Keppra and increase/change in seizures

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Our son has myoclonic absence seizures. He was diagnoised at age 6 and is now 19. He has failed 9 medications over the last 13 years.

His Dr. asked us to retry Keppra 4 weeks ago. He is very sensative to medications so he started him off at 500mgXR. For 2 days there was no seizures. But by day 3 they slowly returned. They then increased to 750mgXR, we had good days and bad,then he had a grand mal in his sleep. Dr. insist that the drug is too low and had us increase to 500mgXR 2x per day. Hoping to level the drug out in his system. Since this change he is having longer, deeper and more frequent absence seizures with more frequent myoclonic movement. His Dr. wants to increase the dose to 1000mgXr at night. and still the 500mgxr in the morning for a total of 1500mg. per day. He says for a 140lb 19 year old this is still a low dose.

We are worried as we read that if seizures change or increase be concerned. His Dr. doesn't beleive this is due to the Keppra.

Our son also is complaining of peeing alot. He gets up 1-2 times per night as well as peeing all day.

Just curious if anyone else has had this experience or can shed some light. The Dr. says it would be a shame to stop the drug before we even get to a reasonable dose. I asked for a blood level test and kidney function test and he says not needed.

Laurie

Comments

LauriThe dosage yor son is on

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2014-09-10 - 09:44

LauriThe dosage yor son is on is a low dosage. I take it and am at the maximum dosage for anybody taking keppra. It takes time for the body to get used to the medication so he was getting used to the dosage but it was raised so it takes time again to get used to the dosage. I too had a few problems when I started taking it but my body got used to it and since then the number of seizures has reduced. It has also reduced the time in the seizure and the time to get back to normal (focus time). The seizures that were 3-8 minutes long are now 2-8 seconds. The focus time was 15-45 minutes sometimes longer are now 5-10 seconds. While I have partial and focal seizures now I can have one while in a crowd and unlsee you know what to look for you wouldn't know I had it even if we were talking. I take 3-750mg tablets morning and night which comes to 4500mg a day. If you are looking at different posts regarding keppra you will also see a lot of posts where people taking it called it keprage because they got side effects and because of those they wanted off it. I have been in drug studies so I do know the side effects do happen. I also know that the percentage of people taking the medication that have side effects are small. All the posts about keppra being bad and mood changing are being posted by 5-8% of the people taking it. You will rarely see a post about what keppra has done to people who have had no problems with it after their bodies got used to the medication. The other 92-95% taking it are doing fine so why would they come in here to post if they aren't having problems. I came here to get the diary and the diary was seperate but had a forum. When I saw the questions being asked I knew I could help answer some of their questions. I can say keppra is the best medication I have ever taken in the 50+ years I have been living and dealing with epilepsy. As for your son using the restroom alot. Well I remember what I was doing when I was his age and yes I did the same thing. SOme night nothing others 2-3 times. I still do that today/ It all depends on the amount of liquid I drink and aslo if I eat fruit with a lot of juice. Watermelon tastes great but eating it after dinner I know I will be up and down. I would suggest you get the Epilepsy Diary which can be found on this site. Watch the video which tells you what is in it and how it can help you. it has a note pad in it. I use it because I had an increase in the number of seizures. It went back up but not because of the reason I had thought. Doc added vimpat to my keppra and we have increased the dosages of it 3 different times and those seizures have been reduced. Now I have partial of focal seizures every 8-14 days. You can give his neurologist permission to bring it up on line and it might help him bring up the graphs and other information which can help him with different medications, dosages and procedures that might get your son seizure free. I hope this helps and your sone gets seizure free Joe

