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Adding on keppra??

Sun, 07/02/2017 - 18:40
I'm hoping I can get some advice from you guys. I have temporal lobe epilepsy. Had surgery in 2008 and my seizures were well controlled for a while, but they've gotten worse the past year and a half or so. I don't even go into the full loss of consciousness complex partial seizures anymore, for which I am very grateful. But the simple partial seizures just consist of sitting with these really dark, scary, dreadful feelings. And I'll get days of this. It's almost been harder for me to deal with these than the pre-surgery seizures. So, I've always been very reluctant about meds. After the surgery I was adamant that I wouldn't be on them anymore. But the past 6 months in particular I've really been on board with all the increases of my doses because the feelings of these are driving me crazy! At my last appointment last month, my doctor brought up the thought of starting a 2nd med. He didn't push it, but wanted me to at least give it a thought. He's thinking I should add on Keppra to my Trileptal I'm currently on. The latest dose of Trileptal I've been trying this month is just making me so sleepy. Like, nothing that is bad enough that I feel like I need to go back down on the dose and commit to the 2nd med plan, but at the same time I don't love feeling this way either. I guess I'm just not loving either idea, but the thought of adding another med is just emotionally hard too, like I'm taking steps back on my health. This wasn't the direction things were supposed to go. I know that there are so many people on this site with much worse situation than mine, so I'm not trying to be a baby over this.. What I'm really hoping to hear is if people have made decisions similar to this and have any advice. My doctor is kind of leaving this decision up to me to an extent, but I'm just really not sure. Any advice you guys have I would love to hear!!!

Comments

I just had Keppra added on

Submitted by Cheezaholic on Fri, 2017-07-14 - 21:34
I just had Keppra added on after break through sz on lamotrigine - I was pretty much maxed on lamotrigine cuz of side effects, so this was the next step. My mentality is, I want to do whatever I can to decrease my risk of another sz, and if adding another med will do that, then I'm all for it. My friend (pharmacist in an epilepsy clinic) suggested also adding Vitamin B6 100mg daily if you start Keppra - helps to prevent/lessen the side effect of irritability.

May I suggest talking to your

Submitted by whatitisepilepsy on Wed, 2017-07-19 - 19:21
May I suggest talking to your doctor about a med called Lamotrging, If that dose not work, I went a whole year without arua or seizures taking a martial arts class. It was not so much what I learned, the over 100 jumping jack, stretching, working my body at least 5 days a week.  You have heard it before," use it or lose it". Exercise make sense. As soon as I stopped everything came back with in a week. Good luck, life with out seizures can be amazing, always try new things don't let it win.

I have been on keppra xr for

Submitted by Abs on Sat, 2017-07-29 - 22:56
I have been on keppra xr for.a few years now. If you can handle the mood swings it is a quite.benign med. I would recommend to.take vitamin b6 to avoid mood changes. There is a new drug briviact, I heard that it is similar.to keppra without the mood changes. I would inquire. My doctor suggested it.

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