Change in Meds

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el_guero

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I have had epilepsy since I was 19 - I'm now 37. My seizures were controlled for years and I never really had a problem until a few weeks ago. My neurologist said that the Phenobarbitol I was taking was an older generaton med and had side effects. He recommended I begin to take Lamictal along with my Dilantin. He slowly lowered my dosage of the Phenobarbitol while he increased my dosage of the Lamictal. Last month he took me off completely of the Phenobarbitol. For the last moth I have been taking 400 mg of Dilantin and 400 mg of Lamictal on a daily basis. Two weeks ago (about a month after I discontinued the Phenobarbitol) I had a seizure. I then had another seizure yesterday. Today I went to my neurologist assuming he would put me back on the Phenobarbitol. He said that when meds are changed it is not
uncommon for someone to have a seizure (or seizures) in the first few weeks or months until the body becomes accustomed to the new meds. Has anyone else experienced seizures after their meds were changed? If so how long was it before your seizures stopped after beginning the new meds? Thanks for the info.
 
From my understand el-guero, change of meds affects people in many different ways.
When my daughter was taking meds, I believe (though the doctor told me differently), that it took a month, or even longer for one med to be eliminated from her system. We had the opposite problem though. She tended to have more seizures with a couple of the meds. So I wanted it completely out of her system, before beginning a new drug. That is the only way I knew what side effects belonged to what.

Sorry you are dealing with this. Must be aggravating to have been seizure free for so long and to be hit again. I decided to try alternatives for my 16 yr old, and it has been such a wonderful change. No medication side effects, and the benefit of seizure reduction, and almost control... we are working towards that.
 
I have my daughter on a very clean, organic, gluten free, casein free, soy (sometimes) free, and corn free diet. She has a handful of vitamins that she takes (listed in her Story below in my signature), and she has been doing Neurofeedback. NFB is considered an alternative, as many conventional doctors don't know very much about it. I have written a journal of our experience also in that link below.

Hawke this has taken her from 5-6 Tonic Clonic seizures a month, to maybe one in two months. I credit all of it to helping her raise her threshold.
We are on our way to control this monster.
 
:hello: el_guero!

I moved your thread to THE FOYER so that people
would welcome you and respond to you better.

I have been on many AEDS and
yes, unfortunately, I have experienced seizures
during what they call as "honeymoon phase" when
you are beginning a new AED
but as soon as you begin to be titrated up the
seizures becomes less and less as your body
becomes adjusted to it.

HOWEVER ----> NOTE: If you experience at any
time --- on this specific medication - a RASH,
please notify your Neurologist as soon as possible!

And welcome to CWE and feel free to make yourself
a home here and browse around!
 
I had 3 photogenic seizures when I started taking Keppra. I had never had a photogenic seizure before I started taking Keppra. After my body got used to the Keppra my photogenic seizures stopped. It took about 6 weeks for my body to get used to the Keppra and the photogenic seizures to stop.
 
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DID he explain what side effects he felt you were having on the pheno? Yes, it is possible to have a few seizues when going off one medication and onto another one. Usually it won't last for a long time. It can take some adjustment time to find the right dose and Pheno is a tough med to get off. It is especially hard to go from good control and now be having seizures though!

I hope you can find control on the Lamictal!
Ginny
 
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