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Timing of medication

Wed, 10/16/2013 - 01:05
When my son sleeps in on the weekends even just past an hour when he usually takes his meds during the week, he starts his morning with simple seizures. Anyone experiencing this? Does it mean more medication in the evening to tie him over? Will ask his neuro about this, but wondering if this is common?

Comments

Re: Timing of medication

Submitted by puglover on Fri, 2013-10-18 - 12:09
Thanks Joe. The neuro upped his carbetrol yesterday and did suggest my son taking his meds later, which he started last night. He started feeling shaky/weird just waiting an extra two hours to take them, but his neuro said there might be a couple of days like that. You are slightly older than myself and I do remember how people with epilepsy were treated. One kid at my school had a grandmal and an adult actually stuck a spoon in his mouth! I really felt bad for him as everyone was standing around, horrified. I'm sorry for what you went through, but happy that some aspects are now changing around this condition. My son's drinking limit is 2 beers. If the increased carbetrol doesn't work, it might be an increase in keppra, which at higher levels he's already tried and hated because it made him anxious. Really takes the patience of JOB to get through this epilepsy/medication maze, but it's really supportive when others like yourself share their experiences!

Re: Timing of medication

Submitted by just_joe on Fri, 2013-10-18 - 17:35

No problem.

I also know about spoons or tongue depresents that were used back then. They were afraid the person in the seizure would bite or swollow their tongue. It has taken time but most of tha has been changed. If a person falls and hits the wall floor or anything else the jaring makes their mouths slam shut which if the tonuge is in the way it gets cut in the jar not because of the mouth shuting but the slamming in the fallother ways people can keep someong from swollowing their tongue are sliding your finger along the teeth and hooking it around the bacl teeth which holds the tongue down.

As for an increase in the dosage in his keppra. I am on the maxium dosage oer day which is 4500 mg. 750 mg 3pabs morning and evening. We also added vimpat which was added becasue I was having several seizures about 2-3 times a week. Those seizures were partial seizures which lasted seconds but the time to get back to nomal was longer because they were in a cluster. (not a cluster seizure but a cluster of seizures). We added the vimpat 3 months ag the first month to get to the dosage doc wanted me on the next month the seizures went down and they were 1-2  seizures a week and no clusters of seizures. I had an appointment and we increased the dosage to 300 mg a day. Now I have 1 seizure every 8-14 days. Both keppra and vimpat are made by USB and they wanted to try them to see if they worked well together. Well Doc can tell them they are for me. I will be taking my diary to him in 4 months.

Keppra have been one of the best AED's I have been on. It not only cut the time in the seizures down but it also cut the time to focus (getting back to normal) down too.

Oh and as for the reason we needed to add another medication. I had been in several drug studies and my seizures were 1-2 seizures a week. I was in my last study last week of Jan. I had gotten a new generic keppra and I was having more seizures. Doc didn't think it was the generic and he excused himself and checked a fine. When he came back is when he said it wasn't the generic becasue in the last 8-9 moths of the drug study I was on the real medication and not the placebo.

Aspects are changing and if things keep going they way they are now I might have the combination needed to get seizure free. I would love that but I also know I might not be seizure free. I was once before but that was when I was 20-24 a little over 3 years. Back then I drank but  Ialso watch the amount and most people never knew I was drinking Shirley Temples but then we all acted kinda crazy. What else do young kids do when they are drinking age???

I hope he gets things going in the right direction and he does get seizure free

Joe

No problem.

I also know about spoons or tongue depresents that were used back then. They were afraid the person in the seizure would bite or swollow their tongue. It has taken time but most of tha has been changed. If a person falls and hits the wall floor or anything else the jaring makes their mouths slam shut which if the tonuge is in the way it gets cut in the jar not because of the mouth shuting but the slamming in the fallother ways people can keep someong from swollowing their tongue are sliding your finger along the teeth and hooking it around the bacl teeth which holds the tongue down.

