kepra

Re: kepra--bowel problems

Submitted by vickiec51 on Mon, 2008-03-03 - 14:21

gratefulmouse---Hi, I only had three seizures in my entire life...my first was when I was 47 and then one at 54 and then my most recent one 56yrs old....so I consider myself blessed in the fact that I raised 5 kids and never had this. when I do have them I do go out and dont remember what happened. I have been fortunate in the fact that the first time...I was at work and two nurses attended me so I could breathe as I fell backwards and then my husband was home for the second one I fell backwards and let out this warhoop sound...a  yelp if you will and then the  third one I was home alone and fell forward thank God and woke on the floor with my head turned to the side. I was alive and crawled to the toilet and then to my bed where i had to remember how to dial the phone to call my husband...thank goodness for cell phones with phone numbers already in them...he came home which took an hr as we live in the houston area....then he took me to the hospital where i waited 5 hrs to see a dr....everything was checked but my body which sustained a painful fall....my ribs and back still hurt and that was about 5 wks ago.....so keppra is the only pills im on and Im at the point of 1750mgs now....I was on 2000mgs but I had this huge headache come up and severe depression which incapacitated me...so I went down to 1500mgs and then am slowly going up again. I have to say though....the side affects are pretty severe...dizziness,  nausea, headaches, depression, anxiety, aches and pains....I guess the depression and anxiety might be considered moodiness which might seem normal side affects for this meds to a dr...I mentioned it when I changed over and they acted like it was normal....anyway...I did change from the 500mgs pills to the 250mg pills....it does make a difference in the fact that as soon as the tablet hits my stomach it doesnt explode or my stomach doesnt explode...however, there is still a stomach  upset later..when the actual pill breaks down....you see women over a certain age and sometimes just women cannot handle iron in any form which means just a sensitivity to iron ...in the 500mgs and the 750mgs pills of keppra there is iron oxide ...yellow and red....its just the coloring on the outside of the pills and the reason why gas and air begin to happen immediately when the pill enters the stomach....then it goes away but leaving air in the abdomen which has to be passed and sometimes causes other problems....so..I have at least eliminated the instant gassy air in my stomach by going to the 250mgs...the 1000mgs is a white pill and that means it may not have the iron oxide in it either....so when and if I get to the 1000 twice a day I shouldnt have that problem. I only wish I didnt have to take this meds at all since I only had three seizures ever...also it seems to make my pains my body incurred from the fall hurt more...ouch.....hope this helps ...God bless you and keep you...