Whats up everyone.

[VintageRacer]

I'm 18 and have Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. I found this out about 9 months ago.

I was woken up early in the morning after not sleeping more than 5 hours. I went to help my parents change a flat. They needed the jack. I drove across town and proceeded to put the spare on. My arms started jerking around. My mom tells me to go sit down, so I start walking away from where I was changing the wheel. All the sudden I find myself falling face first onto asphalt with no ability to put my arms out to take the impact

My case isn't that bad. I have some jerks every now and then, but no real episodes. Anyone else get unbelievably tired from Depakote? I'm transferring from that to Lemotragine. Forgive any medicine mispelling's please.

Alex

P.S. Any other Oregonians?

[Nakamova]

Hi VintageRacer, welcome to CWE!

I'm currently on Lamictal (Lamotrigine). You might want to ask your doc about making sure you're on the brand rather than the generic form. It can make a difference to how stable the med is in your bloodstream. Generics are notoriously inconsistent.

Most of the meds can make you tired, but Lamictal has a pretty good track record in that respect. But it can sometimes affect memory/cognition, so I hope you and your doc can find the minimum dose you can get away with. The smaller the dose, the fewer the side effects.

You can search the archives for what other folks have posted about meds or anything else using the search tab at the top. I hope you feel free to vent and post questions, and chime in as the mood strikes you.

Best,
Nakamova

[drarvindr]

Welcome to CWE ! fellow juvenile myoclonic epilepsy right here. Yes , i'm on depakote and it sedates me. Take it easy and don't miss out on sleep and you'l be fine

[Bernard]

Hi Alex, welcome to the forum.

Depakote turned my wife into a zombie... but she got better!

[VintageRacer]

Thanks for the welcomes everybody. I think I am already having a little bit of a fuzzy memory with this medicine. I will get it sorted out.

Alex

[lindinig]

My son's memory is fuzzy on depakote. It doesn't seem to make him tired. He's on brand-name extended release, so he takes it at night. I think taking it at night helps with that. When he was on the generic depakote though, his memory was really bad! His teachers said he looked lost half the time. So, there is quite a difference between generic and brand name.