I need to warn folks about Lyrica.

[CTyankee]

This is kind of a cross post of what I posted in the Health topics. I think it is important that everyone knows what happened to me taking Lyrica. I hope it's OK to put this in GD.

I was taking a Lyrica sample from my doc who is treating my Post Herpetic Neuralgia. He had said to be careful taking it. I thought that meant don't drink when taking it but since I don't drink I thought it was OK for me to drive.

I ended up on a steel barrier, having misjudged it in a turn. I was unhurt but the front of the car was badly smashed up. I could drive it, so I went home (no one else involved).

I now take Gabopentin for my PHN, but I wait 4 hours to drive. Lyrica is also hideously expensive since there is no generic.

Don't get Shingles anyway. Get the shot. I did, fearing I could get Shingles again. It's horrible.

[Lars39]

1. The Shingrix vaccination is the one with highest immunity.

It’s a two part shot. Get the first one, wait 2-6 months and get the 2nd one.

[elleng]

3. and the only one currently available

[RKP5637]

4. K&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[AllyCat]

6. I am #80 on the waiting list for this.

Pisses me off.

[marlakay]

40. Me to and they said they only

Get a few a week. I am gone for summer. Figure when i get back i should be close.

[CTyankee]

8. I did that. I was on a waiting list at my pharmacy. It came in and boom, get your fanny down

to the pharmacy or they move on to the next person on the list. I went immediately.

[Ilsa]

31. I just got mine. Had mild side effects.

About 14 hours after getting the shot, I developed wicked cold shakes and shivering. I had to throw a blanket on the bed and wear a robe when I got up the next morning.

I got the other vaccine about six years ago. Glad this one is 90% effective.

[Lars39]

32. The pharmacist told me

that the feedback is that the side affects for this one seem to be worse than for other vaccinations. My immune system isn’t that good and I had a bad reaction to it. Ached horribly from head to toe...but having an iffy immune system is precisely why I need the Shringrix vaccine. I’ve already had shingles twice, and hope that will be it.

[Ilsa]

34. So, so sorry for you.

Yeah, I ached the next day, so I took it easy, took ibuprofen. It felt like mild flu.

[Lars39]

35. I'll be better prepared this time....

Clean house, all clothes washed up, and food in the house. Last time things fell apart quick lol.

[Ilsa]

36. They sprung it on me at the end of my physical.

I hope the booster is less disruptive, but I'll try to be prepared for a worse reaction, just in case.

[Lars39]

37. I thought I was being put on a list

until I saw her with her kit. Hopefully it won’t be as bad the next time.

[TexasTowelie]

2. I was on Lyrica for about a five year period

and when I first started it did have a small buzz associated with it. It is classified as a Schedule V drug so patients are required to visit their physicians frequently in order to get the prescriptions renewed.

Withdrawing from Lyrica should only be done under supervision since it does have depressive/suicidal effects.

When I was taking Lyrica, it was running $315 for 100 capsules. Unless you have a great insurance plan or if you have difficulty making regular doctor appointments, it is probably better to stay on gabapentin.

[Ms. Toad]

5. Gabapentin has similar side effects - so still be careful.

I was on it for most of a year to treat vertigo (I traded dizziness for vertigo - both are bad, the vertigo was worse).

But it is nasty - and lingers.

My spouse took it recently for shingles, but a lower dose, once a day - at night. That minimized her side effects.

[Worried senior]

27. My husband took Gabpentin

too and it was awful. We went out for supper and he kept trying to fall out of the chair and kept leaning to the right no matter what he was doing. Fell a few times too so he went off of it and the side effects quickly went away.

[AllyCat]

7. I feel ya. Would say the same about Cymbalta.

I took this drug along with gabapentin for the same condition. The withdrawal has been terrible. I am not sleeping, my heat feels like it will burst out of my chest, I sweat constantly, dizzy, feeling of bugs in my skin. It is horrible. Currently not on anything for the past 10 days, but I feel awful.

Good luck and healing to you. I don’t think my face will ever feel the same.

Asked for Shingrix at annual checkup. 3 weeks later got this crappy disease. Going on 8 months of electric shocks in my face. Missed 6 weeks of work.

Don’t get shingles. Vaccinate your kids against chicken pox/ varicella.

[CTyankee]

10. People my age didn't have the vaccine because it didn't exist when we were kids.

All my grandkids got it tho.

[mr_lebowski]

12. Does getting the chicken pox vaccine prevent getting shingles later?

I thought just having the virus in your body (which the vaccine would do) at any point meant you could get shingles later, you didn't have to come down w/full blown chicken pox in your life.

That's really cool if it also prevents shingles!

[AllyCat]

17. Largely. Nothing is 100%.

Shingles is the varicella zoster virus that caused chicken pox disease earlier in life, re-emerging. The virus never goes away. It lives dormant in your nerves forever. It reappears as shingles.

When I hear people say they won’t vaccinate kids against varicella, I tell them all about it.

[mr_lebowski]

19. But ... vaccines ARE viruses, introduced to your body in a small dose ... hence my confusion (nt)

[AllyCat]

20. No. They are dead, attenuated, or partial.

The active varicella disease causes the virus to burrow in the nerves and comes out later. If you never get chicken pox disease , you don’t get shingles.

[mr_lebowski]

21. Oh yeah? Well that's cool then! And yeah, makes it doubling stupid to NOT immunize! (nt)

[Crunchy Frog]

26. From what I read when my sons were little, you ca still theoretically get it.

But apparently, studies have shown that vaccinated children undergoing chemotherapy (depressed immune system) were significantly less likely to get it than children who had actually had chickenpox.

