Appointment followup, with mostly good news
Yesterday I finally saw my neurologist, after 10 months. Between how hard it is to get into her office, and her going on maternity leave, it's taken that long to get in. Normally I don't have seizures very often, every other month or so, but often enough to be annoying.
Over New Year's eve/am I had 5 t/c episodes within 24 hours, including 3 while I was asleep, which is unheard of for me. It was originally going to be the end of February before I saw the doc, but that changed when I told the office assistant what had happened. They had me take a sedative for 3 days, which was truly awful, plus the two additional days it took to wear off, making me a totally ineffective parent with no memory whatsoever. They'd also told me to up the anticonvulsant I was on, and even with totally forgetting to do that, I still had no additional seizures. That flurry was absolutely atypical for me, thankfully.
I've been on Tegretol/carbamazepine in some dosage or another for 16 years, and it's never fully controlled my seizures, especially since the stress of being a parent. They've occurred almost always first thing in the morning, when I get the original boost of adrenaline upon waking up, and before my morning meds have taken effect.
I've talked to one of my other epileptic friends, who has been really happy with Lamictal. I mentioned that to the doc, as well as the possibility of using extended-release carbamazepine so I don't have the adrenaline jolt + low meds in the morning, and she was all for that. I will start ramping up to using Carbatrol and Lamictal as soon as I can get the prescriptions filled, which may be a few days, considering that one of them has to be filled by mail.
I also got the results of my MRI and EEG from last summer, it's been that long. The tests confirmed that there's actually something physical to be causing all this, some abrasion on my left temporal lobe; I've had some form of mesial TLE on and off all my life. The doc said that if three months on this new medication doesn't control things to our satisfaction, we may try the stress-induced sleep-dep surgical evaluation, but I'm really hoping the meds work. It worried me a bit how easily she jumped to brain surgery as an option for epilepsy as mild as mine, but I suppose that's her job.
Has anyone else here taken Lamictal and Carbatrol together? Any advice about side effects?