Oxynorm and Pregabalin.

[Madlegs1]

Is anyone taking these together.

I seem to remember that at least one member does so.?

Back story--- I have had an ankle surgery 3 weeks ago and all went well ,except that I have been bothered with extra attacks of restlessness , especially at night. Utterly unable to sleep.

This morning the attacks continued all morning and I was in bits. Rang the surgery who took me in straight away.

My lovely young doctor offered me Parkinson's medications, which I politely declined and explained that I was involved with the Health Unlocked, RLS site.

He was impressed and listened to me.

He then suggested alpha2 ligands - Lyrica / Pregabalin.

He went through the possible side effects and explained that this should allow my body to get back to wherever it had been before the operation.

So ,now I have 25mg for 3 nights and to increase if necessary.

So ,what I need to know --- is this a reasonable course of action?

Will I be able to get off the Lyrica if necessary. (Pre the operation , my RLS was satisfactorily controlled with Oxycontin 10mg X2, and oxynorm 5mg X1.)

I hope all that makes sense.

Thanks for reading this far.

💚😎

[SueJohnson]

The problem is it takes 3 weeks for the pregabalin to be come fully effective and 25 mg is a very low dose.

Yes you will be able to get off it. How fast will depend on how long you take it and how much you end up taking.

You would be better off by increasing the opioids which will have an immediate effect.

[Madlegs1 in reply to SueJohnson]

Thanks, Sue. That makes sense..

I would have to go to the pain consultant to get more opioids - but will give this set up a few weeks. If I can survive.😂

[SueJohnson in reply to Madlegs1]

That was smart of you to stash away the opioids. Glad you were able to sleep last night and hope you recover soon. I so enjoy your giving me opportunities to have a good laugh!

[SueJohnson in reply to Madlegs1]

The pregabalin can help with sleep.

[amrob123]

I agree with SueJohnson on this. 25mg pregabalin just isn't enough to make a dent in your symptoms. I'd say 75mg would be the starting point of usefulness and even then it's low. Also, I'm not familiar with the opiod doses you take but taking opioids and pregabalin together increases the risk of respiratory depression. I experienced slowed breathing on a small dose of codeine and 250mg of pregabalin. That's not meant to alarm you as many people do take opioids and pregabalin together, but just something to watch out for. If you do take pregabalin, I wouldn't be worried about coming off it. The problems tend to occur when one has been on it some time. Otherwise, is it possible to increase your dose of opioids?

[Madlegs1 in reply to amrob123]

Thanks,amrob, see my reply to Sue.Yes - I'm already awake at 1am with the restlessness after the initial 25 mg. Although I did get 3 hours sleep in first!!😂

[amrob123 in reply to Madlegs1]

That sounds terrible. From memory, I first experienced relief from pregabalin at 75mg or possibly 150mg. It also helped with sleep for several years.

[Madlegs1 in reply to amrob123]

I'll up the Oxynorm 5mg - I have a good bit left over from when I came off Fentanyl years ago. And max out the paracetamol.I'll be seeing the doctor for review in Jan, so have to be careful not to p!ss him off.

I'm trying to figure out how to give him the latest RLS treatment algorithm tactfully.

I think I'll print it out and have it in my back pocket for the Jan meeting.

Cheers.

[Jumpey]

You could try over the counter co- codamol.Dr.Buchfuhrer may have a suggestion if you email.him.Good luck.

[Madlegs1 in reply to Jumpey]

Thanks-- I'm already on opioids and am upping the frequency. Good idea to write to Mark - I haven't contacted him in ages and I'm sure he must be concerned about me!😂

I notice that he wasn't named as a co author of a recent study by the American RLS group.

I hope he is ok.

Anyone any news of the poor overworked guy?

Thanks again for the very sensible suggestion, Jumpey.💚

[Jumpey in reply to Madlegs1]

I realise you're on opioids ,hence my suggestion. I thought you may not have enough supplies to see you over the holidays if you upped your dose.I don't know how he finds the time to do what he does but he definitely helps a lot of people.

