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Welcome to the world of Topamax!

Fri, 03/09/2007 - 09:36
Hi All! Well I am new to all of this...new to this community and new to epilepsy. I refer to all it on Super Bowl Sunday Mayhem...kind of silly...but that is when I had my first seizure. I am only 23 and it came out of the blue. The sickest I have ever been is when I had the the flu really bad...I have only spent one night in the hospital when I was little...I had the slightest clue what to do. A month later...including blood work...a CT scan...five more seizures...stroke like symptoms...an EEG...an MRI and SO ON AND SO ON the doctors figured it out. Thank goodness. Anyways...I started my wonderul medication journey as postive as I could on Lamicital but got the one side effect I could---the dreaded rash (that was HORRIBLE and really scary by the way) and was taken off that... Now I am on Topamax. Has anyone gotten numbness in their lips? It is the weirdest thing? I have been reading all the other forums for the past few days about the other tinglings in the hands and feet and have all of that too, not to mention the extreme forgetfulness and memory loss. It doesn't help when you are a journalist and you have to remember words to write stories! HAHA! Luckily I have the most understanding editor in the world with a...um...CRAP...forgot the word...oh...sense of humor....a BIG sense of humor. While I think of the words that I forget...he just sits blankly and says UM UM UM...You can do this...haha. I am only 6 weeks into this new world of epilepsy and medication and any advice or tips anyone can offer would be amazing and greatly appreciated. I know I may not be able to offer profound advice or superb information, but I might be able offer my support! P.S. I am so bummed that my taste buds went from this stuff too...COFFEE...my STAPLE tastes like crap...how are journalists supposed to function without that! haha...(Don't worry, it's decaf!)

Comments

Re: Welcome to the world of Topamax!

Submitted by Zero on Fri, 2007-03-09 - 14:39
I know exactly what you mean by your comment on the memory lose with the Topamax. I started takeing topamax about 3 months back at first i thought it was me looseing my mind. I found out i had epilepsy which mostly comes on at night but some times it catches me out in the day LOL when i was 24.And four years later after every tablet there is they put me on topamax so far the side affects are me forgetting things the simplest things. So far im on 200mg and it keeps going up

Re: Re: Welcome to the world of Topamax!

Submitted by snapdragon928 on Fri, 2007-03-09 - 22:07
My son is on topamax. I am concerned about the side effect of kidney stones, so drink lots of fluids guys. I looked up the side effects about these different meds and came across this site called Crazymeds.com. What they said about topamax is it makes you instantly stupid. They talked about the memory stuff. It is an interesting site.My son is autistic, so he didn't seem to have any of these problems that I could see with memory. He is getting more agressive lately and louder. He is having behavior problems at school. justdewit38 yahoo messenger. 23 year old autistic son with seizure disorder.

Re: Re: Re: Welcome to the world of Topamax!

Submitted by bex on Sat, 2007-03-10 - 16:15
I've been reading this site for a while, and only now seeing your comments on Topamax have I registered! I sufferred with grandmal epilepsy from 15-20 and was given sodium valproate which seemed to get it under control and I thought my epilepsy had gone away. However, about 2 years ago I started having lots of 'unexplained experiences' and it turns out after eegs I have TLE. The neuro started me off on Lactimal/Lamotrogine in Jan 06 which didn't really reduce the partials so they introduced Topamax aswell at the end of December 06. I started getting lots of side affects of nausea, weight loss, pins and needles, hallucinations and really bad memory loss and concentration problems to the point that I have been signed of work for the last 6 weeks and now for another 4 weeks as I am unable to do my job. On some days I sounded almost drunk I was that slow. The worst incident was when I went to the Dr's and couldn't remember my address and telephone number. It definitely slows your thinking down, I used to be so on the ball, now I have lists for everything and have become quite forgetful. They have now decided to take me off the Lamictal as apparently being on 2 anticonvulsants affects your memory/concentration alot worse than one and since I've come off this I don't feel like I am walking around in a ball of cotton wool as much and my body is definitely adjusting as no hallucinations or nausea. Although they still need to adjust the Topamax to stop the partials. My best advice - keep smiling!

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