Lyrica = No Legs

[betheny]

Been on Lyrica 1 1/2 days, can barely stand, legs so weak. It works unbelievably on my pain though. Cam hardly type for lack of coordination...

[north]

I agrree with you that Lyrica can "upset the balance of life", but the med does so many
wonderful things with pain. best wishes p

[darrel]

I'm sorry to hear this,

I did read in one of the threads about this drug may cause this and that the withdrawl from it was murder.

did your Dr. warn you about this before asking if you wanted to try it?

can you get in touch with him to find out if there is something that you can do?
but then again only 2 days into it, can you cut back on it now with out the problems of the withdrawl?

[Bke]

Betheny! This is exactly what I experience. I have some movement and strength in my left leg and I use 2x75mg and somtimes 2x150mg. The Lyrica is great for the pain but my leg goes weak immediately. My physiotherapst can tell exactly just how much Lyrica I took that morning. I told my rehab Dr, but I think I was the first one to mention this as a side effect.
About withdrawal effects. Sometimes when my weak leg almost causes me to fall during transfers, I stop taking Lyrica. But then when the pain comes back, I start with 2x75mg. When the pain becomes really bad, I go up to 150mg... until I do some dodgy transfers and I go down again with the medecine. Never experienced any withdrawal effects.

[firesmurf]

Bethany,had the same damn thing happen to me,where DID my legs go??the thing that really bummed me out was it was the very first med i had tried that actually had a good affect on my central and my RSD.it actually took the 'heat'(just that knee was ALWAYS running between 101 and 102 degrees) that RSD generates out of my knee and reduced the swelling.this was about two years ago and it still has not returned despite the fact i have not been on it for over those two years,just really freaks me out.and it did lower the intensity of my central.BUT on that wonderful flip side,it made my kidneys swell and shifted them out of my back to the front,now still there.and it also gave me double vision that went up and down?not side to side like normal people have?just bizarre really.but what it did to my gait was something else.no matter how hard i tried i could NOT walk a straight line down my hallway.i kept on vearing off to the left,always.tripping over my feet was also fun.wierd stuff that lyrica.
the thing about alot of the anti S meds is they actually effect the cerebellum,that same area that alcohol affects when you drink?so that kind of explains alot right there.i ended up,after about one month of this ongoing hell,tapering off.the WDs had some issues but not as bad as when i had to taper off cymbalta,but that taper was more rapid too.

i really wish i could have stayed on it as it did have such a great impact on my pain and alot of my RSD symptoms too.the trade off was just way too much tho.this just sucks.i did try going down to a much lower dose but it did not seem to make any difference,the crap was still there making my life miserable.i had to give up on it after about a month of trying various ways to just be able to stay on it,to no avail.perhaps going to a lower dose may help you?its worth a shot,it might make the difference.it just sucks to finally find anything that works but have to go off because of side effects.couldn't even drive a flippin car.i just didn't trust my eyes anymore or my legs.good luck,marcia

[betheny]

Instead of 3X daily, I'm going to try taking 1 at bedtime. I had a glorious pain-free day. Problem was, I could feel nothing LOL. I'm not driving today, too uncomfortable with the state of my sobriety if you know what I mean. I started seeing double like instantly!

[quad79]

Yeah, Lyrica does the same to me-oh wait a minute, I can't move my legs anyways!LOL!

Alot of people can't tolerate Lyrica b/c of the dizziness aspect. I never have had that problem, just tiredness. In the beginning I took Provigil along w/ it(which is controlled Speed from what I understand) and weaned of of it.

Be careful- I gained mucho weight-about 35-40# and I hear a lot of others did too. It also caused swollen hands/feet, which for me caused more nerve pain(I think).

The withdrawels from it are nasty when you try to stop. I'm going to try to wean off again and try Cymbalta.(which prolly wouldn't be good for you b/c I hear a side effect is weight loss-I think you've stated major weight loss w/ Graves already?)

I'm glad it's helped your neuro pain, sorry about the nasty SE though.Hope it all works out soon.......

Poor you.

[wheelchairTITAN]

Been on Lyrica 1 1/2 days, can barely stand, legs so weak. It works unbelievably on my pain though. Cam hardly type for lack of coordination... Betheny et al ... I found Baclofen worse for making my brain seem like it wasn't there. Eventually gave it up and weaned myself off Baclofen despite having a need for

I finally knew that Baclofen wasn't right for me when I fell asleep in the driveway one night when I got home and my neighbour thought I had gone to the big house in the sky ... holly crap Batman. Sorry guys ... no other illicit anythings or legal anythings in my system except what is my usual plethora of scripted meds.

I knew it made me feel "stupid" when I used Baclofen but when that happened it was time to give up Baclofen. Most drugs unfortunately do not have the ability to be be brain barrier regulated the same on everyone whio takes them.

Sorry ... I know that this was not a LYRICa response ... :nono:

[sandim]

Bethany,
I just had to come off the Lyrica, but it did work better than anything else for the nerve pain.
As far as the "no legs" feeling and the lack of coordination/vision problems, those usually subside within a week once you are on it. If it lasts longer than that, you might want to try lowering the dose with the approval of the doctor.
Once you get past this first week on it, you should notice that you don't feel so cloudy headed, and the vision problems clear. Those are pretty typical responses to the medication. I felt like I was in a cloud for the first few days, but after about the 5th one, those things cleared and although I was up at the maximum daily dosage, it worked well as it seems to for many people.
I wish that I had been able to stay on it, but had to come off because of the weight gain, which increased my blood sugars:nono: .
Good luck with it, I hope you find that it works well for you.
Sandi M