LeslieRN
10-09-2007, 11:11 AM
Hi everyone,
I usually post on the other forums: RSD, fibromyalgia, chronic pain etc.
But I think that what happened to me needs to be told.
First some background : In 2004 I was diagnosed with bird fanciers disease - which means I had a hypersensitive reacton to an allergin in the feather dust of our 4 parrots. My lungs were full of fibrous crap and they were scarred. We sold our parrots but I still did not get better until we moved out of the house. Within 3 weeks I was off the oxygen and had no breathing problems.
Fast forward: Last October my pain management doc srarted me on Lyrica. In order to get my insurance company to cover it they ordered the 200mg 3 times a day.
I could not take that much lyrica at first but I soon was able to tolerate it. It did help with my pain- espically my fibro pain. In late March I fell at my beside - did not trip or anything - I lost control of my arms and legs and went down seriously spraining my ankle.
A week or so later I was in the kitchen picked up a bowl and turned to put it on the counter -I lost control of my arms and dropped the bowl and then I went down-again with no control over my legs or arms also. BUT this time I fractured my ankle.:confused:
The next fall was in the garage(concrete floor):eek: when we were going to get in the car- same type fall the concrete just scaraped my knee, elbow and face.
The falls continued I had a neurologist, spinal doc, ortho doc, and rheumatologist trying to figure this out. All the tests came back normal. It seem though, the more fall I had, the worse they were.
There there were falls that were different- I felt different- like I could not breath or at least get enough air in my lungs. Then we knew what was causing the falls- my pulse oximeter reading was 79 and after another fall it was 83. Normal is 95% or higher.
Before I could get into the see my pulmonary doc- the falls changed and it appeared that my muscles in my legs and arms did not want to move- everytime I tried to get up they woukd spasm also. I actually fell in our back yard -at least it was on the grass. Everytime I tried to move my muscles would spasm -I am sure it was because I was getting even less O2. It took a better part of an hour to get me up off the ground. But it really got scarey when Hubby tried to pick me up and my extremities were spasming so bad I thought I would go into a seizure next.
I immediately made an appointmet with my pulmonary doc. We went over what had happened and he did not know what could be causing the fall- untill we went over my meds.
He was extremely upset I was on Lyrica. He then told me that he has seen his patients as well emergency room patients that QUIT BREATHING while on Lyrica. He wanted me to quit it ASAP. I knew I couldn't stop cold turkey - my Rheum. doc told me if I quit cold turkey I could have seizures.
While the PDR lists the following as RARE problem of the respiratory system -Apnea, atelectasis, bronchiolotis, hiccup, laryngismus, lung edema, lung fibrosis, yawn but none of my doctors (espically those who would be prescribing the med) had heard anything about any respiratory problems caused by Lyrica.
I weaned myself off the lyrica, my O2 sats are back to normal (98%) and I feel so much better. The only problem is that noone gave me anything to replace the Lyrica so now my pain levels arew up.
I would think that lyrice could be prescribed to anyone whose has any type of an obstructive lung problem.
But there are also other adverse effects- Lyric makes you gain weight - and I did- between 30-40 lbs - but now it is coming off slowly.
There is another one that normally happens while on lyrica- hair loss- but my hair became thicker and fuller - and now that I am off the lyrica, I have thinning hair that is also breaking off.
Well, I just wanted to share this part of my life to hopefully keep someone else to end up with the same problems I did.
Leslie
I usually post on the other forums: RSD, fibromyalgia, chronic pain etc.
But I think that what happened to me needs to be told.
First some background : In 2004 I was diagnosed with bird fanciers disease - which means I had a hypersensitive reacton to an allergin in the feather dust of our 4 parrots. My lungs were full of fibrous crap and they were scarred. We sold our parrots but I still did not get better until we moved out of the house. Within 3 weeks I was off the oxygen and had no breathing problems.
Fast forward: Last October my pain management doc srarted me on Lyrica. In order to get my insurance company to cover it they ordered the 200mg 3 times a day.
I could not take that much lyrica at first but I soon was able to tolerate it. It did help with my pain- espically my fibro pain. In late March I fell at my beside - did not trip or anything - I lost control of my arms and legs and went down seriously spraining my ankle.
A week or so later I was in the kitchen picked up a bowl and turned to put it on the counter -I lost control of my arms and dropped the bowl and then I went down-again with no control over my legs or arms also. BUT this time I fractured my ankle.:confused:
The next fall was in the garage(concrete floor):eek: when we were going to get in the car- same type fall the concrete just scaraped my knee, elbow and face.
The falls continued I had a neurologist, spinal doc, ortho doc, and rheumatologist trying to figure this out. All the tests came back normal. It seem though, the more fall I had, the worse they were.
There there were falls that were different- I felt different- like I could not breath or at least get enough air in my lungs. Then we knew what was causing the falls- my pulse oximeter reading was 79 and after another fall it was 83. Normal is 95% or higher.
Before I could get into the see my pulmonary doc- the falls changed and it appeared that my muscles in my legs and arms did not want to move- everytime I tried to get up they woukd spasm also. I actually fell in our back yard -at least it was on the grass. Everytime I tried to move my muscles would spasm -I am sure it was because I was getting even less O2. It took a better part of an hour to get me up off the ground. But it really got scarey when Hubby tried to pick me up and my extremities were spasming so bad I thought I would go into a seizure next.
I immediately made an appointmet with my pulmonary doc. We went over what had happened and he did not know what could be causing the fall- untill we went over my meds.
He was extremely upset I was on Lyrica. He then told me that he has seen his patients as well emergency room patients that QUIT BREATHING while on Lyrica. He wanted me to quit it ASAP. I knew I couldn't stop cold turkey - my Rheum. doc told me if I quit cold turkey I could have seizures.
While the PDR lists the following as RARE problem of the respiratory system -Apnea, atelectasis, bronchiolotis, hiccup, laryngismus, lung edema, lung fibrosis, yawn but none of my doctors (espically those who would be prescribing the med) had heard anything about any respiratory problems caused by Lyrica.
I weaned myself off the lyrica, my O2 sats are back to normal (98%) and I feel so much better. The only problem is that noone gave me anything to replace the Lyrica so now my pain levels arew up.
I would think that lyrice could be prescribed to anyone whose has any type of an obstructive lung problem.
But there are also other adverse effects- Lyric makes you gain weight - and I did- between 30-40 lbs - but now it is coming off slowly.
There is another one that normally happens while on lyrica- hair loss- but my hair became thicker and fuller - and now that I am off the lyrica, I have thinning hair that is also breaking off.
Well, I just wanted to share this part of my life to hopefully keep someone else to end up with the same problems I did.
Leslie