Hopefully the vaccine will confer both life long immunity and much lower risk of shingles.

[GaYellowDawg]

33. Cymbalta just about killed me.

Gave me severe panic attacks and then serotonin syndrome. I was on it for just 6 days and had the withdrawal symptoms you mentioned plus what I called the "zaps" - when it felt like shocks were running from my brain down my body.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. I had the same diagnosis

my doc prescribed Amitriptyline, a cheap generic anti-depressant which has been approved off label use for nerve pain

totally solved the problem, with the added plus that 3 years alter when I had a mastectomy, I felt none of the nerve pain the surgeon warned me about. blessed relief.

My deal with the doc is ..I want the oldest effective generic there is,
because I am aware that for years now, the pharma companies have not been doing much of the rigorous standard of double blind testing, they are allowed to sell a new drug and it is the customers who are given the FDA number to file side affect information.
and sure enough, we are all used to, by now, seeing the headlines of huge $$$ lawsuits following severe dangerous side affects.

[Nay]

16. For me, during a scary, stressful time of my life, amitriptyline saved my sanity with NO

side effects at all. I bless my doc for sticking with the older, proven anti-depressants.

[marybourg]

11. With every med I have taken lately, the insert says:

“Do not drive or operate machinery until you know how you react to this medication.”

[CTyankee]

15. Yes, I know, but I didn't have that with my dr.'s sample (it wasn't in a pharm bottle). He told

me verbally to be careful with taking it. I "interpreted" that as don't drink while taking this drug. And I didn't drink so I figured I could drive OK. Wrong!

[Aristus]

22. He should have given you a warning more specific than 'be careful'.

If a medication causes altered consciousness, I tell my patients not to drive or operate heavy machinery while taking it.

[CTyankee]

24. I think you are right. I should have asked him to be more specific...

shudda, coulda, woulda...

[Staph]

13. I got shingles early this year.

My mom had it 10 years ago, so I knew what the symptoms were. I went to doc-around-the-clock immediately and got the antiviral shot. The rash and pain were minimal and gone within a week.

Now I need to get the Shingrix shot!

[IcyPeas]

29. may I ask what anitviral shot?

my mother had this twice. the first time was minimal. then she got it again in her 80s and it was bad. she still has the painful neuralgia from it.

I'm 62 and fear getting this. but I never heard of an antiviral shot. Please explain.

thank you.

[Staph]

30. I'm sorry.

I've searched through my medical records, but I can't find the name of the antiviral shot. After a Google search, I think it was Zovirax (acyclovir).

But if you get the symptoms, get to a doctor or walk-in clinic immediately. You have to get the shot within 72 hours.

[IcyPeas]

38. Thanks

I want to be prepared. I need to do some more research.

Thanks again.

[Dave Starsky]

47. Valacyclovir (Valtrex) is another one.

It's a pill you take for ten days.

Knocked my shingles out immediately, but you have to start it quickly (within 72 hours, if I remember correctly). Fortunately, my wife recognized what my odd rash was right away.

[jberryhill]

14. I've been wearing Lycra for years and never knew that

I’ll definitely change into something else before driving.

[AllyCat]

18. LOL!!

[ooky]

23. I take gabapentin, so thanks for the warning.

I've been taking it before bedtime so it hasn't been an issue for me so far. Now that I have heard that I will probably keep taking it before bedtime.

[Vinca]

25. The neurologist I saw told me the pain of post herpetic neuralgia is probably the worst agony

a human being can experience. I remember not being able to walk because lightning bolts would shoot up through my leg. She prescribed gabapentin for me and I ended up taking it for a couple of years. It really helped and I never had any side effects.

[CTyankee]

28. Did your PHN go away?

[Vinca]

41. The worst of it went away - the shooting lightning bolts - within a week or 10 days.

A nagging, milder, achy pain lasted for a couple of years. It was more of a nuisance than anything. That was about 10 years ago, but even as near as last spring I had a mild episode for a few days and got panic stricken it was coming back. Luckily it disappeared and I'm fine again. Hope you feel better. It's the kind of pain opioids won't even touch and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[AllyCat]

43. Opioids really don't work for nerve pain.

[LeftInTX]

39. I was on Lyrica for complex regional pain. (Erthyremalgia)

My gabapentin wasn't work, but the Lyrica made me a freaking zombie!

Other people have had opposite experiences. I thought maybe it was just me.

I only took the Lyrica at night.

[AllyCat]

42. I had the same issue with Cymbalta, but it DID control the pain.

Had no luck with nortryptiline but it might be an option for you. Everyone is a bit different.

[fescuerescue]

44. It's similar to Gabopentin

So if Lyrica impacts you that much, please be as careful with gaba.

I to take Lyrica for Shingles. Yea. Shingles sucks. I've been taking it for several years now as the nerve damage still hasn't healed.

I can't say that it's hit me like that, but certainly at first it came on stronger than I expected.

[LeftInTX]

45. I've been on Gabapentin for well over 20 years. I'm at the highest dose 3,600 mg/day

I couldn't handle Lyrica at the lowest dose!

(I take gabapentin for fibromyalgia, migraines, possible focal seizures..works great)

When I had intractable burning feet, the gabapentin didn't work, so I tried Lyrica. It totally wiped me out.

I know the two meds have similar chemical names.