Hi. I am on 2700 and worked up from the 300 like you are at. Did your doctor lay out a plan to increase? Each increase is ruff on me where I feel out of it and dizzy but the side effects lessen after a few days. I am on other similar meds like Cymbalta too so at this time I am not sure what is working and not. Right now I am in a flare up which is turning into more then a flare up so at one time I thought it was working more. Everyone is different in how they respond to meds. Hope you feel better

I was on it for 6+ years and finally was up to 4200mgs/day when I switched to Lyrica.
The only s/e for me was weight gain (220lbs to 248lbs). But I lost most of it (25lbs) on Weight Watchers.
Sadly I gained it back with Lyrica, and I've not been able to lose much this time around.

Thanks for your replies. I have a ramp up of:

week 1: 100 mg morning and afternoon, 300 mg at night

week 2: 300 mg morning and afternoon, 100 mg at night

week 3: 300 mg morning, afternoon and night

I tried Lyrica twice and both times had debilitating side effects that did not resolve with time. I was also on Mirapex but discontinued because it made my flushing and congestion even worse than they are now. I also had a tendancy to spend money to a degree that is not characteristic of me. Long ago, I took elavil for depression (of course that was when my ex doctor told me all of my problems were due to stress and depression...)

I always seem to gain weight on these antineuroleptics. I love to exercise, but have felt unable to do so for quite a while now. Maybe, I will try walking again... there is a nice park close by with walking paths.

Mere

That is only 900mg/day.
Most do not see any help until at least 1800mg/day
in 3 or 4 evenly divided doses. Your doc is being extremely conservative.
Possibly because of prior reactions & s/e.
It takes about an hour or so to start working after taking it.
It must work 24/7 in the body to be effective, not taken as a flare-up or emergency- medication.

nide, I take neurontin for nerve pain, tingling nerve pain... and 900 a day keeps it away!! I lived for years with numbness and tingling pain... eventually got so overtired of the pain part of the tingling that I asked doctor. Now been a neurontin for a few years.. and still at the 900 dosage per day... as long as it stays away I will not increase.

so take the levels doctor ordered, and then see, if it helps enough woohooo

......

My Neurologist is very conservative. He did however say that I could escalate from 900 mg up to 3,600 (maximum dosage) over time.

The pain is terrible and is affecting me in my mid-arm. It spreads to my neck and is worsened when I sit in my truck or tilt my head back.

I have Lortab to take for myalgia and arthritis, but it does not work well on this pain.

Do the side effects become manageable after time when taking a large dosage of neurontin (>900 mg per day)? It makes me sleepy and spacey at the lower dosage.

Mere

P.S. Do you know Dr. Sumner at JHU?

You type weird!

I don't know Sumner, my Doc is Griffin (past head of the neuro dept)
& his PA, Tami W.
The drowsiness abates somewhat & I find it manageable- but at high doses it is inevitable to some degree-it lessens considerably, but I find I take naps now & then, and after dinner sometimes. It helps.
Neurontin 'Fog' is a common sx. Also there are 'moments' of forgetfulness
& I write a lot of notes & 'post-its' to myself. (but it could be age, too-I'm going to be 66)
I also took (still take) a pain med (Neurontin is for symptoms,
mainly-not pain... per se) called Tramadol (Ultram)
along with the PN med Gabapentin (Neurontin) or Lyrica.

uh, oh.... keyboard failure!

Yes, sorry about the weird post. I was tired and found that my Num Lk was activated on my laptop... Duh.

Thanks for your reply and for the advice. I hope you have a nice weekend.

Mere

P.S. I have edited my earlier post so that it reads properly...

Hey Bob, I'm glad the Tramadol works for you. I've been on it for about a year now and I'm not really sure why I keep taking it. It seemed to work very well at first but I must have built up a tolerance for it very quickly because it hasn't really worked as far as I can tell for a long time. Either that or my pain got much worse very quickly. Do you know if there's any other drug I could try that's comparable to it (as opposed to hydrocodone, for example)?

Here's another thought: my surgeon required that I stop taking Tramadol before I had my hip surgery. I went back to it when I was done taking hydrocodone for the surgery pain, and it seemed like it worked very well for about a week, then again, it stopped being effective. I wonder if it's possible to alternate/rotate different pain meds (while being very careful not to overlap them, of course) to avoid building up a tolerance...and if so, would a doctor go along with that?