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jamesw

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Hi all,

My name is James. I'm 21, recently diagnosed with epilepsy after my second-ever grand mal in May (the first happened about 9 years ago). This seizure lead to a fall that caused some significant head trauma, and has made it difficult for me to tell what's a symptom of the injury and what's a side-effect of all my new medication.

Which leads me to my first question here. I was started on 500 mg of Keppra twice a day when I was in the hospital. After about a month the dose was upped to 1000 mg twice a day (any tips I haven't learned about swallowing 1000 mg pills?). I've been at this dose for almost two months, and I've read that it takes about 4 weeks for the body to adjust to the drug.

I dealt with intense irritability, depression, weakness, and drowsiness during the first month and then the second when my dose was doubled. For the most part, these side effects have gone away, thankfully. I have one issue that I haven't seen on any of the lists of Keppra's side effects: my sense of smell and taste have been totally messed up. The first two months, everything smelled and tasted like something rotten. I lost 15 pounds because I couldn't eat anything without getting sick. The last few weeks it's become more like vehicle exhaust. It's awful. My neurologist assures me that it's caused by the Keppra -- if it doesn't go away by the end of August she says she'll start weaning me off Keppra and on to something else.

My question is, has anyone experienced or heard of this as a side effect of Keppra? No one has seemed to think it's a result of my head injury, for whatever reason.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling. I'm happy to have found this place, and I look forward to getting to know you.

James
 
jamesw

Hello and welcome CWE everybody here will try and help. There is no way that anybody other than a doctor can tell you if its a result of head trauma, there are a lot of side effects to all drugs we take, it is possibable that the smell and tast reactions are side effects, but you need to try and think of when this first started and write it down, maybe it started when you started taking keppra or maybe before it only you know, it would be a good idea to look up the side effects of keppra, there are others here who take keppra and can better help, no need to be sorry, even I rambel a bit. You should take a look at some of the threads already on here about keppra maybe these can help you. Sorry I cannot be more help.
 
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Fedup said:
jamesw

Hello and welcome CWE everybody here will try and help. There is no way that anybody other than a doctor can tell you if its a result of head trauma, there are a lot of side effects to all drugs we take, it is possibable that the smell and tast reactions are side effects, but you need to try and think of when this first started and write it down, maybe it started when you started taking keppra or maybe before it only you know, it would be a good idea to look up the side effects of keppra, there are others here who take keppra and can better help, no need to be sorry, even I rambel a bit. You should take a look at some of the threads already on here about keppra maybe these can help you. Sorry I cannot be more help.
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Yeah I should have mentioned that this has only happened since I started the Keppra and it got worse (stronger) when my dose was doubled. I'm keeping in contact with my doctors, I just wanted to see if anyone shared my experience.

Thanks for the welcome and reply!
 
jamesw

Thats not a problem, did you take a look at some of the other threads, they can be halpfull
 
Hi James

Can't offer any advice on the keppra issue, but if your neuro assures you the effects you are experiencing are due to the keppra I'd go along with that for now.

I was just curious about what your profile says about simple partials. I have had one tc seizure around 13 years ago and not had one since. Neruo says it was prob a one off but I read about stories like yours of people who also had a very long period after first obvious seizure and it makes me wonder.

What events were you having that your doc thought showed you had sps? Had you been having them since your first tc? Just wondered as I don't really understand simple partials so wasn't sure what the signs to look out for were? Would really appreciate hearing your experiences.

I do hope you start to feel better soon and get these side effects under control!
Ben
 
Hi Jamesw

Welcome to CWE

This forum has so many people that are willing to share their experiences, Dr. medic. side effects and a place to get things off your chest. Ask all the question you want.

I did take Keppra, but it work the reverse for me. I smelled everything good and bad. I love to eat, but I couldn't stand the smell of enough a cake baking. As others before me have said there are several people in this forum that have had great success with keppra

All medic. work diff. with each person.
 
Hi James! Welcome! My daughter started Keppra last month and we noticed she was very irritable which has improved somewhat. Nothing about her sense of smell though that shes mention. Such a trial and error with these meds. Best of luck to you!!!
 
Welcome to CWE

Hi James,

My daughter has been on keppra for about 12 weeks. She is still very moody. She does not have an issue with smell or taste, but she has vertical double vision. I hope your neurologist can aid you and I hope you recover quickly from your trauma.

Tom
 
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