I am not sure I understand this. Did you say you will be off and on the Lyrica? Lyrica is one of the classes of drugs that has to be taken consistantly. You must keep a constant level of this in your blood for it to work. Are you just taking it in an on and off dosage?

Billye

I am.....I take it for a while and being type A.....not seeing any change in symptoms...I will think about the side effects...weight gain...and the fact that it is an anti-seizure med....and quit taking it. I'm just so leery about taking a med that hasn't conclusively pinpointed my problem.
As far as the hernia which was mentioned....a gp did suggest that it might be that. I don't recall doing any kind of lifting that created a strain or any pain. I also am not tender in that area, and it just doesn't seem logical...but what does these days.

--you may be inadvertantly contributing to your pain rebounding by going up and down on the Lyrica dosage.

All of the anti-epileptic drugs, such as Lyrica, should be titrated up and down somewhat slowly, so that oen does not get rebound effects due to upregulation. As Billye says, these drugs need to be at a farily constant level to work effectively (if they will work for an individual); suddenly dropping the dose can result in fairly significant symptom uptick as the body, which has upregulated its signalling rate due to the presence of the med, now has no med, or significantly reduced amounts of it, to react against. It's pretty much the same mechanism that happens with a lot of other drugs, even caffeine--stopping them or greatly reducing them suddenly tends to cause symptom recapitulation.

If you don't think the Lyrica is helping, you would probably want to work with your physicans to work out a schedule of gradual reduction, to give the body time to react more smoothly and to prevent rebound symptoms.

I know from my own experience, as I've gradually been reducing my Gabapentin, that if I make too big a drop and/or go off schedule for several hours I will experience "flares". I am currently at 1600mg/day, down from 2400/mg day ten months ago; I am searching for the minimal level to keep symptoms tolerable, but when I do drop, I drop 100mg at a time and observe my reaction to that level for days.

I totally agree with Glenn. You are making yourself worse. If you decide to totally stop do it gradually or make up your mind to take them. Stopping gradually gives your nervous system time to learn to do without the med. Work with your doctor in doing this. If you don't want this med, try another one, but really give it a try before you decide it doesn't work.

Billye

I have to agree as well. Jack i had to be downtown today and wondered
into the Birkenstock Shop and they did have Dress shoes. You may
want to look at these for Court. They cost, but in MN. you would
have more places to look. Being type A can be exhausting,as you well
know. Nice of you to help out the therapist though,i love that,bad
for you but may change her like forever. My Psychiatrist for the last
5 yrs. was going through divorce and had 6 young sons,at first i found
myself patting her on the back,saying it's going to be ok!!
And it was,and i would hate to loose her. I'm glad you posted again,and
try the meds.a little at a time but not off and on,defeats the purpose.
Sue

Absolutely, be carefull Jack, you shouldn't just stop anti seizure meds without your doctors instructions.
Have you tried Tramadol slow release ? i think the normal limit is 200mg x 2 per day, we don't all react the same to drugs, but i found it very good without any noticeable side affects.
Sometimes it takes a while before the drug will work properly, side affects come with all drugs to some degree, my opinion is that if the side affects out weigh the benefits then its time to look for another, but under a doctors guidance.

How doctors just had out pills like candy, and don't give a rip as to how well one does. One doctor tells me to take 2400mgs a nite of neurontin...the PN doc says I should incorporate that with his little Lyrica pill....75mgs 3 times a day. I look in my medicine cabinet, and it looks like a pharmacy. It is absurd! I'm going to stay on the Lyrica....I don't like the drugged out feeling of neurontin....I never have. I have reduced the 2400 to 1600 a nite for the past couple weeks. I will continue on that until my next PN doc appointment. I never really gave the Lyrica a chance to work...maybe it was my denial of...if the Lyrica works....than that confirms that I do have PN. I just read posts of people not being able to wear shoes because of the leather irritating their feet....or the pain getting worse at nite....my "pain" is only on the bottom of my toes....only the tightness of shoes makes my feet worse. I can wear sandals all day long...Birks are great on my feet. I have trouble with tennis shoes with socks, because it seems to suffocate my feet.....oh well.....I wish I was 20 years younger again...the only thing I took was an occasional aspirin when I was running marathons and biking, playing hockey, tennis, etc. Oh well!