Scared and about to start Vimpat

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caraagrace

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Hi all - My doctor called me today and I am going in first thing in the morning to do my first MRI and my second EEG. Since this is my second seizure within a few months she is recommending that I start seizure medication tomorrow. She is starting me on 100mg Vimpat with the intention of building it to 200mg a day in a month. I am one of those people that has never taken anything but birth control on a daily basis and the thought of taking a medication to adjust the electrical activity in my brain scares the crap out of me. Any one else been on Vimpat? Any insight and advice would be great!

I am so happy I found this forum!
 
I haven't taken Vimpat myself, but I'm definitely with you when it comes to being scared and resistant to meds. I've always been extremely healthy, so when my seizures struck at age 35 it was distressing to say the least. Anyway, for the time being I'm resigned to being on meds. It took me three tries to find the "right" seizure med. All three controlled my seizures, but in terms of side effects the Lamictal I'm on now is the least annoying.

Keep this in mind when you try the Vimpat -- it may be the perfect med for you, but if it doesn't do the trick, or the side effects are intolerable, there are other meds out there to try.

Here are some threads about Vimpat from the CWE archives:
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/vimpat-fyi-13093/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f36/vimpat-new-aed-has-anybody-else-tried-6894/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f20/looking-info-vimpat-12613/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/has-anyone-else-taken-vimpat-urgh-9720/
 
My dr tried me on Vimpat, with Keppra in March of this year. I started out at 25mgs the first week, went to 50mgs the second, and then to 100mgs, trying to work my way up to 200mgs a day. But I had a bad side effect of the medication and my dr took me off. They do say that it can cause depression or suicidal thoughts, but it wont happen to everyone that tries it. Im not trying to scare you or anything, I never heard of it before my dr said to try it. Ive heard alot of people say it works great for them!

I found this site which gives more information on Vimpat for you! :)

www.vimpat.com

www.vimpat.com/

www.drugs.com/vimpat.html
 
I was on Vimpat when my seizures first started (about a year and a half ago) worked great for me (as far as controlling seizures) for awhile, but when I switched to my current Neuro (who is awesome), she switched me off Vimpat to Trileptal due to some side effects (headaches, insomnia, coordination, and a some, more "personal" ones. She said that since Vimpat was so new, she preferred a more "tried and true" medication that had a better track record and had less side effects. Plus, it was much cheaper than Vimpat and more available. I had several pharmacies that I tried that did not have the 200mg in stock (and did not plan to) and had to special order it.
 
Thank you all so much for your advice and kind words! I am picking up my prescription today and will see how it goes...trying to stay positive!
 
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