This was just posted on the home page of my MSN browser. The headline said "Stents are causing deaths". I only hope Alan doesn't see this headline.
here's the information. I am now worried!!!
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Beginning around 1980, doctors started using tiny balloons inserted on wires through the veins and guided by X-rays to push open the clogged arteries. This procedure, called angioplasty, often worked — but with a problem. In about half the cases the artery would close up again within a few weeks or months, an outcome called restenosis. The re-shutting of the arteries occurs because the blood vessels respond to the treatment as if they suffered a slight wound. They try to heal by growing more cells which can clog the artery again.
Thwarting the body's own healing process
To solve the problem, starting in 1994, cardiologists put tiny pieces of wire mesh called stents around the balloons. These stay in place as a piece of scaffolding to try to keep the arteries open.
These helped, but not enough.
Cells still grew over the wire, and in 20 percent to 30 percent of the cases, the vessel clogged again.
Drug-eluting stents (DES) appeared as the next solution. These give off a drug that prevents cell growth, and for that, they work well. The restenosis rate fell to about 5 percent. In 2003, soon after the FDA approved them, drug-eluting stents captured most of the market, even though they cost about $2,000 compared to $800 for the bare metal version.
Then a new hazard started to appear.
Doctors began seeing patients suffer from heart attacks that seemed to be triggered by the new stents. Because the drug-eluting stents are so effective at stopping the cell proliferation inside the arteries, the DES's end up as a piece of metal sticking out in the artery. That creates a perfect place for a blood clot to form and instantly block the artery. The result? A potentially fatal heart attack.
Dr. Jeffrey Moses of Columbia University, who conducted some of the original studies of the DES's, estimates the danger of a blood clot at 1 in 500 patients a year. For every million of the devices implanted, that would add up to 2,000 clots a year — although not all of them would be fatal.
But an estimate from Drs. Sanjay Kaul and George Diamond from Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, published on the Web site of the American College of Cardiology, estimates that deaths from the new devices exceed 2,000 a year. Studies from Europe regard the danger to be many times higher. Because the devices are so new no one knows how long the hazard persists.
Already, many cardiologists are cutting back from using the devices. Sales are dropping dramatically. The FDA panel may well recommend they not be used at all.
Companies are searching for alternatives, including balloons that give off the drugs and would be removed at the time of the procedure, as well as stents that dissolve a few weeks after they are implanted.
What's next?
The big question now facing the FDA is: What should the estimated 4 million patients who already have a DES do?
The devices cannot be removed safely or easily. One preventive measure is to keep the patient on the blood-clotting medication Plavix for months or even indefinitely. But that medicine can cause severe bleeding, including a type of deadly stroke, and it costs more than $1,200 a year.
DES manufacturers Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson could end up rivaling Vioxx maker Merck as targets of lawsuits from people who suffer heart attacks.
The origin of this terrifying problem is that medical devices, like drugs, get tested for a few months in a few hundred or at most a few thousand of people before the FDA approves them.
Many experts are clamoring for better methods of assuring safety before devices like these go into millions of people for a lifetime.
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jeez. he gets his life together. He looks like Rocky, and they insinuate he has a time bomb in his chest. What the heck is a person supposed to do?
mel

Hi Melody:

So sorry that you now have a new worry about your husband. I too hope that he doesn't see this article. Sometimes it is better for us not to know certain things. I do feel for you with this latest worry. Hugs to you.

((((((((((((Melody))))))))))

Shirley H.

Thanks Shirley:

He's doing so much better.

He took the lyrica last night. After 20 minutes he starts telling me, "this is not working". I said "of course not, you just took it, I told you to take it at 10 p.m. and not 11:15p.m." give it some time.

Next thing I know, he's out like a light (he did not take his usual xanax 0.5 by the way).

So this morning after breakfast he took his first morning dose.

He just said "it's a little better". Maybe this lyrica has to get in your system (kind of builds up maybe??).

So we are off for his arterial duplex and his other blood tests (vasculitis is one of them).

Thanks for your warm wishes.

Hope all of you eat a lot of turkey and stuff yourselves silly.

me?? I'm making fat free, low calorie sweet potato pie.

And it doesn't contain any sweet potatoes. Contains butternut squash and splenda and soy milk

Alan will either love it or think I'm poisoning him!!!

mel

Melody,
Alan has to have the Lyrica in his system working 24/7.
It may take anywhere fron 1-4 weeks before he shows complete effects but he could feel some relief short-term, though.
After about 3-4 weeks, he can determine if he needs to increase the dosage. I wouldn't stop taking it unless the dose was up to 450 or 600mgs/day, and he could say he wasn't getting relief at that point.
If before that, he shows s/e that are undesirable and he wants to stop, it'll take anywhere from 4-8 days to titrate down safely on a fast ramp-down schedule. Your doc should make that schedule for you.
DO NOT STOP Lyrica ABRUPTLY !! I repeat and say 3 times!!
DO NOT STOP ABRUPTLY !!
DO NOT STOP ABRUPTLY !!
DO NOT STOP ABRUPTLY !!
This is basically an anti-seizure med and should be carefully considered.

Thank you Bob:

Because Alan is starting with 75 of the Lyrica, twice a day, (he only has 14 pills, it's a free trial prescription), and suppose he stays on that dose and let's say in one week he doesn't want to fill the prescription for the months supply, how does he titrate down? There will be no more pills.

