I've been taking Lyrica (for the first time) for the past 3 weeks. So far it's been a mixed bag. For the first several 2 weeks I was doing 50 mg/day. The first 5 days or so, I had CHs every other day. Then I was PF for a week. The CH fired up again last week Friday, and I had 3 attacks in a 4 day period. My dosage was increased to 100 mg/day. I saw my neuro on Monday, and I'll keep on taking Lyrica for the near future. I have to call her in a couple of weeks with an update on my headaches (earlier if things get out of hand). Last night I only had a minor attack (I was actually able to go back to sleep without having to take the Migranol I use as an abortive). I'm hoping that I'm PF tonight. My neuro wants to keep me on Lyrica for 3 months.
Lyrica is a mixed bag for CH. From what info I've found about it online, the makers of it, have wanted it listed as a CH med by the FDA for at least a few years. But it is still being used off-label by some neuros. It's effectiveness is a horse a piece. Some people thing it worked great for their CH, others have said it was useless, and they suffered unpleasant side effects:
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Me - I've suffered at least some of the side effects: drowsiness (mostly gone now), and an occasional depression similar to what I get when I'm on the last 3 days or so of a Prednisone taper. Why do I continue taking it? Wellll , lesseee.
1. I took a 1 week taper of Prednisone when this latest cycle of CH began in mid March, only to have the CH start up a week after the taper was done. The time elapsed from the Prednisone taper was considered to be too close side effectswise for another round of Prednisone. Soo, on to another med to stop the cycle.
2. What do I take?
A. I've been on Verapamil non-stop since 2005. O2 only stops the headaches, not the cycle.
B. Methergine - NO THANKS!! I took it for my last cycle in Nov. & Dec. 2008, when my neuro asked if I wanted to try something other than Prednisone. Figuring it would be nice not to have the blues I always get during the last half of a Prednisone taper, I agreed to do it. Methergine was L-A-M-E for me. I took it for a week (ala Prednisone), and it stopped the CH. Of course within 3 days of finishing the Methergine, the beast came back with a vengeance. So guess what? I was put back on it for a month. In the first week of the 1 month interval, I had CH bigtime. One of the attacks was awful - a kip 10 that went on for 2 1/2 hours that literally had me screaming. I had no O2 (never used it - please don't pester me about it; that happened on this board 2 years ago, and chased me off of it until yesterday), and since the attacks occurred only 2 or 3 hours after I took the Methergine, I could NOT use my migranal (or Imitrex for that matter) to stop the attacks, due to the risk of interaction with Methergine causing cardiac spasm (a form of a heart attack). Yep, it was shades of the old Pre-2005 days when I took Ibuprofen like candy to no effect, and basically suffered through a 1 or 2 hour CH attack. Some very heavy duty anti-seizure meds (as in take 5 and only 5 of each of these two pills), and Prednisone stopped the headaches. To add insult to injury, because I was on Methergine for more than a week, I had to have ultrasounds (echocardiograms) on my heart valves, and chest X-rays, to check my heart valves and lungs for damage before and after I went on Methergine (there is a risk of Methergine damaging your heart & lungs of it is used for more than 1 week). I'm still paying off the $2000 bill (in spite of health insurance) from that financial fiasco. The last thing I need is another $2000 bill from doing another course of Methergine. NO THANKS!
C. That leaves Lyrica. So, here's to hoping that I have a PF night.
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Lyrica (Read 1827 times)
