Blood tests with carbamazepine?

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Tegretol

My neurologist started me on tegretol on 11 March & he gave me a blood test form to be done in approximately 1 months time before my next appointment with him.

MuayThaiFighter said:
Any one have experiences with this med/Tegretol?
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I'm also interested to hear any experiences people have had with TEGRETOL.
I had taken EPILIM for years & hated it with a passion (it made me slow, sleepy & dulled my thinking). Changed to LAMICTAL & loved it - had a 25% overall increase in my grades & had professors tell me I seemed much more connected & awake ... but then seizures came back & we kept upping the dose. Most recently I had a gran mal & then another within the hour etc & ended up in the acute-neuro-ward for a week - completely off with the fairies.

So I was started on TEGRETOL and now it is a few weeks later & I'm starting to get that sleepy feeling *sigh*

Is anyone willing to share their experiences with TEGRETOL?
 
Well it hasn't been long but i've had no seizures, sorry to hear about your experiences with Epilim. I've been down the road of hating certain drugs, like Depakote. That stuff just blasts my mind. Lamictal is also something that got toxic for me. Either way I've noticed crappy feelings on the generic of tegretol but overall I am happy with the med. Usually as time passes the "tired" feeling goes away. Most of the side affect tend to go away.

The weirdest thing i've noticed with this drug is it affects my hearing. No joke, the phone sounds way different, everything sounds different. I thought I was losing it. Only to find out it can happen and it will pass. Hope Tegretol works for you.
 
I agree, the sleepy thing is the worst one yet when it comes to taking Tegretol/Carbatrol. Since Ive started back on the Carbatrol, which today is day 5 I cant hardly keep my eyes open! Ive been taking it at 8am and 8pm. within an hour of taking it, Im out! The whole day today Ive been wanting to sleep. I dont know how long its going to take my body to get use to it, but I hope its soon! Last time I first tried Carbatrol I was 17, so its been so long I cant recall what it was like when I first started the Carbatrol then! lol
 
I was on Depakote before I was put on Tegretol. When I was a child I was on depokeen. Back then I'm really dating my self now. it was Tegretol Depakote, Dilantin and phenobarb I have been on 3 of the 4 at one time. I don't remember the depakote making me blurry any way I do think the side effects seem to become less noticable the longer you've been on the meds. Right now I dealing with the side effects of Keppra and Lamictal. I find myself sleeping all day. I hope over time that will become less noticable.
 
Hey Muay,

I'm just starting on Carbamazepine this week, so i guess i'm about a month behind ya :-).

I'm so freaking excited to come off topiramate, its not stopping my seizures and its rendering me a bloody idiot, I had a seizure last week while I was getting ready for work and woke up an hour later in bed after having apparantly turned the on cooker on the way there, and before having to call my Mum because I couldn't remember where I worked to let them know why I wasn't in. smooth.

It's been 3/4 months of avoiding shop assistants coz I know i'm going to have forgotten what I wanted to say by the time i get to the front of the queue, and that actual impromptu two way conversations might be able to resume in the future...but this all seems highly doubtful to be honest- whats the betting I gain 40lbs and loose my hair, my sense of direction and the last of my vocabulary?

Sorry to appear pessamistic....i really am excited to come off this horribe medication and try something else!

Does anyone have any good experiences with Carbamazepine? :-)

PS....today i was told my seizures are caused by 'grey matter subependymal heterotopia'.... anyone familiar with this mouthful?
 
sorry posh gmsh is not my issue, but i can say lots about carbamazepine.
i've been on four drugs, carb being the first, coming on 10 years now, and have told my epi. that after surgery that's the only one i want to stay on.
does help somewhat with the seizures, and has been the only one that had no side effects and didn't affect appetite, weight, mental status, attitude, nothing :)

it's one of the top three oldest seizure drugs known to man (phenobarb and dilantin other two), and there's a reason it's on the market for this long.... 60 years or better now :) not for nothin'.
 
gosh, all that sounds promising :-) you make a very good point about it having been on the market for so long. fingers crossed!
 
Yip,i agree that Tegretol has been the best aed for me.For seizure control and side effects,been on it since i was twentysix and am thirtyseven now and have also told my neuro theres no way im coming off it.I am on Depakote as well and hate it,was on it on it's own for a short peroid,total disaster seizure wise.First medication was Epanutin horrible side effects,not that great seizure control either.

So Tegretol all the way for me!
 
Hi Muay, I am on Tegretol and have been told I need regular bloods taken. I had some trouble with breakthrough seizures and the doc. told me that some people do not absorb the Tegretol as well as others and this can show up in a blood test. This was happening to me and now I have increased the medication to 800mg per day I am having better days. I am on Tegretol SR 200. I haven.'t spoken to the doc about liver function although that seems a valid reason for having regular bloods taken. Good luck with it all.
 
Sandie said:
I haven.'t spoken to the doc about liver function although that seems a valid reason for having regular bloods taken. Good luck with it all.
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yep that's the reason. can play havoc on your liver, but that's can. most meds have atleast one thing that needs to be watched, such as topomax and your kidneys. plus there's always what two or more meds will do when combined that isn't necessarily an issue if you're just on monotherapy (ha wouldn't that be nice guys).
regular blood tests and at some point start having bone scans. issue with that however is you have to fit criteria; there's a list of things and in canada you have to fit three. for me she ticked off anti-seizure meds, smoker, and pms. after 9 years bones were great :)
 
another thing to keep in mind too is what one med can do to another's metabolic rate. for ex: lamotrigine can increase the rate at which carbamazepine is converted to the active form in your blood, sometimes requiring upping the doseage of carb that you are on. good to always stay in touch with your doc on any changes when on polytherapy.
 
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