I started having grand mal nocturnal seizures when I was 10 yrs old. I was put on Dilantin. During my teens I was told my epilepsy may have been a stage of puberty and at 18 I went off Dilantin completely. A few months later I had a seizure. I would only have a seizure a few times a year. Always nocturnal. In my 20's I started having petit mal seizures during the day. They would always start with losing my peripheral vision in my right eye. The second stage would make my peripheral vision look like a kaleidoscope in my right eye. The third stage would be I could hear you and somewhat understand what you were saying but I could not respond. I would have these spells various times a day and would have progress through the stages randomly different at times. The worst part was that if I went to a stage 3, when I came out of it my memory of the past few hours would be completely blank. In my mid 20's I went on Lamictal. The Lamictal completely fixed all my types of Epilepsy. They originally started me on 350mg. The only side affect I had was that I felt exhausted all the time. I weened myself to 200mg which I have taken each day since 1997. For many years I had no side affects and considered Lamictal a miracle drug. In 2006 I noticed(my wife noticed) I was clearing my throat numerous times throughout the day. It progressively got worse to the point where when I begin speaking I have to clear flem out of my throat to begin a conversation. My memory has weekend as well. Upon searching the internet I have learned that many other people are experiencing the same side effects. I am in the process of narrowing down alternative medications to try and switch to. Any advice would be appreciated.