Hello Everyone,
I am back again. I posted a few years ago after my first seizure.
I did pretty good for a while but not so good lately.
I had another seizure about 4 months ago. All 3 of my seizures have been tonic clonic and have happened at night.
Dr. doubled my dose of Keppra to 2000mg day and I went crazy (not kidding. Anxiety, Depression, possible psychosis) It took a while to realize how much trouble I was having from the Keppra. Finally, I called the Doc and he decided to switch to Lamictal. During the tapering process, I got much, much worse and ended up in the psych ward at the hospital. Lamictal was the worst drug I have ever been on even at low dose.
Anyway, for a while I went back down to 1000mg a day of Keppra just to get stable. I don't want to have another seizure and I think this dose is still causing me some trouble. The Dr. said the next option is Dilantin. Because of my oversensitivity to psychiatric side effects, the Dr. says Dilantin is probably the best option for me. I've done lots of research and understand most of the long term effects of Dilantin and right now, I am not worried about that. I would rather deal with that later and just get stable for now.
Anyway, I will take the Dilantin tonight. I am wondering if anyone can give me their experience with the start up and short term side effects. I just would like to know what I am in for. I will start at 200mg tonight and take that for a week while going down on Keppra. Target is 300mg Dilantin depending on blood test results and such.
1. Will this cause insomnia?
2. Should I plan to stay home from work for a few days because of start up side effects?
Any other comments about start up and short term side effects?
Thanks
Paul
I am back again. I posted a few years ago after my first seizure.
I did pretty good for a while but not so good lately.
I had another seizure about 4 months ago. All 3 of my seizures have been tonic clonic and have happened at night.
Dr. doubled my dose of Keppra to 2000mg day and I went crazy (not kidding. Anxiety, Depression, possible psychosis) It took a while to realize how much trouble I was having from the Keppra. Finally, I called the Doc and he decided to switch to Lamictal. During the tapering process, I got much, much worse and ended up in the psych ward at the hospital. Lamictal was the worst drug I have ever been on even at low dose.
Anyway, for a while I went back down to 1000mg a day of Keppra just to get stable. I don't want to have another seizure and I think this dose is still causing me some trouble. The Dr. said the next option is Dilantin. Because of my oversensitivity to psychiatric side effects, the Dr. says Dilantin is probably the best option for me. I've done lots of research and understand most of the long term effects of Dilantin and right now, I am not worried about that. I would rather deal with that later and just get stable for now.
Anyway, I will take the Dilantin tonight. I am wondering if anyone can give me their experience with the start up and short term side effects. I just would like to know what I am in for. I will start at 200mg tonight and take that for a week while going down on Keppra. Target is 300mg Dilantin depending on blood test results and such.
1. Will this cause insomnia?
2. Should I plan to stay home from work for a few days because of start up side effects?
Any other comments about start up and short term side effects?
Thanks
Paul