Community Forum Archive

RE: medications I have been on

Submitted by poetrywriter2004 on Thu, 2004-01-22 - 03:03

Well, first of all, my last EEG was done 2 weeks ago. I haven't gotten a call about any results yet. It was a video EEG that took 6 hours, and was done at a hospital. I am pretty sure that the anxiety attacks are actually anxiety attacks since I have a long history of having anxiety attacks. They are different than any anxiety attacks that I have ever had, so it could be something else, but I don't really know. I also have complex partial siezures, but from what I was told, when I have seizures. I can't see or hear anything. The one part of my brain that is affected is the right temporal lobe I think it is called. Yeah, I am fairly sure that it is called temporal lobe. I was born with a portion of my brain missing. How much, I don't know. And then some around that is deformed. Once again, I don't know how much is affected. Over the years as I would get older, the rest of my brain would take over a lot of the functions of the of the affected area of my brain. I don't know how much of my right temporal lobe is affected. I had significant problems with physical and mental developement. I was behind in those aspects for the first several years of my life. But as I got to be 9 or 10 years old maybe, I was catching up developementally. There are things that I don't understand and have to be explained more thoroughly to me because I also have very, very mild autism. My mom told me that I actually started to have seizures when I was almost four years old. She also told me that she took me to a number of doctors and neurologists over the next year, all through 1987 to the beginning of 1988. My mom said that the doctors said that I probably had a brain lesion, but didn't suggest any treatment at all. EEG's were done within that year, but of course I don't remember them. I was told that I was sedated for some of them. They had to, I was four years old and terrified. You can't do an EEG on a child that is screaming. My mom demanded answers because she wasn't getting any answers from the doctors that she went to then (I obviously don't blame her) So they sent her and me to The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to a pediatric neurologist. My mom told me that I had an EEG there also. They also saw the seizure activity on the EEG, but it was in only one part of the brain. So they wanted to have an MRI done. It was put in as 911 status, in other words, I was automatically put at the top of the list to have a MRI done. I had one done a week later, and in 1988, that is fast. They at first thought that I had a brain tumor of some kind. That is why they wanted to have a MRI done. It showed that I didn't have a brain tumor, but the brain damage that I talked about earlier. They told the doctors where I still live to this day to get me on medication immediately. For a few years after that, I would go to U of I Hospitals and Clinics once a year. I don't remember if I went there more often than that during the first year or two after I was diagnosed with epilepsy. I was diagnosed with Epilepsy when I was almost five years old, at the beginning of 1988.I do know that my seizures are out of control. I was officially at that status since May of last year. I do know that being stressed about having another seizure is a very vicious cycle. I have to admit, I did that too. I did get past that though. It wasn't easy though. Ok, this is the situation with my medications. I guess I accidentally gave you the wrong impression about my medication changes. It must have been how I worded it. Oops, sorry about that. I was put on Carbamanzipine (generic of tegretol) when I was diagnosed. It was increased a few times over the period of 15 years. I don't know what I started out at in terms of dosage, but I ended at 1200mg. I think it was at the end of 2002 or the beginning of 2003 that I was put on Valproic Acid (Valproic Acid and Depakote are almost identical). The dosage of that was 1000mg. At the time, I was also taking 800mg of Carbamanzapine. Then in May of last year when I saw a neurologist for the first time in several years, he wanted me to gradually go off of Valproic gradually over a four week period. He also switched me over to Tegretol XR (extended release) instead of Carbamanzapine, and the dose was bumped up to 1200mg. I was fairly optimistic that my seizures would get better, and at that time, they weren't nearly as they are right now. I think it was September, no, I remember now, it was September when I went back to my neurologist for a checkup, and I told him that my seizures were gradually getting worse, and that I had two known seizures that week. He told me that he wanted to put me on Topamax. I had to start at 25mg and increase it by 25mg per week until I get up to 400mg, then decrease my Tegretol by 200mg every 3 days until I was off of it completely. So that would've been over a period of what, 2 and a half weeks. Well, I never got close to 400mg on the Topamax. I started having serious side affects almost immediately. I had severe irritability and moodswings. I was also physically weak, and lost my balance frequently. I also suffered memory loss. Unfortunately, some of the memory loss and inability to remember things sometimes is permanent. It ranges from suddenly forgetting what I was talking about to someone about when I am in the middle of talking to forgetting quite often the little things in life, and also, my short term memory was affected. And all of this happened at only 50mg. I can't remember how long