Hi all - I am a 26 year old male who didn't start having seizures until two years ago when I was 24. At that point it was just one grand mal seizure and I was finishing law school and didn't want to go on medications.
I was then fine for almost a year when I had another grand mal seizure. This time I agreed to go on medications and the doctor put me on a low dosage of dilantin (200mg) and all was fine. That doctor also recommended that I see a neurologist. I got an appointment with a specialist and he didn't like dilantin because it's an old medicine so he put me on Keppra. After starting Keppra I started having seizures very frequently (once a week or more), to which the Doctor just kept increasing my dosage.
This went on and continued to get worse for about 2 months when I ended up back in the hospital after a fit of psychosis. The scariest part about that is that I can remember everything that happened that night but I couldn't control myself.
From then on I got a new neurologist who put me back on dilantin. This neurologist watched my blood levels closely and actually spent time with me and talked & listened to me (what a novel concept). I have not had any problems since then (about 9 months) except for my liver enzyme tests are sometimes high. (I like to have a few drinks)
I now moved to a new town (Phoenix, AZ) and am stuck with the daunting task of finding a new doctor who will listen to me and one that I am comfortable with. I am considering continuing to go to my previous neurologist that I liked but he is about 5 hours away (Las Vegas, NV).
Any thoughts on how to find a new doctor? Should I keep the one I have and feel comfortable with?
I was then fine for almost a year when I had another grand mal seizure. This time I agreed to go on medications and the doctor put me on a low dosage of dilantin (200mg) and all was fine. That doctor also recommended that I see a neurologist. I got an appointment with a specialist and he didn't like dilantin because it's an old medicine so he put me on Keppra. After starting Keppra I started having seizures very frequently (once a week or more), to which the Doctor just kept increasing my dosage.
This went on and continued to get worse for about 2 months when I ended up back in the hospital after a fit of psychosis. The scariest part about that is that I can remember everything that happened that night but I couldn't control myself.
From then on I got a new neurologist who put me back on dilantin. This neurologist watched my blood levels closely and actually spent time with me and talked & listened to me (what a novel concept). I have not had any problems since then (about 9 months) except for my liver enzyme tests are sometimes high. (I like to have a few drinks)
I now moved to a new town (Phoenix, AZ) and am stuck with the daunting task of finding a new doctor who will listen to me and one that I am comfortable with. I am considering continuing to go to my previous neurologist that I liked but he is about 5 hours away (Las Vegas, NV).
Any thoughts on how to find a new doctor? Should I keep the one I have and feel comfortable with?