[Madlegs1 in reply to Jumpey]

Thanks again. Yes - I had to come off fentanyl about 12 years ago and used oxy5To help with breakthrough pain.

I managed to stash away a good supply and that is coming into use now.

I'm trying to figure can I go back onto the Oxycontin 10 at this point.

It didn't last 2 hrs at the beginning of the episode and I switched to the oxy5 which worked much better.

I got a good night last night, so wont change anything over the festivities.

Don't want to be scaring the reindeers!😂

All the best.💚☘️

[SueJohnson in reply to Madlegs1]

My laugh for the day - Don't want to be scaring the reindeers!🤣🤣🤣

[Jumpey in reply to Madlegs1]

Glad you found relief and that you have a rainy day stash!

[Birdland in reply to Madlegs1]

A friend of mine just had an appointment with Mark a couple weeks ago.

[Madlegs1 in reply to Birdland]

Good to hear that 👍☘️

[teakabeagle in reply to Madlegs1]

It is possible Dr. B is overworked; most MD are mainly dealing with documentation and insurance issue. . Nonetheless, he did responded quickly to an inquiry from me regarding “ pearls” of info to help on an appeal for the Buprenorphine. Unfortunately, he had nothing to offer.

[Madlegs1 in reply to teakabeagle]

Thanks.

[Joolsg]

I was on 25mg Oxycontin and 150mg pregabalin for 5 years.Didn't really do much for my RLS. But I had no problems taking both together. Pregabalin definitely helped with sleep.

And I reduced it when I realised it wasn't making any difference to my RLS. I reduced very, very slowly and had no withdrawals.

[Madlegs1 in reply to Joolsg]

I thought it was you ,hiding in the long grass!😂

That's very good to know.

I've upped the opioid use by reducing the time interval to 4 hours, and upping the paracetamol to 1000mg every 4 hrs as well.

I'll take the Pregabalin as instructed by the doctor, and see how that goes over the next few months.

It's good to be back to " normal" for the season that's in it!💚👍☘️

[Elisse3 in reply to Madlegs1]

Oh Madlegs sorry to hear you have been suffering , what is that op’s can cause our RLS to flair up. ! Glad at least you can enjoy Christmas now.

[Madlegs1 in reply to Elisse3]

I think it must be withdrawals from whatever painkillers they give during the operation.

After all -- they have to be pretty strong to do their job,?!!

[Elisse3 in reply to Madlegs1]

Ahhh could be that.

[Joolsg in reply to Madlegs1]

I hope it provides better cover. Fingers crossed 🤞.

[BoxerDogLover89]

I’ve taken tramadol for years. It stopped becoming as effective so the neurologist added pregabalin, in now up to 200 pregab and either 100mg tramadol, sometimes 200mg if I don’t fall asleep quick enough. Apart from being dizzy from pregab at first or when I increase my dose I’ve been fine. At first I did feel a bit wasted but now don’t really feel anything other than my RLS being a lot better than they were. Good luck

[Madlegs1 in reply to BoxerDogLover89]

Thanks for that- good to know!👍

[Maymount in reply to BoxerDogLover89]

I weaned off pramipexole over the summer/autumn. I take 2x 50 tramadol at 5oc and 2 x 25 pregabalin at 9oc. Actually think I don't need pregabalin atall. Maybe 1 x 50 tramadol at 9oc instead. Prefer to be on one med only if possible. Will try that.

[teakabeagle in reply to BoxerDogLover89]

How long did it take for you to adjust to the side effects? I gave up on it after 3 months. Couldn’t function at work. It didn’t have a great effect on the RLS at 1800 mg. No different with Lyrica.

[Madlegs1]

psychcentral.com/health/how...

If I ever had any concerns about my phone spying on me --- they are are totally vindicated now!😹