Hi my name is krystine i am 22 years old and was recently diagnosed with mp. I was prescribed Lyrica for the pain. Has anyone had experience taking this drug? i have heard bad things about it. Also, i am a horseback rider and my doctor told me id never ride again?! i refuse to accept this and i need someone to tell me that i wont have mp forever. i know there is no cure but i refuse to accept that i will be like this forever. i am an active person and i fear i will become depressed if this continues. Any words are appreciated.

You can do a search with the link in my siggy to find many posts here about Lyrica.
But often a med works for some and not for others, so you really won't know until you try it, but you will know the issues others had and will be more aware of any negatives.

--why it was said that you should not ride; the position assumed when one straddles a horse would definitely put stretching forces on the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, which is the one responsible for meralgia parathetica.

If you really do enjoy riding, though, don't give up trying to find solutions. There are always trade-offs with syndromes; you may have to determine how badly you want to continue riding and what treatments you would be willing to tolerate to do it. The first line of treatment with meralgia parasthetica is to attempt to relieve the symptoms, often pharmaceutically, but there are other options, ranging from electrical TENS units to try to mask the pain and parastheses to adaptive clothing to radio frequency ablation of the sensory nerve.

You should take a look at the "stickies" at the top of this forum for a more comprehensive look at the condition and possible treatments.

I took Lyrica for my MP for years. 99.999% of the people in forums are people that things do not work for. Lyrica worst side effect is that is can cause hunger sensation. Lyrica will not automatically cause you to gain weight, but in 12% of the people who take it they cannot control stuffing more food in their mouth. Also once you start taking Lyrica on the starter dose and you do not have a allergic reaction, try to get up to a therapeutic level sooner than later, the worst of the side effects are while you are ramping up the dosage. Once you are at that level they typically disappear, drowsiness goes away, the blurry vision may take a few months, but it goes away, and you do not feel drugged up at all. A lot of times they also prescribe a secondary SSRI Cymbalta or Ludimol or the sorts that helps with some muscle anxiety issues. Absolutely works wonders for the condition if you can tolerate it. Neurontin/Gabapentin is also in the same family and if you are experiencing the weight gain with one, usually the other works out. Lyrica is about 10x more absorbed than Gabapentin so a Max dosage of 600mg is equivilent to 3600mg of Gabapentin. Just remember the worst side effects are during ramping up, they will go away, no matter how much you feel like there is no way I could take more of these pills. That covers about 99% of the complaints you are hearing about.

Never riding a horse again is your choice, the LFCN that is causing all the pain does nothing but light sensation of your outer thigh to your knee... If you damage it, have it removed, load it up with steroids, you will not have any loss of function of your leg.

Walking, Standing, and I guess riding a horse. Wearing Belts, Tight cloths will irritate the nerve and make it hurt and cause more scar tissue. Steroid injections right under the skin at the waist line help with that... Lidocaine patches on your leg, where touch hurts will cut the pain, as well as add a buffer from things touching your leg. MP is light touch only, Hit your leg with a sledge hammer will not hurt nearly as much as brushing a feather across it. (I did not figure that one out until they cut the nerve)

Exercise and strengthening the Core muscles in your body is important to maintain, Deep Water Aqua Aerobics is my favorite, takes all the pressure off the leg. (You wear a float belt) Water walking also took a lot of pressure off the nerve, and helped strengthen the leg and core.

There are 2 surgeries that can "cure". MP is not a disease, it is a condition, so it is a "Fix" not a "cure". They can do a nerve release where they free the nerve from under the ligament, remove the scar tissue etc.. or they can cut the nerve. Weight loss is the other cure if that is what caused it. They cut my nerve because it had been 15+ years of having MP without knowing what was causing it, and it was all scar tissue, and would never have normal function. I had not had any normal feeling in that leg for years, a year after surgery now, I still get the occasional phantom pain, but less and less. I have a lot of scar tissue and secondary problems from letting it go so long that I am fighting with though but I am 1000% better than I was physically/mentally.


Hope that helps!

Rob.