So much for trying Generic Keppra XR

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momof3boys

momof3boys

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last night I woke up at 2am just not feeling right. My back hurt, which woke me up. I layed there and something inside me told me to sit up in bed. As I did. I didnt feel right. This sudden feeling of fear and sadness came over me. My heart began to race, and I knew right then there a seizure was going to happen. My arms started to shake and stiffen, I got scared and burst into tears. Thats what woke my husband up. He saw what was going on, and as the seizure went on, the more my heart began to race faster, then I felt like i had to puke through out the time my body was stiffening. I didnt know what to do. The seizure would stop, then another would start.. by the time I got the ativan and didnt feel those things, at least a good 20 minutes had gone by. My body was weak, and i could barely keep my eyes open. So I layed back down and tried to relax and sleep. I woke up this morning at 11am. My husband stayed home from work today. I had saved 2 weeks of the name brand keppra xr, so i started taking that this morning. Im going to have to give my drs office a call on monday to tell them this is not working and I need to take the brand name again.

At least I gave the generic a shot. So I think it was worth it. The more I think about it now, wednesday night when I went to sleep and woke up thursday morning, I had that jaw ache all through out the day. I felt weak and more tired that day too. I now know it was probably a seizure that took place. I took ubuphropen for the pain that day and my jaw was alot better on friday. no pain at all. Then friday night, the seizures happen.


Oh well... life goes on.
 
So sorry :(

This is so common; it was all over the Irish newspapers recently telling E patients to be real careful if generic is suggested (My Mum was telling me)….I know the brand is more expensive :(

Glad you had a reserve at hand. Hopefully they will only prescribe the brand name only from here on out.....and get you back to seizure freedom.
 
Thank you. I just was praying it would work for me. But at the end, at least I know I gave it a shot. This was my first time trying a generic. So looks like my body can only handle the name brand stuff. I was thinking of calling the drs office today, i know they do have a oncall dr who I can get ahold of. I can let them know whats going on. But Im going to wait til my mom gets off work. I just feel so weak right now, and my right upper eye lid has been twitching for about the past hour now. Its annoying the crap out of me.
 
Well, it took some "rough talking" but I got through to the on call line, and the on call dr agree'd to give me a 30 days supply of the Brand Name Keppra XR. They sent a prescription to our local pharmacy. I do have a savings card, which I can use that saves me $15, making it $25 for the months supply. So that helps. But in order to get a new six month supply through our online pharmacy, I need to call the office on monday and speak to the drs nurse, or the dr himself to get them to fax a prescription over to the online pharmacy. Til then, Im going to try to rest and take it easy. The only thing I dont like now is when I lay down, and close my eyes, I get the feeling that Im "falling"... Its a weird feeling. My head hurts, Im weak, tired and just not feeling the best. I think today Im going to take it easy and rest in bed while watching movies.
 
This is no good, went so long without one. That is one of the worst feelings to have a breakthrough after so much success. Id go back on the namebrand asap. Goes to show, the generics might not always be the same as the name brand. I hope you start feeling more stable buddy.
 
Kristin,
Sorry to hear about the seizure, glad that you had some back up brand name Keppra XR.
I hope you feel better soon
 
I'm sorry Kristin. :(

You're one smart lady for having some name brand on hand just in case.

Hope you feel better. ***hugs***.
 
Thank you! Im hoping I get to feeling better soon too. Im going to take some more ibuprophen for the headache I still have, and to help all that "wonderful" sore achy feeling the seizures bring on with them! Im thinking about just laying in bed with my lap top, watching some tv and taking it easy the rest of the day. heck i didnt get up til after 11am, and its not almost 4pm. But I guess I shouldnt push myself.
 
I'm sorry to hear the generic Keppra didn't work for you. I hope you're feeling better! Good on you for having some of the name brand Keppra on hand. Good thinking!
 
I hope you feel better, and that you get back to "normal" quickly on the brand Keppra.
 
thanks everyone. I am starting to feel back to normal. Took me a couple of days, but the headache I had for the last two days is finally going away. Im starting to get up and doing more things around here. which doesnt make me feel as weak. Ive been back on the name brand since yesterday morning. So tonight will be my 4th dose of the name brand. My back is actually feeling better too.. :)
 
I'm sorry that that had to happen :( Also sorry the generic didn't work for you. I haven't had any issues, but it's all I've ever taken in regards to the XR version, so maybe that's why (no change in ingredients).
 
Kirstin, great news!