As for an increase in the dosage in his keppra. I am on the maxium dosage oer day which is 4500 mg. 750 mg 3pabs morning and evening. We also added vimpat which was added becasue I was having several seizures about 2-3 times a week. Those seizures were partial seizures which lasted seconds but the time to get back to nomal was longer because they were in a cluster. (not a cluster seizure but a cluster of seizures). We added the vimpat 3 months ag the first month to get to the dosage doc wanted me on the next month the seizures went down and they were 1-2  seizures a week and no clusters of seizures. I had an appointment and we increased the dosage to 300 mg a day. Now I have 1 seizure every 8-14 days. Both keppra and vimpat are made by USB and they wanted to try them to see if they worked well together. Well Doc can tell them they are for me. I will be taking my diary to him in 4 months.

Keppra have been one of the best AED's I have been on. It not only cut the time in the seizures down but it also cut the time to focus (getting back to normal) down too.

Oh and as for the reason we needed to add another medication. I had been in several drug studies and my seizures were 1-2 seizures a week. I was in my last study last week of Jan. I had gotten a new generic keppra and I was having more seizures. Doc didn't think it was the generic and he excused himself and checked a fine. When he came back is when he said it wasn't the generic becasue in the last 8-9 moths of the drug study I was on the real medication and not the placebo.

Aspects are changing and if things keep going they way they are now I might have the combination needed to get seizure free. I would love that but I also know I might not be seizure free. I was once before but that was when I was 20-24 a little over 3 years. Back then I drank but  Ialso watch the amount and most people never knew I was drinking Shirley Temples but then we all acted kinda crazy. What else do young kids do when they are drinking age???

I hope he gets things going in the right direction and he does get seizure free

Joe

Re: Timing of medication

Submitted by GodivaGirl on Thu, 2013-10-17 - 22:37

Hi Pug,

Quick Question for you - does your son change up the time that he goes to bed on the weekends too?  Reason I ask is it might not be the medication, it could be "routines"...to explain.  I grew up dealing with seizures - diagnosed at 5, outgrew when I was 13, had a wicked virus and ended up back on meds when I was 17.  One thing that was consistently a trigger for me was if my day to day routine changed much.  Luckily I've been seizure free since July 2011 when I had right temporal surgery - got tired of trying med after med after med - am now 39.  Downside is I've kinda traded seizures for migranes, and well, managing them is kinda the same.  As long as my day to day routine stays close to the same, it helps lots.  To explain - during my work week I get up at 8am, get ready, go for a long walk, work 11am-8pm, go to bed by 11:00pm.  Well, on my days off I make sure I get up at 8am, go for a long walk in the morning, and go to bed by 11:00pm.  For some reason if I break that routine too much it catches up with me quick & a migrane kicks in.
Long story short, maybe it's something in the "week day" routine -vs- the "weekend" routine that is causing the minor seizures.
Just a thought. Hope this makes sense

GG

Hi Pug,

Quick Question for you - does your son change up the time that he goes to bed on the weekends too?  Reason I ask is it might not be the medication, it could be "routines"...to explain.  I grew up dealing with seizures - diagnosed at 5, outgrew when I was 13, had a wicked virus and ended up back on meds when I was 17.  One thing that was consistently a trigger for me was if my day to day routine changed much.  Luckily I've been seizure free since July 2011 when I had right temporal surgery - got tired of trying med after med after med - am now 39.  Downside is I've kinda traded seizures for migranes, and well, managing them is kinda the same.  As long as my day to day routine stays close to the same, it helps lots.  To explain - during my work week I get up at 8am, get ready, go for a long walk, work 11am-8pm, go to bed by 11:00pm.  Well, on my days off I make sure I get up at 8am, go for a long walk in the morning, and go to bed by 11:00pm.  For some reason if I break that routine too much it catches up with me quick & a migrane kicks in.
Long story short, maybe it's something in the "week day" routine -vs- the "weekend" routine that is causing the minor seizures.
Just a thought. Hope this makes sense

GG

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