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To drive or to be med free
Wed, 03/07/2007 - 21:50 This question has been bothering me for months now, and i can't decide what to do. I may soon be able to get back my driver licence, being seizure free for a year following surgery. at the one year mark i can either have my licence back, or I can choose to attempt going med free.
If i want to be medication free it would mean waiting at least 4 more months to lower medication levels and to prove seizure free without them. this seems fairly simple but there may be no chance of this working considering the doctors told me there is still a little bit of something in my head thats not operable.
Dilantin is the only medication i have to take now, its very cheap and has no side effects that i can detect. but i dont know if i can continue taking it knowing i might not need it. I havent driven in years, but 4 more months seem like a long time.
Has anyone ever had to make this choice, or can any one tell me what they would do in this situation. any thoughts would help.
Comments
Longterm AEDs can ,and do,
Submitted by solis on Thu, 2007-03-08 - 00:12
Longterm AEDs can ,and do, have side effects, just like anything else we put into our systems. And I've been on AEDs for a very long time.
One year after my surgery, I began nixing my meds, under the epileptologist's supervision. If all goes well for 6 months after nixing them, I'll be back driving.
Given that I am nixing the same meds I did in VEEG before surgery ,when I reacted immediately. If surgery did not work my reaction when off meds should be almost immediate also.
So far so good.. I'll take each day at a time.
Re: To drive or to be med free
Submitted by bleedingheart on Wed, 2007-03-07 - 22:38
When I was able to get my driver's licence back after finding Tegretol was my perfect seizure free medication,with minimal side-effects , I got the licence. After 10 years of seizure freedom I had a normal EEG. My doctors put me on a supervised medication withdrawal. But the seizures returned 4 years later. But I only lost my licence for 5 weeks, given I was being supervised by my doctors and they knew the cause of my seizures. When the doctors returned my meds to the therapeutic levels, they gave me the lowest amount that would put me at that level. I now have seizure freedom and more alertness than I did 17 years ago. I would get the driver's licence and wait before going medication free.