i went onto pregabalin a few weeks back for my fibromyalgia. i was supposed to take 75mg at night to begin with and then go up to 75mg in the morning as well.

first problem was the the morning after starting i felt horrendous - there were 3 of everything, i couldn't see or walk straight, i could hardly keep my eyes open and i generally felt bad. but that eased up.

then, i found that taking it in the morning made me too drowsy. with uni on the go, i really can't be too drowsy when i'm working or so on. i was literally having to splash cold water on my face every 5 mins. that never went away either, i felt like that every day.

so i went to the doc and mentioned the drowsiness, so he said i should take both doses at night and see how i got on. so i did and the next day i felt awful again, back to not being able to see/walk/anything. i took the dose last night and i only felt able to function by about 6pm today.

the problem is - apart from these effects the drug really isn't helping.

he wants me to have an injection in my hip which is similar to a cortisone jab but done under local anaesthetic. this is different to what he mentioned at my first appointment which was to have 2 large injections in my lower back that should ease up my hip area for a long while.

the problem i have is this: i still feel really sore with the FM, the med is making it hard to function, and he's a private doctor (because no nhs doc seemed to want to tell me what was wrong) and he's really expensive. i've had a private rheumatologist for a while and she's not cheap but he's in a whole other playing field! and i know, because i know about such things, that any treatments he gives are going to cost a fortune. i can't get health insurance (long story).

so i have a dilemma, do i stick with him and pay in the hope that one of his treatments works? or do i just give up? because if they don't work i'm going to be angry as i'll have spent *a lot* of money.