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Nervous, please help!

Thu, 08/17/2017 - 09:20
Hello I was recently diagnosed with epilepsy, my doctor prescribed me Keppra 500mg twice a day. I'm 24 and have never had to take medication like this before and I have read so many mixed reviews, my fiancee looked arrivals up and has now made me afraid of taking it because of the side effects. Does anyone has anything positive to say about keppra? I really wanted to start taking it Thanks!

Comments

Hi Melissa. I was also

Submitted by supersue on Thu, 2017-08-17 - 15:19
Hi Melissa. I was also recently diagnosed (my first seizure was Oct-2016) and I'm 45. I had a tonic clonic seizure and was prescribed 500mg keppra  as well. I can understand your fear of the side-effects - I was too! Doctors and nurses said it would take about a month or so to even out and get used to it but I want to say it was more like 6 months - although a little off and on. My biggest complaint is being so freaking tired all the time, and some dizziness here and there. About 8 months after that I had a few partial focal seizures (didn't lose consciousness though - thank god) and doc increased to 750mg 2xday. That slight increase didn't affect me at all, if anything I started feeling better. I did find myself short tempered a few times but awareness helps recognize that what you're feeling is partially drug induced and not let myself get carried away with anger. Hope you find good luck w/ Keppra - it's supposed to be one of the more well received drugs for most people.

Well you need to start taking

Submitted by just_joe on Thu, 2017-08-17 - 17:05
Well you need to start taking keppra if it was prescribed to you. Side effects do happen. But not to everybody. Generally if one gets them they go away ater the medication builds up to the therapeutic levels for that dosage in your body. That level takes about 4-6 weeks. If the dosage is increased then you  have about a week for the level to build again. I have been living with epilepsy and dealing with it and seizures and medications for 50+ years now. Keppra is the best medication I have ever used and I have only taken about 24 different medications and combinations during that time period. I have been taking keppra since about 2004. It reduced the number of seizures I was having greatly. We added vimpat to it about 5 years ago and the combination reduced the number of my seizures again. The combination also shortened the time in my seizures. Today I have a seizure every 8-14 days and at times longer. The seizures are a few seconds in length. I can have a seizure while talking to you and you would know nothing of it unless I told you  I had it.Understand that seizure medications are not like aspirin where once taken it goes away after a few hours. Any and all medications including over the counter meds have side effects. Have you ever seen commercials on TV for a medication and saw the screen with a lot of writing that you can't read because the lettering is SO SMALL???? YUP side effects written where one can not read them. Pick up any medication and you will read a few side effects. Oh and just so you'll know it Aspirin can kill a person.Constantly ask your neurologist questions. Keep track of the number of seizures you have had after starting the medication and that will give your doc information to use in order to increase or decrease you dosages. Take them at the same time daily. If 2 times a day then those times need to be as close to 12 hours apart.OH and just so you';; know what the therapeutic levels are for. Those levels will help stop a breakthrough seizure from happening if you take your medications really late or miss a dosage. Been there done that when I was a lot younger and didn't know much about therapeutic levels and times to take meds.I hope this helps and you get seizure freeJoe

My mother got extremely

Submitted by salsaljoon on Fri, 2017-08-18 - 00:47
My mother got extremely spacey when she was on 500mg of Keppra. Apparently a lot of people suffer and do not do well with this medication. Ask your doctor to lower your dosage to maybe 250mg 2x a day. As soon as my mother did that it was like a 180 degree turn and she was back to her normal self. 

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