First two weeks with Vimpat

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Masterjen - Am wondering if an increase in Vimpat might help with this. I have maxed out with what I can tolerate (in terms of side effects) with tegretol and keppra.[/QUOTE]


My seizure control hasn't been that good with Vimpat and Keppra lately. I just don't know what would be the best step to take now. I've almost reached my max too on tolerating my dosage. My major symptoms to the antiseizure drugs are constipation and tiredness. It's such a pain finding the right meds and dosages for seizure control.
 
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It sure is a pain, Cordero. I had also tried three prior medications with no benefit. Tegretol was the first one to show even some improvement but I had to have keppra added because the tegretol aggravated the myclonic component of the seizures. Seizures were improved but by only about 25% so I was far from leading a normal life. I honestly felt like my neurologist was giving up. Fortunately for me, I was seeing another neurologist-specialist for related neurological problem, and she referred me to a seizure specialist. Glad she did :)
 
Last year I lost 56 lbs (so far have kept it off) and I noticed that my medication (Keppra and Vimpat) became more effective. I could push myself further and the deja vu's were greatly reduced. Down side the dizziness increased but still I felt the most 'normal' I have been in years.
 
I just got a prescription for Vimpat today from my neurologist, and he is weaning me off Keppra. I am HOPING that getting me off of Keppra will help with moods, but we'll see. He is leaving me on a lower dose of Lamictal, getting rid of Keppra, and adding in the Vimbat as I wean off of the Keppra. I honestly don't mind some partial seizures... I'd rather just be on a lower dose of everything and have a few partials... They were mostly under control anyways minus the week or two before my period, then I'll get one or so a day for a few days, then not much of anything for the rest of the month... but to my neurologist that is still more than I should be getting.

As for the feeling that you're going to have a seizure... I have gotten that on my other meds, especially at first. I would have an aura, and it would get to the point that I was really nervous, then it would eventually go away... I think that is just the medication working. Now that I have been having less partials, I just have short deja vu spells.
 
I have now been on the Vimpat for about 12 weeks. The first few weeks were miserable but it improved over time. However....I have lost a lot of hair and it just keeps getting worse. I thought maybe my body would adjust but that has not happened. I have a neuro appointment in another week and will have to look for something else or I will be bald in another month. I am scared to change medications. I assume most people have had to. I just remember how bad the first few weeks on Vimpat were and I don't look forward to it.
 
Ktp said:
I have now been on the Vimpat for about 12 weeks. The first few weeks were miserable but it improved over time. However....I have lost a lot of hair and it just keeps getting worse. I thought maybe my body would adjust but that has not happened. I have a neuro appointment in another week and will have to look for something else or I will be bald in another month. I am scared to change medications. I assume most people have had to. I just remember how bad the first few weeks on Vimpat were and I don't look forward to it.
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Has Vimpat been controlling your seizures? How many seizure meds have you tried? I lose a lot of my hair. I don't know if it's from one of the medicines or if it's hereditary because I have always lost a lot of hair. I read that it's normal to lose 50 hairs a day. I hope you find the right medicine that works best for your seizures..
 
It has been controlling them although I feel like I am on the verge...and nothing happens. This is only my second medication. I have always had long thick hair and now it is a lot thinner and also breaking off. Like I said I am scared to change up medications but maybe this is a big enough side effect to do so.
 
Your blessed that this is only the second medicine. You still have more options. Wish you the best.
 
I understand that some anticonvulsants may cause vitamin b deficiencies, and I know that B deficiencies can cause hair loss. My husband just started vimpat because the keppra was not having much if any affect and the lamotragine was causing a rash. We have been reading up on vitamins and have added Vitamin D, Magnesium, a multivitamin with high b vitamins, as well as 5htp to his supplements. He is feeling better than he has in a long time and since adding the vimpat 3 days ago he hasn't had any seizures! He was having as many as 60 small partials a day with the 3000mg of just keppra. He has had 4 TCs since April and the last one was 3 days ago which is why they added the vimpat.
 
My epileptologist switched out my Depakote for Vimpat earlier this month and I was on it for almost a week. I went from Tuesday to Sunday with no sleep. It gave me the worst case of insomnia in my life, almost immediately upon taking it. It was crazy!! I'd fall asleep, no problem and then be wide awake, ready for the day at 1am! Since I've got a pre-surgery VEEG coming up next month, he just put me back on the Depakote and said he will switch out all of my meds after I've detoxed. I was expecting side effects, but not that one lol
He said a particular B-Vitamin that anticonvulsants suck out of our systems is Folic Acid and we should be getting at least 1mg (1000mcg) to replace it. He said it calms the brain. I'm a vitamin junky and take all kinds of supplements anyway, so I just went to Walmart and picked up a bottle, it was around $3.00.
 
