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please help do not know what to do next!

Sun, 03/13/2005 - 01:22
Hi my son is was on lamictal for seizures he had one big grand mal last april and 2 petit mal lately. he also takes adderall 5mg for adhd and at night for sleep he takes clonidine 0.1mg. Back in Dec we upped his lamictal to 75 am 100 pm ( he was on 50 am 100pm ) It helped great with his behavior which was great for home and school. but his speech was getting slurred. But not to bad. In the end of Jan about 5 days befor feb 1. He was getting real lost zoney. Then he had a petit mal Feb 1. So they told us to give him 100 in the am of lamictal 100 pm will his speech get wores and with the aderall he got zombie like . Had another EEG on Feb 17 then saw the doc on the 21 he said he had more spikes in his EEG and lots switch drugs. So they put him on depakote er. (Back in in feb we stopped giving him his adderall.) So now he is on 250mg of depakote er am and 500 depakote er pm. last monday he had a EEG because his talking is so slowed down he forgets what stuff is called. The doc said over the phone I mean his nurse talk to us not the doc said he was spiking alittle more then the feb 17 EEG so they said more depakote they did not even take a look at jake this was all done over the phone will jake is sill talking real slow not like jake at all. talk to the nurse again she did not know what to tell me it did not make sence. she said to call back in 2 weeks to see how thing are going. Has this happen to anyone else or any thoughts please. on monday we are taking him in to see his ped doc and see if she can help. It's just not right.

Comments

RE: please help do not know what to do next!

Submitted by batman on Sun, 2005-03-13 - 01:22

Caballis,

 

What the doctor[s] and nurses are trying to do is first find a medication, which can be used to control the type of seizures your son, Jake, is having. Apparently, the Lamictal was not working enough in the doctorÂ’s opinion, being the reason why they switched Jake over to the Depakote ER. Just so you know, The "ER" stands for "extended-release," which means that the time it takes the pills to dissolve and release the medicine is longer.

 

They started Jake on a low dosage amount, first just to see if he would have any serious side effects from taking it. Since Jake did not have any serious side effect, other than the slurred speech, they’re now wanting to increase the dosage amount to find what amount is necessary to control his seizures. The time that it takes to increase the dosage amount, may take a good while. Reason for this is because if he, or anyone, takes a large dosage amount right at first, then the side effects will most likely take place all of a sudden. For example, let’s say that you’re standing up, holding something in your hands, then oops, all of a sudden it slips out, falls straight down and lands on you foot. “Ouch!, that hurt” Sudden hit with a sudden side effect of pain. But, if you were to just slowly bend over, lowering down what’s in your hand and just place it lightly onto your foot, you wouldn’t need to yell ouch and you won’t have any painful side effects.

 

Hopefully, you can have an idea about the medication. It is slowly increased, from week to week, or even every two weeks, to keep the serious side effects from suddenly popping up and causing major problems to your body. As the medication is slowly increased, the common side effects will slowly disappear AND the seizures may begin to lower in strength and/or frequency of occurrence[s]. This upward incline of increasing the medication is called the acquisition phase. The main goal of a doctor for placing a patient on the medication, it to stop or control the patientÂ’s problem[s] effectively, WITHOUT any side effects. Everybody has a different level dosage amount of medication his or her body can handle, which is called the therapeutic range. If, and/or when the side effects start to appear more serious, where the body just can no longer handle the medication dosage amount, then the personÂ’s body has reached the toxic level.

 

Overall summary. Determine what type of seizure[s] the patient is having…choose the popular medication that can possibly control this type of seizure…begin at the lowest dosage amount…watch out for any all of a sudden serious side effects. If there are any serious side effects or allergic reactions, then the doctor will switch you over to a different medication. If there are NOT any serious side effects, then the doctor will slowly increase the medication [upward incline /acquisition phase], over and over as needed, searching for the most effectively controlling level [therapeutic range]. Once it has been reached, then the patient must stay on that dosage amount to maintain the ‘steady state’. But if the over and over increase goes to high and the serious side effects begin to emerge, then the patient’s toxic level as been reached. Then a reverse process, or downward decline, will begin, to slowly begin removing this unsuccessful medication and then start trying a different medication.

 

For more detailed information about the Depakote ER medication, go to the beginning introduction website of www.epilepsy.com/medications/b_depakoteer_intro.html and then click along the menu choices along the right side of the screen for other additional pages of information. Also, notice on the very top of that menu, there are three separate tabs of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. You can also click on any of these as well.

 

If you have anymore questions or things to talk about, let us know.

Bruce IJ

Caballis,

 

What the doctor[s] and nurses are trying to do is first find a medication, which can be used to control the type of seizures your son, Jake, is having. Apparently, the Lamictal was not working enough in the doctorÂ’s opinion, being the reason why they switched Jake over to the Depakote ER. Just so you know, The "ER" stands for "extended-release," which means that the time it takes the pills to dissolve and release the medicine is longer.

 

They started Jake on a low dosage amount, first just to see if he would have any serious side effects from taking it. Since Jake did not have any serious side effect, other than the slurred speech, they’re now wanting to increase the dosage amount to find what amount is necessary to control his seizures. The time that it takes to increase the dosage amount, may take a good while. Reason for this is because if he, or anyone, takes a large dosage amount right at first, then the side effects will most likely take place all of a sudden. For example, let’s say that you’re standing up, holding something in your hands, then oops, all of a sudden it slips out, falls straight down and lands on you foot. “Ouch!, that hurt” Sudden hit with a sudden side effect of pain. But, if you were to just slowly bend over, lowering down what’s in your hand and just place it lightly onto your foot, you wouldn’t need to yell ouch and you won’t have any painful side effects.

 

Hopefully, you can have an idea about the medication. It is slowly increased, from week to week, or even every two weeks, to keep the serious side effects from suddenly popping up and causing major problems to your body. As the medication is slowly increased, the common side effects will slowly disappear AND the seizures may begin to lower in strength and/or frequency of occurrence[s]. This upward incline of increasing the medication is called the acquisition phase. The main goal of a doctor for placing a patient on the medication, it to stop or control the patientÂ’s problem[s] effectively, WITHOUT any side effects. Everybody has a different level dosage amount of medication his or her body can handle, which is called the therapeutic range. If, and/or when the side effects start to appear more serious, where the body just can no longer handle the medication dosage amount, then the personÂ’s body has reached the toxic level.

 

Overall summary. Determine what type of seizure[s] the patient is having…choose the popular medication that can possibly control this type of seizure…begin at the lowest dosage amount…watch out for any all of a sudden serious side effects. If there are any serious side effects or allergic reactions, then the doctor will switch you over to a different medication. If there are NOT any serious side effects, then the doctor will slowly increase the medication [upward incline /acquisition phase], over and over as needed, searching for the most effectively controlling level [therapeutic range]. Once it has been reached, then the patient must stay on that dosage amount to maintain the ‘steady state’. But if the over and over increase goes to high and the serious side effects begin to emerge, then the patient’s toxic level as been reached. Then a reverse process, or downward decline, will begin, to slowly begin removing this unsuccessful medication and then start trying a different medication.

 

For more detailed information about the Depakote ER medication, go to the beginning introduction website of www.epilepsy.com/medications/b_depakoteer_intro.html and then click along the menu choices along the right side of the screen for other additional pages of information. Also, notice on the very top of that menu, there are three separate tabs of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. You can also click on any of these as well.

 

If you have anymore questions or things to talk about, let us know.

Bruce IJ

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