I took Topamax before I called my neurolgist. I doubt it was any more that a couple of weeks. I could've been three weeks, but l don't remember. And as you might be able to see, there are things that have happened in the past that I don't remember that before all this happened, I would have remembered easily. I easily forget about things that happen just a few days ago, or even earlier in the day. I know that the Topamax didn't cause all of the memory loss that I am suffering from right now. I have noticed that as my seizures got worse, so has my memory loss. Well, back to calling my neurologist. I told him about the side affects. The memory loss was there at the time also, but not prominent enough for me to say anything when I told him about the other severe side affects that I was having with the Topamax. He told me to decrease it by 25mg per week until I was off of it. So it only took a couple of weeks for me to get off the Topamax. Then he told me to start taking Kepra. I was to start at 1000mg, then the second week, go up to 2000mg. I started having extreme side affects almost immediately. I had extremely severe irritability, and even more severe mood swings. The mood swings were so bad that I can't tell quite a few people that I know because it would scare them really bad. I also had thoughts of suicide. That was caused by the Kepra also. I wasn't even on Kepra for a week. I was afraid that I was gonna hurt myself, so I did something that I almost never do. I decrease the Kepra from 1000mg to 500mg. I felt better for maybe half a day, but then the irritability came back with avengience. So after being at 400mg for 3-5 days, I went off the Kepra without the concent of my neurologist. I didn't have the concent from my neurologist to decrease my Kepra from 1000mg to 500mg. When I told my personal physician about that, he told me that I had to go back on the Kepra otherwise I could have a real bad seizure. And I knew very well that that could happen. So a couple or a few days later, I called my neurologist and told him about the extremely severe side affects from the Kepra. Well, I told his nurse, and he called me back telling me to go off of the Kepra and to start taking Depakote ER. During all this time, I was still on Tegretol XR since I had never gotten to full dose on either the Topamax, or the Kepra.I was told to start at 500mg of the Depakote ER then the following week, go up to 1000mg. This was said over the phone. That was said at the beginning of Oct- ober I think. But there was a misunderstand or miscomunication on my part mostly. I was on my cell phone inside my house, and the reception was not real good, so I didn't hear him say to gradually go off of my Tegretol over a period of 5-6 weeks. So I was taking 1200 mg of Tegretol XR and 1000mg of Depakote ER. I don't remember when I made an appointment to go in and talk to him about my concerns with my medications. We got that matter straightened out. He told me to gradually go off of my Tegretol. That was sometime in October. That is also when he told me to set an appointment up for 6 months from then, which is April, to see how I am doing, as to whether I would need surgery or not. He and I both knew that it was very doubtful that the Depakote ER would work very well. I knew that he knew because he told me so. He also told me that if I was still having seizures like I was then, that he would send me to the U of I hospitals and Clinics to see if I am a candidate for surgery. I am fairly sure that he knew that my medication would have to be changed between October and April. My seizures really increase in frequency at the beginning of December. I called my neurologist again at the beginning of December I think it was, and told him that the frequency and the seriousness of my seizures was increasing. So he told me to start taking 1500mg of Depakote ER instead of 1000mg. I would say a couple of weeks later, my seizures increase in frequency and seriousness even more, so I made an appointment to see my neurologist on December 31st. A couple of my worst seizures happened on the 29th and the 30th. On the 29th, I had several seizures in a row I think. Well, I know that I blacked out several times. Then not long after that, I passed out. If someone hadn't of happened to be there to catch me and lower me to the floor, I would've hit something on the way down. It is hard telling what would have happened if no one had caught me and gently put me on the floor. I am sure they would've carried me to the break room if I hadn't of come to when I did. I know that someone had caught me because someone was right behind me. I don't know if they were about to pick me up or not. They probably were, otherwise I would have been in the way. He prevented me from getting hurt. Two people had to help me to the break room where I work because I was unable to walk for a few minutes. The next day, something happened that scared me so bad that I was backing up. If the same person had not of stopped me from backing up any more, I would've backed up into a hot grill, and I know that I would've burned myself for sure. So the same person prevented me from getting hurt twice. It is known to happen that if a person is walking towards a person having a seizure and/or just starting to come out of one, the person having the seizure will be terrified. I think it said out of fear of restraint. My neurologist the next day confirmed that that episode was a seizure. I will tell the rest of it later. I need to get some sleep. I'm sorry I couldn't say all of it at the same time.Thank you all for replying.Renee