Hi new here and seeking advice

[Sallyannie2]

Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate some advice on managing the pain.

I have started doing Pilates and stretch out my back throughout the day when I feel it getting stiff, also do shoulder exercises to loosen them throughout the day.

How long does it take to feel results from Pregabalin I’m on 75 morning and night and do they help with the pain.

A big thank you in advance

[AP345]

Hi there, I take Gabapentin 300mg and it does help with the pain, not sure with pre gab but see how it goes and I would let your doctor know if its not working after a couple of weeks.

[Sallyannie2 in reply to AP345]

Thank you 🙂

[LoneEra]

Other things you could try include a TENS machine and mindfulness/absorbing hobbies. Both of these distract from the pain more than getting rid of it, but can be quite effective.

Give the pregabalin a good few weeks to start bedding in. If you really feel you’re getting no benefit though, have a chat with your GP about other options.

[Sallyannie2 in reply to LoneEra]

Thank you 🙂

[saluhouse]

Hello Sallyannie. Welcome to the club nobody wanted to join. But, saying that, everybody is very helpful and totally understands all your fibro problems and worries.

I’m afraid I can’t help you with medication advice - I don’t tolerate any of the medications. But I can recommend stretching - it doesn’t sound like much help but it really is. Plus pacing - try to avoid getting over tired. Do that and it guarantees a bad next day.

Otherwise - my advice is to keep reading the posts. Here we have so many experts on so many topics. You will gradually become your own fibro specialist!

Best wishes xxx

[Sallyannie2 in reply to saluhouse]

Thank you🙂

[LisaSnow FMA UK Volunteer]

Where are you pain located on?

[Sallyannie2 in reply to LisaSnow]

Hi pain all over pinging round my body at night, pain on upper body constant, in left leg comes and goes, lower back right side,Left side of head feels like my eye is going to explode mainly at night but in daytime too.

Left shoulder and down arm can’t do a bra up.

There are other niggles

Any help would be greatly appreciated 😊

[LisaSnow FMA UK Volunteer in reply to Sallyannie2]

Your medication dose is low right now because doctors start off lower and build it up. Once you are given a therapeutic dose you should feel better. Do you have a follow-up appointment scheduled? Other therapeutic methods tuat may help include heating pad, pain rob that contains arnica or cbd oil, and magnesium bath.

[Sallyannie2 in reply to LisaSnow]

Thank you so much I really appreciate you taking the time to give advice. Getting into my doctors is like trying to get into Buckingham Palace.I was diagnosed over the phone with no explanation of what Fibromyalgia is.

I am trying to get an appointment to actually see him face to face and get him to increase my medication.

I’ll keep you updated

Thank you ❤️

[headmed]

Sorry this reply is very late, so for what it's worth now. I started on this dosage too and it miraculously helped me immediately but not enough, esp for the nighttime pain, so upped the night dose to 150mg which really helped with the night pain and sleep but the day pain was still bad, so went onto the more clinically typical 100 3x a day, which helped more with the day pain but night pain got worse as I had reduced that. So then went for 2x100 day and 175 night, which is where I'm at now. It's hugely increased my quality of life, though I still have pain. One thing that's been brilliant for me is the improvement in sleep. Studies have shown (or have seemed to show) that pregabalin has a beneficial effect on sleep architecture esp slow wave deep restorative sleep and that seems to be the case with me. Before I started it I basically could not sleep for months because severe hip and shoulder pain would wake me up constantly all throughout the night. But now I can sleep much more continuously even though I'm eventually woken up with pain after around 6/7 hours, but relatively speaking that's a sleep miracle for me given what I'd been going through. A good place for summaries of studies of meds is Cochrane cochrane.org. They claim there is evidence for the effectiveness of pregabalin on fibro, and they have a pretty high bar for their evidence, for what that's worth. Of course, ultimately it's an individual matter. Hope yours is helping and if not hope you're managing otherwise. All the best.