Any GOOD about Depakote?

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Well, now that I know that Depakote is Epilim, I'm taking it too. At 1000 mg it started making me pass out. No idea why. When I took it back down to 800 mg, same thing. Now I'm on 600mg. No idea why. I can't see how it can do any good at that dose. I haven't lost any hair with it and at 1000mg, it controlled my seizures very well so I really wish I could take it at the proper dose. Oh, it also gave me gastritis, and that got a bit better when I started taking it after meals.
 
So.... update on Depakote. I don't know for sure if it was the Depakote, but as soon as I increased to 1000 mg, my fingers were CONSTANTLY cold... almost purple at times, but not quite. And then my joint around the fingers would hurt - mostly in my thumb. It would go on for days at a time... It was almost even hurting to type because of the sensation (like when your fingers get cold when you're outside in the cold). I finally called my neurologist to see if it might be related to the Depakote. I couldn't get ahold of him, but he returned the call and left a message and said I could lower the dose. I was also ALWAYS ALWAYS tired, even after a month (normally that wears off for me after a month), and I gained five pounds in a couple of weeks. That may not sound like much, but considering I weighed the same for a year and a half... yeah... Sooo... I am now on 500 mg, but I still can't lose the weight I gained, despite exercising twice a day and paying more attention to my eating than I was before. The finger thing stopped (thankfully, because it was starting to scare me), and I'm not nearly as tired. Actually, right at first I was TOO awake (it's normal now). But now I'm afraid it's not doing me any good... I had a simple partial last night, which was kind of weird because I don't usually have them DURING my lady time (usually the week or two before).

Anyway.... yeah, we apparently don't get along well. My next appointment isn't until June, so I'm going to call the neuro again and see about trying yet another med... I still like Lamictal... it was the first one that made a difference. I was on Keppra first, and I was still having partials like crazy, but once I went on Lamictal they decreased from several a day to mostly just around my period. *Sigh.*
 
Sounds like Depakote...

Did your hands do this?
1743506_10152605586299554_2028649324_n.jpg
 
Yup! Looks about right... except it was mostly on my thumb, and it was colder to the touch. The fact that it seemed to be moving and was lasting for longer periods of time was what prompted me to call the neuro.
 
What I have pictured there is Raynaud's Syndrome. Mine is completely unrelated to the meds. I actually took that picture when I was holding a shake at Jack n' the Box. Anytime my hands get cold, blood don't like to flow.

The Depakote may cause some blood vessel constriction in your fingers and have the same effect. Something to look into if you're interested.

(EDIT) Apparently "blood vessel spasms" are involved.
 
That's interesting! I've always had problems with blood flow to my fingers, but it definitely got worse once Depakote was thrown into the picture. I'm definitely going to try to switch at the next appointment. Last time he asked if I thought the side effects were worth it and I said I would give it a little bit more time. I mean... I knew the weight gain might not have been just Depakote, since I had been spending so much time on school my exercise kinda went down... and I figured the sleepiness might go away. Yeah... not so much.
 
Hola kittens in mittens, ooh hands look painful. Chat to gp or neuro.

Queenieville has gained a grinch. Am about to steal Easter, Ostara and Passover and eat ALL the chocolate.

Possibly going a bit mental, but am in that paradox when I don't know if it's the drugs or people are really out to get me, I think it's the later as mental health tangos are usually accompanied by a musical theatre song and there is nothing and there is still a lot of knob cheesiness going on. Cannot sleep its 4.40 am here but on the plus side hair hasn't started falling out.

Love out to my Epilim buddies.

Q
 
So just thought I would say I'm off the Depakote. I tried it for two months and I was thinking it was helping but realized it wasn't really b doing much when I missed a dose of Lamictal and that's when I had a bunch of simple partials (missing Depakote made no difference). Now I'm only on Lamictal and so far I'm the most controlled I've been since this all started getting bad in 2012. My neurologist thinks that maybe it's because I'm experiencing less anxiety without the side effects of the other medications (Keppra... Vimpat.... and Depakote were all auditions in this fun game).

Thankfully my hair stopped falling out and my appetite is back to normal. Now I just have to get back upto 400 mg of Lamictal from the 300 I was on. I'm having some headaches, but I'll take that over the Depakote!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom