Let’s start with the positive. I had another good session with the clinical psychologist, which really helped to reinforce how much more positive I am about various aspects of my condition. In particular confidence with going for walks, and minimising the anxiety I have suffered from about what might happen while I’m out. It doesn’t help with my balance etc when I’m walking, nor the distance I can cover on a regular basis, but at least I have mechanisms for coping with situations that might arise.
And so to the discussion I’ve had earlier with a receptionist at the GP surgery. When I spoke to Dr Gutteridge, the pain consultant, a few weeks ago we agreed to try reducing the dose of pregabalin and see what level I can cope with. I’ve been on 500mg per day, where the recommended long-term level is 150-300mg per day. I’ve been reducing the dose by about 50mg per week, although have had a couple of weeks of staying at 400mg now due to the change of naproxen to etoricoxib at the start of last week. I spoke to the surgery a couple of weeks ago as they had cancelled both my 200mg and 50mg capsule prescriptions at the same time, and hadn’t scheduled a dose of 150mg to start until this Monday. They arranged for the 200mg dose to be reinstated, and said they could get the 150 dose prescribed within a few days. When I picked up the prescription though, there was only 2 weeks worth of 200mg.