Who else misses food?

[mommymela]

I miss food. I was actually feeling a bit hungry today so I tried eating dinner but it came back up. I'm still hungry but don't want to get sick again. I want a steak and asparagus with risotto...ice cream...spaghetti with veggies....chicken stir fry with rice...a giant pile of crab legs....2 tons of sushi...ugghhhhhh I want food again!!!!!!!! Join me if you can't eat either and tell me what you miss the most. I almost forgot pizza. I want pizza.

 

[mommymela]

Am I the only one who misses food??? Don't leave me hangin...can everyone else eat? Am I a unicorn?

 

[BIGMAN131307]

Having IBS has really messed my eating habits. Before I had IBS, I was able to eat 1-2 lbs of pasta with sauce without blinking an eye. Now I can barely eat less than a 1lb. As for sauce, I can only tolerate tomato paste.

Even though pizza causes me IBS problems, I'll still have it. Nothing is going to stop me from having pizza.

 

[Elsie]

Well I have the opposite problem. I am slightly nauseous some of the time. Nothing has appeal to me, except of course stuff that is high calorie. Ice cream, cookies or salty stuff. I rarely want meat, though I'll have a bit when I know I must have protein. I love pasta. And cheese. Regular food, I would just as soon leave it.

I do try to eat right but would rather not. I guess it's mostly meat I'm not fond of any more. My taste buds seem to have changed in the past couple years. I can't remember the last time I sat down to a balanced meal and really enjoyed / wanted it. And I do cook from scratch all of the time, mostly for my husb. who would eat frozen pizza all the time if I did not.

You'd think I was skinny with this problem...ah, no, the things I like to eat all have too many calories. I could live on peanut butter or cheerios. Try not to. An egg sounds good too. It's just weird.

 

[mommymela]

Wtf so I'm really the only one here who can't eat?! I wish there was something that appealed to me, two days in a row I tried having a small meal even though I didn't want to, I still threw it up. I asked my doctor what happens in 6 months when I'm 100 pounds and he didn't seem concerned, in fact, he didn't even reply. It's obvious that I haven't been eating since I've lost 10 pounds since the last time I saw him maybe two weeks ago, so he has to know I'm not kidding. I broke down and decided today on my own to lower my dose. I'm going from 500 mg of keppra 3x a day to only 2x a day. This is bullshit. I need to be able to eat so I can work out again, I feel my ass melting away and we just can't have that happening. Of course that's the least/most shallow of my problems, I can't stand laying in bed all day and having these insane mood swings either. I'm still in shock that everyone else can eat. I haven't noticed an increase in my appetite today but I'm hoping tomorrow will be different.

 

[BIGMAN131307]

Different AEDs effect people differently. There were times on was on AEDs that caused me to gain weight. I wasn't even eating a great amount. While there were some AEDs that caused me to lose weight. Those were the AEDs that caused bad stomach pains, constipation, & diarrhea. Which lead to kidney stones, gallstones, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), eventually gallbladder removal surgery.

You just need to find the right balance of the right AEDs, dosage, etc.

I hope you feel better.

 

[mommymela]

So far the improvement I've noticed after taking one less dose yesterday is a much better night's sleep. I only woke up once for a couple minutes, and that is super rare for me even before being on drugs. I'm hoping in the next couple of days I'll have a little appetite.

 

[valeriedl]

There was one drug that I barely ate anything while I was on. The thought of food just made me sick. My family literately had to force me to eat because I just didn't want to. I also laid in bed all the time and slept, I had no energy to do anything. I think my family had to help me out of bed if I needed to get out. I don't know how much weight I lost when I was on it but when my neuro saw he took me off the drug right away.

I was on another drug that just the opposite happened. If I saw it I ate it! I gained a ton of weight while I was on it. I talked with my neuro about all the weight gain and told him that I wanted to change meds. He took me off of it.

With the meds that I'm on now I have a pretty much normal appetite.

I would defiantly you tell your neuro that you INSIST to be taken off of the drug or have the dosage changed. Tell him what you did on your own with the med if you want so he can see it's the med that's causing the problems.