LauriThe dosage yor son is on is a low dosage. I take it and am at the maximum dosage for anybody taking keppra. It takes time for the body to get used to the medication so he was getting used to the dosage but it was raised so it takes time again to get used to the dosage. I too had a few problems when I started taking it but my body got used to it and since then the number of seizures has reduced. It has also reduced the time in the seizure and the time to get back to normal (focus time). The seizures that were 3-8 minutes long are now 2-8 seconds. The focus time was 15-45 minutes sometimes longer are now 5-10 seconds. While I have partial and focal seizures now I can have one while in a crowd and unlsee you know what to look for you wouldn't know I had it even if we were talking. I take 3-750mg tablets morning and night which comes to 4500mg a day. If you are looking at different posts regarding keppra you will also see a lot of posts where people taking it called it keprage because they got side effects and because of those they wanted off it. I have been in drug studies so I do know the side effects do happen. I also know that the percentage of people taking the medication that have side effects are small. All the posts about keppra being bad and mood changing are being posted by 5-8% of the people taking it. You will rarely see a post about what keppra has done to people who have had no problems with it after their bodies got used to the medication. The other 92-95% taking it are doing fine so why would they come in here to post if they aren't having problems. I came here to get the diary and the diary was seperate but had a forum. When I saw the questions being asked I knew I could help answer some of their questions. I can say keppra is the best medication I have ever taken in the 50+ years I have been living and dealing with epilepsy. As for your son using the restroom alot. Well I remember what I was doing when I was his age and yes I did the same thing. SOme night nothing others 2-3 times. I still do that today/ It all depends on the amount of liquid I drink and aslo if I eat fruit with a lot of juice. Watermelon tastes great but eating it after dinner I know I will be up and down.  I would suggest you get the Epilepsy Diary which can be found on this site. Watch the video which tells you what is in it and how it can help you. it has a note pad in it. I use it because I had an increase in the number of seizures. It went back up but not because of the reason I had thought. Doc added vimpat to my keppra and we have increased the dosages of it 3 different times and those seizures have been reduced.   Now I have partial of focal seizures every 8-14 days. You can give his neurologist permission to bring it up on line and it might help him bring up the graphs and other information which can help him with different medications, dosages and procedures that might get your son seizure free. I hope this helps and your sone gets seizure free Joe

LauriThe dosage yor son is on is a low dosage. I take it and am at the maximum dosage for anybody taking keppra. It takes time for the body to get used to the medication so he was getting used to the dosage but it was raised so it takes time again to get used to the dosage. I too had a few problems when I started taking it but my body got used to it and since then the number of seizures has reduced. It has also reduced the time in the seizure and the time to get back to normal (focus time). The seizures that were 3-8 minutes long are now 2-8 seconds. The focus time was 15-45 minutes sometimes longer are now 5-10 seconds. While I have partial and focal seizures now I can have one while in a crowd and unlsee you know what to look for you wouldn't know I had it even if we were talking. I take 3-750mg tablets morning and night which comes to 4500mg a day. If you are looking at different posts regarding keppra you will also see a lot of posts where people taking it called it keprage because they got side effects and because of those they wanted off it. I have been in drug studies so I do know the side effects do happen. I also know that the percentage of people taking the medication that have side effects are small. All the posts about keppra being bad and mood changing are being posted by 5-8% of the people taking it. You will rarely see a post about what keppra has done to people who have had no problems with it after their bodies got used to the medication. The other 92-95% taking it are doing fine so why would they come in here to post if they aren't having problems. I came here to get the diary and the diary was seperate but had a forum. When I saw the questions being asked I knew I could help answer some of their questions. I can say keppra is the best medication I have ever taken in the 50+ years I have been living and dealing with epilepsy. As for your son using the restroom alot. Well I remember what I was doing when I was his age and yes I did the same thing. SOme night nothing others 2-3 times. I still do that today/ It all depends on the amount of liquid I drink and aslo if I eat fruit with a lot of juice. Watermelon tastes great but eating it after dinner I know I will be up and down. I would suggest you get the Epilepsy Diary which can be found on this site. Watch the video which tells you what is in it and how it can help you. it has a note pad in it. I use it because I had an increase in the number of seizures. It went back up but not because of the reason I had thought. Doc added vimpat to my keppra and we have increased the dosages of it 3 different times and those seizures have been reduced. Now I have partial of focal seizures every 8-14 days. You can give his neurologist permission to bring it up on line and it might help him bring up the graphs and other information which can help him with different medications, dosages and procedures that might get your son seizure free. I hope this helps and your sone gets seizure free Joe

Keppra and increase/change in seizures

Comments

LauriThe dosage yor son is on

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2014-09-10 - 09:44

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