Medication For pain

[ladylove57]

I would like to know,I take percocet and lyrica.Is it alright to drink coffee?

[Tuckamore]

Hello Ladylove,

A tardy Welcome to the Pain Management Forum. As has been said coffee is usually okay with the medications you are taking. Caffeine is known to potentiate some medications but usually not to any harmful degree.

As far as changing medications it really depends on the individual. What is effective for one person is not necessarily effect for another person. Our systems are all a bit different and react differently to medications, including side effects.

If you are not tolerating the "fuzzy" feeling it may be that it's just that particular medication.... or it could be the entire family of medications. A good physician will offer you a trial and error process to determine which medication produces the least side effects yet still delivers optimum effectiveness.

It took months for my physician and I to find the right medication to control my muscle spasms. I was too "fuzzy" from most of them. I experienced a hang-over like effect and was groggy all day.  So I would try to deal with the spasms rather then deal with the side effects.  I am sorry that you are dealing with something similar. The Journey through Chronic Pain is filled with challenges!

The best advice is to discuss this with your prescribing physician. There is great information on all drugs located on the internet. A simple Goggle search will provide you with more information then any of us can write.

I hope you'll be active on our forum and let us know how you are doing. I'll look forward to hearing from you again... and as always wish you well.

Take Care,
~Tuck

[femmy29]

Hi Lady,

Of course it's okay!  :)

What I am about to post is based on reading many online posts from people who are taking Lyrica and others who are taking neurontin like myself.

A lot of folks say that Lyrica is more potent than Neurontin but from reading several posts, I have heard the side effects from Lyrica are more common than with Neurontin.

I and many others on Neurontin complain of that fuzzy feeling you are talking about especially when you take percocet in conjunction with the Lyrica.  So I don't think switching to Neurontin will get rid of that feeling but over time, others have stated that the fuzzy or dizzy/lightheaded feeling begins to diminish.  I myself have noticed the same thing but I still get fuzzy feelings (I love the word "fuzzy", I think it is a great descriptive word to explain this kind of feeling).  

I have two or three different kinds of patterns of when and how much to take of my meds depending on if I am going to work or if I am home and how my pain levels are that particular day and what activity level I am planning that day.  Most of the time I still use the same number of pills per day of everything but I can switch up the schedule to get a milder or stronger effect depending on if I am having a good pain day or a flare up day.  On flare up days, when I take the neurontin in conjunction with either percocet or valium 2 hours after the extended release morphine gets going, I get super fuzzy for awhile but my pain flare also goes down a lot too.  During the week I typically take the neurontin 2 hours after the extended release morphine and I take the percocet much later (say ~5 hours later) and don't get a fuzzy feeling.

So you can try to stagger the neurontin around the percocet instead of taking them both together.  That should reduce the fuzzy feeling somewhat.  And over time, your body will get more used to the medication and the fuzzy feeling should disappear on its own.  Keep in mind that staggering the medications may mean less pain relief than you typically expect.  

I have been fuzzy for years (lol!) and I have learned to work around it and still accomplish what needs to be done so if you can tolerate it, I think over time you will get used to this feeling and you will start to feel normal again.

If you start getting other side effects that you can't tolerate, you may want to ask your physician if you could give neurontin a try to see if those side effects go away.  

Either way, I think both the neurontin and lyrica are amazing medications!!  They have quiet power when it comes to relieving pain.  I hope you continue to do well on the lyrica and get ample pain relief from the nerve pain you have.  I also deal with a lot of nerve pain and I know that it can be very painful and difficult to tolerate at times.

Keep in touch and if you have any more questions, I will be more than happy to try to help!

femmy  :)

[ladylove57]

Thanks so much for answering the questions and the welcome.I'd like to ask if it's alright,I suffer with nerve damage,and this is so totally new to me.But my doctor also mentioned Neurontin to me when we discussed the medications of choice.And I know Lyrica is more the newer medication.Lyrica makes me feel fuzzy in the head,and especially when I have to take pain med's with it.Can you tell me a little more about it? If it's okay?

[femmy29]

Hi and welcome to MedHelp.

I also take percocet along with neurontin (gabapentin).  The gabapentin is very similar to lyrica.  I drink coffee 4-5 days per week and I haven't encountered any issues and I have been on percocet for almost a year and gabapentin for almost 2 years.  I don't think there are any severe reactions when coffee is mixed with percocet or lyrica or both.  However, you can always contact your local pharmacist for a definitive answer and/or you can input caffeine with lyrica and percocet into a interactions checker on the web.  But I am pretty certain that you will not have any severe reactions.  Take care.

femmy