Confused about Lamictal XR

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katzy

katzy

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I was taking lamotrigine 200 mg twice a day (400 mg total) until January 2012. Out of stupidity I stopped taking it and suffered from a tonic-clonic seizure 3 days ago. I called my doctor's office Thursday but she wasn't available so I had to talk to another Neurologist. He told me he'll start me on Lamictal again and that he'll keep a Lamictal starter kit at the office so that I could pick it up. I went yesterday to pick it up but after I got in the car I realized it wasn't regular lamictal, it was Lamictal XR. I was too lazy to go back up to the hospital. After a bit of research I realized that Lamictal XR only goes up to 300 mg. I don't even know if that doctor talked to my neurologist before giving this to me. What do you guys think? Should I start taking it?
 
If you dont have any Lamictal on hand, I would at least take the Lamictal XR for now. Its better than going without. In the meantime, i would take that and wait til Monday morning when you know your drs office is open. Then I would be calling them to ask about it.
 
momof3boys said:
If you dont have any Lamictal on hand, I would at least take the Lamictal XR for now. Its better than going without. In the meantime, i would take that and wait til Monday morning when you know your drs office is open. Then I would be calling them to ask about it.
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I can't just start Lamictal like that though. it has to be gradually upped.I stopped taking it in January, so I have to start from the beginning.

It's not related to my case but have you tried regular Keppra before taking Keppra XR ? I was on regular Keppra for about a year but it didn't do anything for me.
 
Yes I was taking regular keppra from age of 17 to the age of 29. I had alot of very bad headaches though. My dr I had prior to the one im seeing now, increased my keppra from 3000mgs a day to 4000mgs a day and I had a horriable time. I was having break through seizures, and had to be put back down to 3000mgs a day. when I went back to see my dr about the increase in medication and what it was doing, he was gone, and I was put with his partner. It is his partner who I have been seeing since, and he is the one who recommend I try the Keppra XR. When he switched me over, all the headaches went away. Ive been feeling great since! :)

As for starting the Lamictal, I tried it in April of 2011. I started out at 25mgs and worked my way up. I was on it for two weeks when I went into the my primary care dr, confirming I was having an allergic reaction to the medication. So if anything, try starting at a low dose of the lamictal, and work your way up. But I would at least start with a low dose of lamictal, rather than take none.
 
momof3boys said:
Yes I was taking regular keppra from age of 17 to the age of 29. I had alot of very bad headaches though. My dr I had prior to the one im seeing now, increased my keppra from 3000mgs a day to 4000mgs a day and I had a horriable time. I was having break through seizures, and had to be put back down to 3000mgs a day. when I went back to see my dr about the increase in medication and what it was doing, he was gone, and I was put with his partner. It is his partner who I have been seeing since, and he is the one who recommend I try the Keppra XR. When he switched me over, all the headaches went away. Ive been feeling great since! :)

As for starting the Lamictal, I tried it in April of 2011. I started out at 25mgs and worked my way up. I was on it for two weeks when I went into the my primary care dr, confirming I was having an allergic reaction to the medication. So if anything, try starting at a low dose of the lamictal, and work your way up. But I would at least start with a low dose of lamictal, rather than take none.
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Maybe you were getting too much Keppra at once lol Good to hear the headaches went away :) So no more seizures either?

Yea . I'm going to start taking it tomorrow. I hope it goes well .

I waited til I almost died to call my doctor when I was having an allergic reaction to Trileptal. I didn't let my parents call either. I was a little brat who threw the phones around when my parents picked up to call the doctor. I was only 13, didn't know any better. But they finally called.
 
Well, my prior dr thought the headaches I was having was seizure activity when I was on the regular Keppra at 3000mgs a day. So that was why he wanted to bump my keppra up to 4000mgs. that was a bad idea! I started having break through complex partial seizures all the time. I was so tired, sluggish and I couldnt handle it. I actually said enough was enough, and because I couldnt reach his office, I took myself back down to 3000mgs. It wasnt for a couple of days after that, that i heard back from his office. They told me he had transferred to another hospital, but they were going to put me with his partner. It was then about a week later I saw his partner. My prior dr never did want to run any tests. We begged him to. It wasnt til the dr I am seeing now, wanted me to have a VEEG. I was on two medications prior to that, Keppra and Carbatrol. But because I had no grand mal seizures, I was able to get off the Carbatrol and only be on Keppra. If it wasnt for my dr wanting to do a VEEG, I would still to this day be on two seizure medications, so Im very thankful for that.