Hi, Brandi
The side effect you had on Vimpat is exactly the one I when I tried to increase my night dose of Keppra. I would fall asleep fine, then wake a couple of hours later with my mind racing and thinking odd thoughts. My breathing rate and pulse were normal, so what was happening was strictly in my mind. But back to Vimpat. I'm sorry you didn't have success with it. I take it as an add-on, and while my seizures are in no way controlled, they are shorter and I don't think I'm quite as wiped out after. Good luck with the VEEG. I hope you will start a thread to keep everyone posted about how it goes for you. I an on the wait list for one, so I'm always curious about everyone's experience with it.
 
Hi Masterjen, I had high hopes for the Vimpat :) because I've heard a lot of good things about it. And yes, just like your experiences with Keppra, it was all in my mind. I had a bit of mania, my house was nice and clean :) but due to the sleep deprivation my seizures were increasing like crazy in just the few days I was on it. Even though I thought I was awake I was wandering the house (I have nocturnal wanderings). It's a good thing we live in a country where we have lots of choices of meds :)
 
I am on my second week and am up to 100 mg morning and 100 night. So far Ive had some dizziness or too much energy, but otherwise so problem. Also weaning off of keppra amd my mood is better... Not sure of that's just because of my decreased keppra or what, but I like it!

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RunningGirl85, I am glad you are feeling well, while weaning of keppra. :) How much are you reducing the dose and how often? Greg's neurolgist said he could start tapering off the Keppra after only four days on the vimpat. And he told him to reduce by 500 mg every three days!! Yikes! He did fine for the first 3 days of tapering but on the 4th day (Friday) he had 2 events/ simple partials so Greg took another 50 mg of vimpat. That stopped the events, but I reminded him that the neurologist didn't okay an increase in vimpat yet so the next day when he had more simple partials he added back the 500mg(half of 1000mg tablet) back in. So we have decided until we can call the doctor, to try skipping the 500 every other day. And if his doctor is okay with that we will probably extend the tapering to a week or 2 at a time between each drop in dose on the keppra.
 
I don't recommend adjusting medication doses without first speaking with the doctor, but I know when it comes to weekends we can be really stuck. Instead of asking if you can reduce keppra by taking the 500 mg of keppra only every other day, why not get a pill cutter and cut the pills in half and reduce by 250 at a time instead of 500, and continue to take the 250 every day? It might be easier on the body, and allow a steadier amount of keppra to stay in his system while reducing the dose.
 
Actually I am not sure if you could call the events simple partials or not. They are very brief and are more like a quick zap in his brain. Sometimes he will jerk or looked surprised but most people never recognize them as seizures because they are so quick and very little sign of them on the outside. He was having so many of them that they were leaving him exhausted and disoriented and effecting his memory badly. When they added the lamictal the events decreased and he would have a few days a week without them but the lamictal started causing a rash so we stopped it. Then he had another tonic clonic (grandmal) at work so they gave him a prescription for vimpat, which worked great until he had gone 4 days of tapering off the 3000mg of Keppra to 2500mg. That is when he started with the little zap events again. So far the first 7 days on vimpat is the longest he has gone without any little zap events or even feeling like he was close to having any since probably February of this year when he started having odd "dizzy spells" that weren't really dizzy spells. We just didn't know what they were until May when he was hospitalized because he had a T/C at work. He has been on vimpat 50mg/2X per day for 10 days as of today.
 
Idaho, I am not weaning that quick! I was taking 3 x 750 mg of XR every day. He increased it to four at one point, but I had only done that for a short time, and I was not feeling great: memory was getting worse, I was just feeling blah all the time, and I was still having partials, so that's when we switched to Vimpat. He was hoping for less side effects since I wouldn't have to take as much because it's a stronger drug. ANYWAY, for the first week I moved to 2, then on the second week I moved to 1, then by the third week I will be off. I've kinda slowed the progression a little. Same with the increase in Vimpat. I didn't feel well, so I just added one at a time (instead of two in the a.m., and two in the p.m., for example, I did one in the a.m., and two in the p.m. for a couple of days before adding the additional one in the morning).

My pills can't be chopped because they are XR, but I don't seem to be having any issues. Oh, I'm also on Lamictal. I WAS taking three XRs at night, but I moved down to two when we added Vimpat. I'll be staying on Lamictal - it made a HUGE difference in seizure control (we added it after the Keppra), just at the two 200 mg's instead of three.
 
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