Health Organization for Pudendal Education

I've recently been prescribed Lyrica by my doctor for PNE pain. He had me take 25 mg. a day for one week, then up it to 50 mg a day. So far I've noticed no difference after two days on the 50 mg. dose. But I've seen people on this forum talk about Lyrica helping them. Are these the dosages you've tried? I don't want to keep taking it if it's not helping me. Or should I be expecting it to kick in at some point?

300mg/day kicked in @ 40% pain reduction at the 5-6 week point for me. It was a prompt drop in pain.
RR

Wow! Looks like I have a long way to go. It's good to hear your surgery report - I am seeing Dr. HIbner in August for the first time. He is the final stop for me on a long journey to find out what can be done to help me.

900 mg of Lyrica a day for me.

I had managed to get down to 600 but I am in a major flare and may need to go back up to 1200.

I also take 180 mg of Cymbalta a day.

Rick

Good to hear from you, Rick. Lyrica has helped me a lot. I am currently on 150 mg. 3 times per day plus 20-30 mg Oxycodone. Good to know I can kick it up and add in the Cymbalta if necessary. How often do you take the Lyrica each day ?

Best Wishes,

Don

Bishop,

How did your August appointment with Hibner go?

I was impressed by Dr. Hibner and also Patty, his secretary. I flew to Arizona from WA state and he wanted me to get an MRI (to be read by Dr. Kalinkin) and also a CT-guided injection of numbing medication and a steroid. This was on a Wednesday and I was flying home on Saturday. Dr. Hibner had Patty call St. Joseph's and at his request they actually juggled the radiology schedule and fit me in for both appointments, one that afternoon and the other on Thursday afternoon.

Unfortunately, the MRI showed no inflammation near the pudendal artery & pudendal vein. (Dr. H. explained that they simply can't see the pudendal nerve but if it's truly irritated, the surrounding area would also look irritated.) He also stressed that just because the artery & vein area wasn't engorged, that still doesn't mean it's NOT the p. nerve. The numbing medication did it's job, however, so we know it's the p. nerve. But the steroid never kicked in.

I do not have the severe or debilitating pain that many of you do have and am functioning fairly well with desipramine (which takes care of the strong ache in my right buttock) and always sitting on cold packs to numb the stinging, burning sensation in that area. I'm supposed to call him back in mid-October and discuss options. Oh, and I ended up having to stop the Lyrica because it was upsetting my stomach too much.

Bishop, I'm glad to hear your trip to Hibner was successful. I'm wondering why they don't go ahead and schedule out of town patients for all of these procedures ahead of time. Do you know of any explanation for this?

Good luck with your future procedures/therapies.

Violet

Violet, when I first scheduled my appt. with Dr. Hibner (8 months in advance!), I asked that very question and the person on the phone said that Dr. Hibner would need to see me first and assess which procedures I would actually need. However, I wasn't about to waste my time down there so I went ahead and scheduled an MRI for myself on the day after my appt. with him! I had to jump through some hoops and have my doctor here in Washington fax the request to Dr. Hibner's office stating that I needed an MRI and Dr. HIbner's office faxed a request to St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix. So I would recommend to others to do that because of course he's going to want an MRI read by Dr. Kalinkin in most cases. The MRI tech told me that so many patients of Dr. Hibner's come through there! When I made the MRI appt., I was completely honest and explained my situation and asked the scheduler if it was okay if I ended up cancelling the MRI if it wasn't needed and she said that would be no problem.

Thanks for the explanation, Bishop. Sounds like you did the smart thing.