For now, as long as I get enough sleep and dont stress about things, my seizures are pretty well under control. :)
 
Wow what kind of a doctor would just start treating a patient without running any tests. I don't like doctors who are so full of themselves. I've had one PCP like that and I got rid of him. phewww
 
Can I ask you how long you went between stopping it and having the tonic clonic? I was on 1200mg at one point in time (miserable). I recently went from 600mg to 550mg and it was a horrific withdrawl of just 1/12th of the medication. In my personal opinion, I do think you should take it to hold back any tonic clonics, hopefully petit-mals as well. But you should indeed call your doctor to get back to the regular Lamical asap. I'm very sorry about this current situation and hope your able to figure it out quickly, best of luck
 
I completely stopped taking it in January 2012. My seizure was this month on the 22nd. So about 6 months. I didn't go to the doctor because I lost my insurance last year when I turned 18. I was under my dad's health insurance from work. So I applied for a different insurance and went back to the doctor after getting the insurance. She wanted to do an EEG to see if there were any seizure spikes/waves. I don't know how in the world this happened, but I got a seizure on the day I was supposed to return my EEG equipment,so fortunately it was captured on the EEG. This was after I was seizure free for about 3.5 years. (3 yrs on medications)
 
Were you on 1200 mg Lamictal or Keppra? 1200 mg Lamictal sounds like it's alot.
 
katzy said:
Were you on 1200 mg Lamictal or Keppra? 1200 mg Lamictal sounds like it's alot.
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Yeah I was going to say the same thing. I thought like 300mgs or so was the highest they went on Lamictal? But Im no dr... :ponder:
 
katzy said:
Wow what kind of a doctor would just start treating a patient without running any tests. I don't like doctors who are so full of themselves. I've had one PCP like that and I got rid of him. phewww
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well he did a MRI and EEG on me when I started seeing him. But even after those tests, which my MRI came back normal, but my EEG came back with seizure activity, he must have thought that was enough, and since I was complaining of the headaches, and the excedrin wasnt working.... he was going to increase my medication.

All I can say is that Im thankful he did get transferred to that other hospital! :rock::roflmao:
 
momof3boys said:
Yeah I was going to say the same thing. I thought like 300mgs or so was the highest they went on Lamictal? But Im no dr... :ponder:
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He probably meant Keppra. I've never heard of anyone getting even 600 mg of Lamictal. :ponder:
 
momof3boys said:
well he did a MRI and EEG on me when I started seeing him. But even after those tests, which my MRI came back normal, but my EEG came back with seizure activity, he must have thought that was enough, and since I was complaining of the headaches, and the excedrin wasnt working.... he was going to increase my medication.

All I can say is that Im thankful he did get transferred to that other hospital! :rock::roflmao:
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:roflmao:haha.. I'd be thankful too if a doctor wasn't willing to listen to me lol
 
I can certainly understand why you would think it was keppra, but it was indeed Lamictal. I was the second person in Stanford that they had gotten the dose up that high on the Lamictal. I continue the same medication today, just half as much luckly. It is no good that you had one but it was definitely positive it was caught on the EEG. Hopefully that helps out a bit : /
 
Ryan.2288 said:
I can certainly understand why you would think it was keppra, but it was indeed Lamictal. I was the second person in Stanford that they had gotten the dose up that high on the Lamictal. I continue the same medication today, just half as much luckly. It is no good that you had one but it was definitely positive it was caught on the EEG. Hopefully that helps out a bit : /
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WOW! That is ALOT of medication!
 
Ryan.2288 said:
I can certainly understand why you would think it was keppra, but it was indeed Lamictal. I was the second person in Stanford that they had gotten the dose up that high on the Lamictal. I continue the same medication today, just half as much luckly. It is no good that you had one but it was definitely positive it was caught on the EEG. Hopefully that helps out a bit : /
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WOW!! How long did it take them to get it to that high? Did they try any other drugs? that's just beyond overdosing.

My neuro already knew where my seizures were coming from. She said the frontal lobe. But I've never had a full blown seizure while wearing my electrodes. Like you said hopefully this could help her make better treatment choices.
 
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katzy,
what is your therapeutic target level with the Lamictal XR? My daughter is on the XR version and I do have to say we are happy that she only has to take her medications once per day. She is upping from 200mg to 250 mg in about 2 weeks. Good luck!
 
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