He once took neurontin. After one day, he felt like he had the flu, with aches and pain and fevers. He stopped. Then two days later, just to make sure it was not the flu and that it WAS the neurontin that made him deathly ill, he did it again. Same thing happened. So we know he can't take neurontin.

So if he is good with this lyrica, he'll fill the new prescription. If he feels at the end of the 7 days, that it did nothing for him, I know my Alan, he won't fill the prescription. That is what the neurologist said. She said "try it for 7 days". If you feel it working, fill the new prescription, then we'll see if we have to increase the dosage down the road. It's a trial and error in the beginning."

Oh, just phoned the Cordis people about the stent information. Everybody with a stent in their chest has been calling this company. They are mailing out all information to all their stent patients. She assured me that the initial research came out of Barcelona Spain about the drug-elluding stent, and when that report came out, Cordis did their own research and found it NOT TO AGREE with the Barcelona Report.

She assured me that while this blood-clot thing does occur, it is a VERY RARE OCCURANCE. That stents saves lives.

So she is mailing me some literature on this.

Feel much better now that I phoned up Cordis.

So thank you Bob and please kindly respond to my new question on the dosing of the lyrica.

mel

P.S. It's 4:19 p.m. and Alan just came home from the gym. He says: "Guess who I just met up with at the gym??, Dr. Fred." I laughed. Dr. Fred is his favorite person in the whole world. Dr. Fred introduced Alan to some of his friends and to the owner of the gym. Dr. Fred is built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Alan explained that he went to the Peripheral Neuropathy Dept of methodist and what Dr. Goldfarb is doing. Dr. Fred said "Okay, let's wait until you have the emg, then you'll come back to me and THEN we'll run all the tests she wants including the vasculitis tests.

Alan is also happy SO FAR with the lyrica.
will update soon.
be well everybody!!!!

At 150 mgs/day, Alan probably won't need to titrate down. At so low a dosage there probably won't be any problem- but I'n not sure that 7-14 days would be enough for full effect.(at 75 2x day)
But everyone's different. I would have titrated at:

75 2x day for 14 days then
75 3x day for 3 days then
150 in am and 75 2x more (150/75/75)for 4 days then
150 2x day and 75 at nite(or 150/75/150) for 3 days then
150 3x day. ( = 450/day)
(24+/ day titration)

At any point where he felt enough relief-
I'd stop & keep at the dose that's working.
But I'm no doc - just know how my neuro worked it.

Hi Bob and Happy Thanksgiving.

Alan is killing the Butternut Squash in my kitchen right now. But I just had to write you.

He just exclaimed. This is the best I have felt in my whole life since I had neuropathy. No more pins and needles. This lyrica is amazing"

And it's only been two days. Of course I have no idea if it will continue to be so but he made the statement "If I can get one day's relief from this PN, it's worth it".

So, so far, the lyrica is terrific.

the only unfortunate thing about this drug is the price. Alan is on a medicare HMO and of course he has presription benefits. But because he takes zoloft, metoprolol, plavix and now the lyrica, when he hits the cap, there will be a gap between his insurance benefits.

We basically live on about $900 a month after the rent is paid. That has to pay for everything, food (that's why we're getting skinny), all co-pays (for both of us). We don't qualify for food stamps because our income is over the guidelines (I checked). Now I get my diabetic drugs from Cornell because I'm in their ACCORD program.

So Alan feels that after he goes for his emg and stuff by the time the new year rolls around he will try and look for a part time job. So will I. Now we are almost 60. Never figured I'd have to do this. But you what you have to do right?

Do you know if there is a way to get lyrica at a generic price, or if not, is there a way that one can get patient assistance through them.

I used to do the patient assistance thing years ago but I read that the companies won't give you anything if you have a prescription plan.

Doesn't seem fair, does it? You find a drug that's like a miracle but you can't pay for it.

Gotta be Donald Trump, I guess.

Oh well. Enjoy your turkey.

I gotta go and rescue my Butternut Squash from Alan.

melody

https://www.pparx.org - This is the organization that Montel Williams has the commercial for.

http://www.freemedicinefoundation.com - I know nothing about this foundation.

Hi Melody - try the above two sites. I am sorry I do not know how to make these into a link. Can someone help me with this. Usually when I copy a site and paste it, it automatically pastes in as a link.

I am so glad to hear how Alan is doing on the Lyrica. He may need the dosage adjusted at some point, but he will know when that is needed. It may not last as long in between doses. I used to take 100mg 3 x a day and it was not lasting long enough. I now take 150 mg 2 x a day and it is much better. Of course, I also take Ultram, usually at night.

I was on Zoloft for a while and I did not like it. Went back to Prozac and I am fine now. My problem is I think and worry too much about my family, especially my three granddaughters who are 8, 6, and 3. The Prozac kind of mellows my mind out to where if a thought creeps in, then I have the capacity to start thinking about something else.

I hope you are able to find some assistance for this medication if it really works for Alan. I can't imagine going on anything else - at least this is the way I feel right now.

Hope you are having a great day.

Diana

Thanks Diana:

I'll look into the two sites you posted.

All the best.

Mel

must be that it shows the links after you hit the submit button. Well that is good to know.

diana