Lyrica Woes

Hi all, I am currently on 150 mg of Lyrica twice a day.  It is really helping with the pain, almost like a miracle drug.  But I have gained 15 lbs without even trying.  All of my beautiful new post-surgery clothes are starting to feel really tight and I am scared.  My appetite has increased since I have been on Lyrica, so I think it is a combination of water weight and food weight. I tried going off it cold turkey and the pain was too much to handle.  My question is, for those who have successfully gone off Lyrica, how did you do it?  What do you take instead?  And when you do go off it, do you have to ease off it, or can you just stop taking it? My biggest side effect besides the weight gain has been lack of concentration and memory loss.  My doctor says that there are no known side effects for Lyrica that include memory loss, but sometimes I feel like I have had a stroke.  It's so bad that I am forgetting people's names at work who I have known for years, and often lose my train of thought mid-sentence.  Anyone else experience the same thing while on Lyrica?  If not, maybe I did have a stroke or am experiencing early onset Alzheimers (my Mom died of complications of Alzheimers four years ago at the age of 77 but I am only 44).

Any advice, experience, strength and hope would be greatly appreciated!

Hey there. I am sorry about your weight gain, I cant imagine how hard that must be. I have been on lyrica for about 5 months (I am on 600mg a day now), & I have had no problem with any weight gain or extra hunger issues, so I cant relate there. But I can relate with the pain issue, & besides the Lyrica I am also taking Vicodin, soon we are going to be trying the Fyntenal (sp) patch because even though I am taking so much pain meds (600mg Lyrica, 80mg Vicodin) throughout the day, I am not recieving the help I should be. Fybro SUCKS! I hope that you can find some sort of relief soon, oh, & I also suffer from the memory loss (but I know that its from all of the drugs I take throughout the day), that also SUCKS! But what are we to do?  We need the drugs to get us through, right? Anyways, there are many other drugs out there for pain, trust me, i think i have tried them all!  I hope you can find something that works for you soon! Good luck.... Angelic

anne b I was on Lyrica for a long time and I gained 27 pounds.  It was for pain and seizures . It helped so much but the weight oh I didnt need that. Now I am off Lyrica and on another med and I am slowly losing the weight.