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Planning a Pregnancy, Looking for Advice!

Thu, 03/19/2015 - 00:17

Hi Everyone,

I was hoping for some advice on what the best plan is in regards to pregancy. In speaking with both my GP and neurologist, they have essentially said it's my call on how I wish to proceed, which I haven't found to be very helpful. I'm 30 years old, and have experienced Grand Mal seizures and petit mal seizures since I was 18. I am on 4 medications- 1500 mgs of Keppra, 300 mgs of Lamotrigine, 200 mgs of Carbamazepine, and 325 mgs of Topomax. I have not yet had a Grand Mal on all 4 meds and do not have any side effects, which is why I am fearful to go off them. Both Carb and Topomax are category D on the pregnacy warning, obviously a worry...

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

The person you need to talk

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2015-03-19 - 16:26
The person you need to talk to regarding this issue is yuor neurologist. He would know the best medications for you. He would know if you need to have some dosages changes along with medication chagnes . True it is up to you but your neurologist can help but he also needs to know your worries and why you worry. .True some medications can cause problems in several ways. But your neurologist knows the best medications for you during that time. How knows if changes to medications were made for this issue it might get you seizure free. I loved the medications I was using but I also knew I had to get at least 1 changed. I had gotten toxic on. We made the change and instead of 3 medications we reduced it to 2. That change helped me by reducing the number of seizures I was having. It shortened the time in those seizures... A few years later I wanted better control and discussed it with my neurologist again. We talked about the medications and I chose to make the change again. I am glad I made that change because the seizures were reduced again. The time in those seizures in now seconds rather then minutes.. We then coupled the medication with another and the number of seizures was reduced again. I now have a seizure every8-14 days. The seizures I have are 2-5 seconds in length. I can have one while discuccing something with  you and during the seizure and my talking you would think I was trying to find a word I wanted to us. I know that last statement is true because I had one in my PCP's office while telling him an issue I wanted taken care of. I asked him what he thought the delay was. He said he thought I was serching for a word. When I told him it was a seizure he was amazed since I had had seizures in his office before and he know the time in the seizure and time to get back to normal was about45-60 minutes.In other words your doctors want t ohelp yo ubut they want the decission to be yours. If you really want this to happen then talk to your neurologist and lay it out before him and ask questions. By doing that he will know more and he can get things out of your visit that you wouldn't know. Start with a call telling him you want to talk about something important and that youneed his help. It means you want information from him. If he asks tell him what you are thinking about but you want to discuss it with him in person. Which shows him you need his assistance in making your dicession. I have always had questions for my neurologist. For every questin he asks me I have at least one for him.It is never a simple decission to make be it yours or others. Mine weren't easy but knowing I have been with the same group of neurologists since 1970 they know I will ask for visits only when I need assistance in determining a direction to move. I do hope this helps and you get the assistance you need Joe

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