have a son that is almost 2, and at that time just found out my wife was pregnant. He said the surgery should resolve all issues with that problem, and he couldn't see anything else where another problem may be, so we did the surgery, a discectomy, and laminectomy. After the surgery he told me the reason no one else could find the problem was the herniation was going straight forward, instead of to either side as normal, and the reason the pain would shoot down both legs instead of one was that the hernia would shift from one side to the other. During the surgery, he had to remove a pice of bone that was just hanging there, and noticed severe irritation to both nerves the sides.

after the surgery, which was in April, I have had a constant numbness all the way down both legs into my feet and toes, the right side only covers the pinky toe and up, and the left side covers the pinky toe and the toe next to it and up. I periodically have pains like bee stings in both feet, and pains like charlie horses in both legs without the cramp associated with a charlie horse.

about 2 months ago, the shooting pains came back, had a MRI with contrast last week, and X-Rays. The Surgeon said there is nothing showing on either so he has diagnosed permanent nerve damage on both legs. I am starting Lyrica on Thursday, not sure the dosage amount, but know I am supposed to take it 3 times a day.

My question is has anyone else had any of these same problems, and any one else taken the Lyrica and had good results with it.

Again sorry this is so long just wanted to give as much info as possible.