Short term memory

[Mercyme]

Hi stacy,

I was reading your diary, and you mentioned you are having short term memory problems, has that just been while you are on dilitan? or have you noticed it on other anti-convulsants? I am taking lamictal 200 mg, and sometimes I am forgetful, I know all those medications have to have some effect on your memory. or maybe it's just because I'm getting older, lol, I am 42. I don't feel old that's what counts. I was also reading that after you had your baby you started having seizures again, I have 3 daughters, all 3 are healthy. I didn't take any meds with the first baby, and I had alot of seizures during the first 4 months of my pregrancy, with my middle daughter I stayed on a low dose of tregetol. And with my third miracle and a blessing, I was on lamcital. while I was in labor with my third baby I had several seizures, and continued to have seizures after she was born. The doctors allowed me to put off having brain surgery until she was a year old, I just didn't want to have surgery until her first birthday and my oldest daughter was graduating high school. I did have the surgery a year later, a RTL and I am doing great.
I do you guys have a chat room set up? I think it would be great for you to chat with others who know what you are going through and how you feel. I will continue to pray for you, and your family.

God Bless,

Cindy/mercyme :wink:

[Bernard]

Hi Cindy, Stacy will be on-line later today and will respond to the main part of your post. We have not set up a chat room for several reasons:

• We are not available with either enough frequency or regularity of schedule to maintain/moderate one
• I prefer the forum format because it preserves conversation for the benefit of folks who might not otherwise participate in the conversation

[Stacy]

I have no idea what Lamactil is... but I have had short term memory problems since before I got on Dilantin. In fact, I had long term memory problems too, but they were really weird. I mean, people would call and ask me things like my son's name and I couldn't remember right away. HOWEVER. Dr. Yang Shu Yang, told me "It was all still there" (regarding my old memories) and I think she was right. I was actually able to recite the "Gettysburg Address" in its entirety, at some point. Now I don't have very many problems with memory, but boy... sometimes, it just won't come to me.... the information I need at the moment, I mean.

[Axa]

Dear Stacy,

glad to meet you finally! I know your husband Bernard from British E-forum - and that's how I came to your beautiful site. Please, come and visit us!

Lamictal is a medicine known also by its main ingredient, lamogatrine, but since I'm not taking it I can't tell you some more about it.

Let me introduce: Friends call me Axa. I'm 40 years old female from Slovenia. l live with my understanding other half and a cat. I work as translator, mainly of theatre&art theory, fiction and philosophy works.

I've had my first seizures when I was ten, eleven years old till I was eighteen. Then I was twenty years without seizures at all. I was convinced that I've overgrown it. But, they returned two years ago. My last tonic clonic was in November 2003. I also have some absences, always during my periods (so called catamenial epilepsy), but not every month.

I have very understanding neurologist who really cares about me. He always have enough time for me, usually nearly two hours. I appreciate this a lot. He doesn't treat me like an "idiot" or a "child" - I hear it is not all that rare .. I have this nice feeling that he is nearly more concerned about my quality of life than about my E, he he. That's great feeling. Also, my E is not all that "strong", so for me the quality of life is even more important in a way.

Currently I am taking Tegretol CR & Neurontin. This combination works nice for me. The only side effect which really bothers me is insomnia, but since my husband and I work as free-lancers it is not all that important when we get up, work, or sleep. Also I was prone to insomnia even before taking Neurontin; my neurologist says that people who are night owls by nature very often become raging insomniacs, dependeless of which anti-epileptic drug they are taking.

Sorry for my English.

Love

Axa

[RanMan]

Hi everybody,
I was just reading your posts about short term memory. Mine is from the meds and not the epilepsy. Guess what, it gets worse with age.

My short term memory is almost totally gone and my recall isn't much better.
It's caused problems with my job too but that's a whole other story. Besides this I have slurred speech and very poor gait and coordination(as well as several other side effects from the meds), people think I'm drunk. I've even been pulled over by the police as DUI until they saw my medic alert bracelet.
Lots more to say but I don't want to bore you all.

Randy (ontario, Canada)

[Bernard]

Well, I think Stacy's cognitive functions are improving now thanks to not having a tonic clonic seizure in over seven weeks now and the neurofeedback training she is doing.