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Changin Meds-Tegretol to Lamictal----My Progress

Thu, 02/16/2006 - 10:42
I wanted to let anyone who is interested know of my experience in changing my meds from Tegretol to Lamictal... I was diagnosed with E at the ag eof 12. I have been on Tegretol every since. Begining at 200mg a day and gradually increasing to 800mg of the XR version dailly. I decided to change meds because my Tegretol wasn't working that great anymore and it was causing me to have severe mood swings. I have both focal seizures and Grand Mals. They are nocternal. The focal seizures are limited to my right leg below my knee. Even with the Tegretol, I had begun to have them regularly. Luckily, they hadn't been progressing into Grand Mals...yet. (That is the way that it works with me. It starts out as a focal seizure and if I'm unlucky, it will progress over my entire body and turn into a Grand Mal.) In December, my neuro began the switch by keeping me on Tegretol(XR 400mg 2x dailly) and adding in the Lamictal gradually over a five week period. After I reached 100mg 2x dailly of Lamictal, we started decreasing the Tegretol by 200mg dailly each week. After two weeks, we increased the Lamictal to 150mg 2x dailly. I have now been off of the Tegretol completely for two days. And on Lamictal 150mg 2x dailly. I was very nervous because of it being such a low dosage. Well, I was fine until last night. At three o'clock in the morning, I began having focal seizures every time that I would fall asleep.(since I started the switch, I haven't had any focal seizures or Grand Mals) It developed into a pattern of sleeping for 5-10 minutes and then being awakened by a focal seizure that lasted about 5-10 seconds and then I would spend 10-15 minutes trying to go back to sleep. After this happened about five times, I gave up trying to sleep and just got up. (Since they are nocternal and have to do with my sleep/wake cycle, they stopped.) I called my neuro as soon as his office opened this morning and got an appointment for an hour later. He said that he had expected this and increased my Lamictal to 200mg 2x dailly. He said that this increase should take care of it. I hope he is right. I guess I will find out tonight. On a possitive note, as I decreased my dosage of Tegretol, my mood swings decreased and are now very rare. I can be in the same situation where I would normally have flown off the handle before but I can now stop and think about what I am about to do and say. As a result, I don't react the same way anymore. It is making my life much easier. Anyway, I will keep everyone updated of my progress and hope that this may help someone else in a similar situation. SMILE!!!!!

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