G'day Meagain,
Lyrica nearly sent me broke before it was on the pbs. I got up to a pretty hefty dose but it never helped my problem (painful neuropathy in both legs). I have been tried on Neurontin and endep as well. Nothing much helped. Some of those epilepsy drugs like lyrica and Neurontin can have some severe adverse side effects if you just stop taking them and that can include siesures in extreme cases. At the moment I have a combination of AS ,psoriatic arthritis and nephrotic syndrome. My protein loss was out to 7 grams a day so my rheumatologist and nephrologist agrred that cyclosporine was the best way to go.It can be heapa and nephra toxic so he has me taking a bp med called dilttiazem . It increases the amount of cyclosporine absorbed. I am getting the required trough loading ( bloods taken of a morning before the cyclosporine dose)on 75 mg morning and night. Keeping on lower doses has let me avoid serious side effects so far. It is to slow the progression of the disease ,not for pain. So far for pain I have tried norspan patches ,fentanyl patches and now oxycodone with naxolone. I found the patches a really crappy delivery system. With the controlled release oxy I get an even delivery but whoever decided they control pain for twelve hours was an optomist.The problem with the heavy duty pain relievers is that you are always at the doctors to get another script. I have been told by my nephrologist and gp that I will most likely be on cyclosporine and oxy for the rest of my days or until something more effective comes along. Cheers ron.
