How long does it take you to adjust???

[TexasTravel]

One of my real pet peeves about my epilepsy and my doctor is constantly changing medicine.

I do see that many of you take tremendous amounts more than I do, so how do you handle it?

My body does not take good to changing medicines and even changing doses. My medicine and dosages are 350 mg Lamictal, twice daily and 100 mg Trileptal, twice daily. That is nothing compared to many of you, I realize. But, my deal is that even these low dosages send me for a loop and within 15 minutes my eyes cross, severely, and I cannot walk 5 feet without falling down.

To handle some of these effects, even a little bit, I have to have a good amount of food in my stomach/system to dilute or slow down the medicine entering my bloodstream. Because of this, I am gaining weight, slowly but steadily.

I have been through many medicines and they are, pretty much, all the same. I have taken Phenobarbital, Dilantin, Lamictal, Keppra, Tegretol and some more that I can remember at the present time. Now the doctor wants me to start taking even stronger doses.

I am sure that many of you have dealt with this or are dealing with this at the present time. So, how does medicine affect you? What side affects? How long does it take to affect you? How long does it last? Etc., etc., etc.

I am up, right now, at 2:44 a.m. just because I increased my dose of Tegretol 100 mg at night. Last night I was up until 5:00 a.m. Between these two days, I have had 5 hours of sleep. It is driving me nuts! I feel like I am on cocaine or something..........wired.

[hawke86]

Adjust to what?

[Birdbomb]

Read the post.
To new or upped dosages medications.

[RobinN]

Rebecca took far less than you and the side effects were awful.
Certainly not worth living that way. I think it depends on your body and system.
Rebecca being an athlete, I believe that medication is much more effective in part of her system, but being constipated, and lack of fluids, I believe that some of what she takes is stronger in her system, as the "toxins" ... er medication does not get eliminated as necessary. My theory...

I want to figure out the cause, since the medication just made the matter worse.

[Loudmouth]

The only medication i havent had side effects from was when i was only on gabapentin (neurontin,possibly,in america??),worth a try perhaps. unfortunately,even with meds...I am having 11-20 complex partials a day (many more without!!),so am now on Topamax as well.(god-awful side effects from that!)