United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

hmm, interesting to see what all everyone's taking. It seems to go from one end of the spectrum to the next. Rick's on oxycontin, percocet for breakthru, lyrica, paxil, and at night he takes flexeril and trazadone. Add in some lisinopril and prilosec and I think that rounds out his meds.

Curious about the lyrica - what's everyone taking? Rick takes 225 mg twice daily and we're told that's the maximum dosage. He tried Neurontin but that made him too tired.

Well, I haven't posted anything in a few years.
For me, pain was the only thing on my mind for the first 4 years or so after my injury, in that time I've tried almost everything. The medicine that worked best for me was Oxycodone 15mg, but that left me in sort of a zombie-like state, but I continued to take it. About 2 years ago I started taking Cymbalta and immediately noticed a difference in the pain. Cymbalta worked pretty well for me, it didn't alleviate the pain, but it certainly helped to take "the edge" off.
About a year ago I stopped taking the Oxycodone/roxicodone. I basically quit cold-turkey, although my doctor was having me ween off, but I choose to simply not take any, because I knew I had no physical or mental addiction to them(I wouldn't recommend this because, well, I'm not a doctor, I just knew what would work best for myself). But, I continued to take the Cymbalta. About 3 months ago, I decided to stop taking Cymbalta. I felt I was ready to be off all meds, and just never went back to my pain management specialist. All I can really say is that the pain is no worse than it was when I was on meds, I think it's because I have learned to deal with it much better. Although there are still days when the pain is quite debilitating, and I'll take half of a roxy, at most, that I still have from my last prescription(more than a year ago). Basically, what I'm trying to say is, try not to become too reliant on medications for the pain. I kind of feel that the pain meds constantly reminded me that I was in pain and should take more pain meds. Now, I never think about taking a percocet or Roxi, and honestly, do not notice the pain nearly as much as I used to. Do I occasionaly wish I was still on pain meds, yes, of course, but for the most part, I am extremely glad I am off of them and feel like a new person. It was a tough road getting off the pain meds, but all of us with a TBPI are clearly tough people or else we wouldn't be here.

I take 100mg Lyrica X3 a day, 25mcg/hr fentynyl X2 days, 7.5mg Percocet X 3 a day. I was on a combination of nuerotin and oxycontin for a little bit but it made me way too tired (I almost ran off the road twice on this). The Lyrica is wonderful I am not as tired but my concentration is not what it used to be. I am an engineer and I am finding it hard to be the best at my job these days. Most of the time I just want to get finished the day and back to whatever comfortable position I can get into for the night.

Just recently (a week ago or so) I noticed a significant drastic increase in nerve pain to my left shoulder and down my bicep. I just posted about it so please let me here if there are any ideas.

Good luck everyone.

I'm taking 900mg of Lyrica, 300 x 3.