 

[resaebiunne]

I can't say that I have any problems eating. At first when I was first on Keppra I had less appetite than normal, but it could've just been being at the hospital that made me less hungry.

I had a salad and two huge bowls of brocolli cheddar soup for lunch. It was very good.

 

[Matthew74]

When I was on the Ketogenic Diet I used to fantasize about eating vegetables. I eat normal now, but I'm more careful about massive carbs, so I miss eating tons of pasta and huge pastries. I'm not feeling good right now so I miss a little coffee or tea in the morning. One time in high school I had mono or something really bad and couldn't swallow at all, back then I was fantasizing about drinking water. (My parents really should have taken me to the hospital, but I survived.)

 

[mommymela]

I have no problem drinking water or unsweetened teas. Just miss food. Today I managed to eat half a cucumber without getting sick. I'm thinking I just need to stick to raw foods and I won't get sick, but it's hard to convince myself to even eat those. No difference at all in appetite since lowering my dose. Big difference in my mood swings though! So at least it was helpful there.

 

[mommymela]

Tonight I ate a very small piece of pineapple and I had an almost immediate reaction - i dissolved into tears. I don't see this as a normal thing at all. I think keppra may be the actual devil. I'm weaning myself off, a tiny piece of fruit shouldn't make me cry.

 

[AlohaBird]

No, it's not normal. You need to speak up about this.

 

[Matthew74]

Why did you cry?

When I got sick in Boston, they started me on (Zonegran?) the night before I was released from the EMU. I woke up more relaxed than I ever had been. I was half awake and completely listless when the took my wires off. I may have actually fallen asleep when they were scrubbing the glue off, and I was totally depressed. I almost cried. Then I tried to sit up and eat breakfast. I was wide awake but I couldn't do it. I literally would try to move but nothing happened. After a lot of trying, I managed to sit up but all I could do is sit there staring at my food (I can ALWAYS eat). I could barely force myself to eat at all. I started crying for no reason. This went on for a little while. I told the Drs but they sent me home anyhow (they had no idea how strong I was being getting up, not to just lay there crying.) They shouldn't have sent me home. That whole day I spent trying not to cry for no reason. Over the next week or so I would just sit there staring. I didn't even care.

 

[mommymela]

I don't know why. The fucking devil pills. I was sitting with a table of friends and they said I should try to eat something, and I reluctantly ate a tiny piece of pineapple. It made me feel gross eating it at all and I love pineapple. Then suddenly I felt a rush of emotions and started tearing up. It was so embarrassing. I then cried again later because I couldn't remember something someone had just told me and was convinced my brain was getting worse and that I'm just going to drop dead one of these days soon. This is why I would never recommend keppra to anyone. I'm sure it works for some people...but when you get almost every single side effect, it just isn't worth it. I'm going to see about getting switched to topomax.

 

[Matthew74]

I'm sorry, I hope Topomax works better for you.

 

[AlohaBird]

The way you are both describing, listlessness, depression, feeling like bursting into tears for no reason, losing all desire for food, this is exactly how I felt when I was on Tegretol.

When you are on the inside looking out of a state like that, you almost don't realize how completely *WRONG* everything about it is. You need to have it pointed out to you from the other side of the fence (outside the asylum) that you are not crazy, you are being drugged. There is a difference.

I damn near killed myself one night on Tegretol. Totally out of character for me. Now the package insert says things about "suicidal ideation" but I don't think they knew that back in the day. Either that or my neuro was just incredibly lax.

It is not normal to feel this way. Do not just accept it. Stand up and demand a change.

 

[mommymela]

You guysssss, guess what? Yesterday I was able to keep down a meal replacement shake, then dinner looked so good when I made it for the kids that I was able to eat a small amount of baked chicken, unseasoned brown rice, and plain lima beans. Without throwing up! I was so happy!!! I think the levels of the medication are finally going down after 6 days of going down a dose. 8 more days and I'm losing another dose! Excited to get back into the gym soon! Mama wants her muscle back!

 

[AlohaBird]

Yay!!!!!!!!