CJ Stephenson
I guess I am asking for suggestions from people that would really know. I was diagnosed with epilepsy 16 months and 26 days ago, yes I remember the exact date. When things got really bad, I thaught of every day as a battle, taking one battle at a time. So any day good or bad, if I survived the battle, I won. After being on Depakote about 6 months I gained 38 pounds and slept every moment I possible could. I was 17 when I was diagnosed and I slept as much of my 17th year alive that I could. My grades were slipping, and not because I was slacking, just because I couldn't stay awake in class. My doctor and I agreed to switch medications in the late spring so by the time I went away to college I'd be completely off the Depakote. The new medication, Lamictol, worked great at the begging. About the second month I was away I was experiencing jerks every morning when I woke up and every night when I layed in bed. The Depakote is a "downer" so it made me very depressed, I pretty much hibernated for the winter, but the Lamictol is an "upper." This had an opposite effect. One moment I'd be fine, the next I'd be jumping off the walls. but, I guess that's better than sleeping 14 hours a day. Increasing the Lamictol was just going to make me even crazier, so when I go to see my nerologist on the 28th, were going to add another medication to my current daily dosage. After two bad experiences, I've really wised up. When I was first diagnosed, i was more shocked and upset to really care enough to look into what I was really putting into my body everday. That was the biggest mistake. Your doctor is probably wonderful, as is mine, but were all one up on them, we take the medications and they've never have. I think in their busy lives they neglect to remember that we will all keep the body we are in now, until the day we die. What ever we let happen to it, may affect the rest of our lives. Wether you take these mediations yourself, or give them to your children, your #1 defence is to do your homework. I know my doctor is very well educated, but I want to be too. I now do research on any new medication I hear of. I put all of them drugs in to a section of a three ring binder. One section is for drugs I'd never take, the other side are ones that I'd consider, there aren't any that I want to take. This way when I go see my nerologist, I know what she's talking about and I really know what to ask. I've come to realize the only mistake that can be made by a patient in any situation is not to do thier own homework. I for one, want to know whats going into my body, and that is the best advise I can give anyone, just do your educate yourself.