Now hopefully a big dose of seizure freedom :)
 
I'm so sorry it didn't work for you, Kristin. =( *hugs* Hope you're feeling better now, what a horrible thing. =(
 
Yeah at least I gave it a try.

But on the other hand, I have 11 days left of the name brand keppra xr on hand now. I got ahold of my drs office today, left a message, and recieved a call back from the nurse. The nurse who I LOVE! :) She is always great at getting back to me and is really friendly and nice!

I told her about the seizures and my experience with the generic, she said no problem. She would be happy to switch me back to the name brand, I gave her the fax number to ship a 6 month supply with 1 refil til my next appointment which is in august 2013.

Then I think all is going well... til we call our insurance company. They said they cant take that because the oncall dr on saturday sent over a prescription for the "30 day supply of Keppra xr to our target here in town. So we have to cancel that and have them reverse it. Which we did, but then we find out it wasnt a 30 day supply, it was a 30 TABLET SUPPLY! Which would have only lasted me 5 days! The reason why I wanted a 1 month is because the 6 month supply I get is through an online pharmacy, and it can take up to 4 weeks to process, and ship out. With only having 11 days on hand, I needed more of the name brand if it was going to take that long.

Then, we find out that the six month supply I had my nurse fax over, has to change to a 3 month supply becuase they dont send out 6 month supplies! LOL

So, I had to call and leave another voice mail for the nurse to ask if she can resend it for a 3 month supply with 3 refills. Now im waiting to hear back on that. in the meantime, Im sure since its going to take longer than 11 days til i get the supply, Im going to have to go back to the generic for a short time. The pharmacy online person said to give it 10 business days. Well I only have 11 days... which includes weekends... not all business days... so Im probably going to have to go back to the generic for maybe 3-4 days. I dont have a choice in the matter since my insurance wont take two prescriptions for different amounts of keppra xr within a 30 day time period. How stupid is that.
 
momof3boys said:
Then I think all is going well... til we call our insurance company. They said they cant take that because the oncall dr on saturday sent over a prescription for the "30 day supply of Keppra xr to our target here in town. So we have to cancel that and have them reverse it. Which we did, but then we find out it wasnt a 30 day supply, it was a 30 TABLET SUPPLY! Which would have only lasted me 5 days! The reason why I wanted a 1 month is because the 6 month supply I get is through an online pharmacy, and it can take up to 4 weeks to process, and ship out. With only having 11 days on hand, I needed more of the name brand if it was going to take that long.

Then, we find out that the six month supply I had my nurse fax over, has to change to a 3 month supply becuase they dont send out 6 month supplies! LOL

So, I had to call and leave another voice mail for the nurse to ask if she can resend it for a 3 month supply with 3 refills. Now im waiting to hear back on that. in the meantime, Im sure since its going to take longer than 11 days til i get the supply, Im going to have to go back to the generic for a short time. The pharmacy online person said to give it 10 business days. Well I only have 11 days... which includes weekends... not all business days... so Im probably going to have to go back to the generic for maybe 3-4 days. I dont have a choice in the matter since my insurance wont take two prescriptions for different amounts of keppra xr within a 30 day time period. How stupid is that.
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Kristin,

That sounds like a lot of mucking around with the insurance companies.
I will admit I do get a little confused with how the health insurance works over in America lol because over here we get a little bit of help from the government with health & don't need health insurance for meds or dr visits.
We have the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme) where the government covers some of the cost of meds, the PBS only applies to certain meds but all the AED meds I've been on have been covered by PBS.
Also over here if you are unemployed, a pensioner or on low income you can get a health care card which helps with meds.
I'm unemployed so have a health care card which means both my meds are a bit cheaper than the original cost.

I hope they can sort it out & you will be able to get enough name brand to last you so you don't have to go back to the generic.
 
I wish it was like that over here. I dont want to go back to the generic for any time at all. But the way its looking, I last checked online at my account through the mail order pharmacy, and they have nothing listed for any orders being processed. So Im sure Im going to have to go back on the generic for a few days the way this is looking. Im just praying the nurse gets that faxed over today, and telling her to write ASAP on the fax would help! I left a message for her saying that since the customer service rep from the mail order pharmacy said to put that on there. The last thing I want to happen is more seizures to come about. I have 4 ativan left, and I used 4 ativan over the weekend to help keep seizures from reoccuring as I went back to the name brand. I dont want to have to use those over the days If I need go back to the generic, next thing i know, I'll have to use those and have a hard time getting a new prescription for the ativan!
 
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