Look how late it is??? I've been so caught up with you lot in this TROLLERY that I've not got round to asking whether any of you have ever taken Lyrica/Pregabalin?

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

And now I'm going to get sod all response at this time of night

I know some of you are reading this....you could at least say "no" and bumpt it for me

No. Sorry. Bump.

Erm, no

I knew folk were reading it

ty for bumping.

COV - what happened with you and the pile of wet leaves?

No, sorry lovey.

How about we talk about CoV's wet leaves for a bit until someone comes along though? Are you OK, CoV?

Idid the splits, hurt my hip and my back. I knew walking more was a bad idea!

Oh, yowch! Hope you're mended v soon!

The splits???

That'd hurt without wet leaf lubrication! Have you got someone looking after you?

The thing was my first reacion was to check nobody had seen me. Dh is helping out and dd's friends' mothers.

naturally

keeping up appearances takes priority

Bumping for QV.

Thank you COV

How are you feeling today?

Another bump for QV.

Have moved onto voltarol now, seems to be doing the trick!

its an anti-epileptic. Its out next drug to try for dd. Why? Is there anything I should know about side effects?

I've been prescribed it for my back pain. But I did the thing that you arent supposed to do and googled it. It says its for epilepsy. I'm not epileptic.

So I wondered if anyone else had been prescribed it.......

Consultant said it was lyrica or amitryptaline for me - wanted to try lyrica first. His exact words were "it's not a drug that would be at the top of my Christmas Card list".....

In the absence of painkillers that work though I'm at the mercy of these things. Until I have facet joint injections in my lower spine anyway.

Am feeling sorry for myself atm....

Does your DD have seizures riven?

notable side effects - increased suicidal thoughts. Not an issue in your everyday patient apparently. I'm on anti-depressants for PND too though.

I've prescribed it VVV. It was devised as an anti-epileptic, but the action it has on nerve cells (rempy now racking brain - on mat leave at moment - it interferes with the sodium channels thus affecting the transmission of the electical impulses along nerve cells) it also is effective in chronic pain.

It does have, as most drugs, a rather long list of side effects some of which are terrifying. In general though, the message I get from the chronic pain consultants is that it is well tolerated by most people.

I cant advise about interactions with your anti-depressants, but would think that your consultant would have taken that into consideration.

Amitryptilline is sedating for a while (fortnight or so), and can be with each dose increase. It also has some grim side effects, although these are less when it is used for pain rather than depression, as the doses are much less when it is prescribed for pain.

Devil and deep blue for you it sounds like. I would not fancy facet injections myself, so would be giving the pills a go.

Anticonvulsants and antidepressants are commonly used as adjunct therapies in pain management. They are thought to work by modulating the body's response to pain.

I am increasingly seeing my patients being started on Lyrica by hospital medics but am yet to see anyone report a noticeable difference in the pain levels while taking it.

Sorry, if that's not very helpful.

No - all very helpful - thank you.

I'm very much in the dark with this. The consultant did his best to explain, but, inbetween being poked and prodded with needles, probed about our sex life (pelvic pain is consultants speciality), DH laughing at my screaming of "ouch" and trying to take on board various bits of information, I dont feel like I know enough.

I dont know anyone else who has ever attended a pain management clinic (which is incredible considering how overbooked they are - clearly a lot of people attend).

My mother, who has suffered some back pain has offered her wonderful pearls of wisdom "you've just got to get on with it", "everyone gets back pain" "i've suffered it and a bit of physio helped and so I managed".

etc etc etc

VVV - yes she does.
I tried amytriptiline for my pain it did bugger all. Now on tramadol which helps a teensy bit.
On a waiting list for pain management but I don't want to manage my pain, it want it to go away!
and there's always cannabis. It works for all sorts of pain, not just MS.

LOL! I can't do cannabis any more.

It screws your memory.

The waiting list for pain management is ridiculous. I was waiting months just to be able to book an appointment, let alone waiting for it to come around. Then they gave me a last minute (less than 24 hours notice) appointment which I couldnt do and I didnt hear from them again for 6 weeks. I finally got another one with only 4 days notice but it's better than nothing at all.

The consultant said that when you have severe pain you shouldnt expect to get rid of it completely. Just be able to reduce it to 60% and then 'manage' the rest.

Apparently there are a couple of other things they will be doing but they wanted to try the pregabaline and the facet injections first.

Is your's back pain too?

[gentle bump]

new to this thread - am in tremendous pain with my back - has anyone had these facet joint injectins as this is what is next on the to do list but heard they are not that effective....

Can anyone please tell me where there is a pain management centre or specialist in London. It may be worth me giving this a go before surgery. Thanks