new to epilepsy, not to life

[mommyof3]

HELLO!!:hi5:
I WAS JUST DIAGNOSED THIS WEEK. The Dr. put me on 1000mg of Depakote too. I am so exhausted that I can't hardly think. Did this go away for you?

 

[Bernard]

Depakote turned my wife into a zombie. She could never tolerate that drug. The drowsiness/tiredness is a side effect of that drug. You might adapt to it - my wife never did.

 

[mommyof3]

ZOMBIE, that is exactly how I feel. I figured I would give the meds a GOOD try and if I'm still like this in another week I'm calling my DR. b/c I do not want to live like this.

 

[andysgirl1978]

Hi Mike,

I wanted to let you know that Depakote is also used for the manic episodes in bipolar disorder, and it will make you tired. The dosage sounds about right, that's what they started me on, and I am a 29 year old female. My hair fell out, and I couldn't get out of bed for days. Trust your body! Most seizure medicine is trial and error. I was just put on Kepron and what a difference!!! I feel like myself again!

 

[p22denise]

Welcome Mike...my 5 year old was recently diagnosed and I am also new to this website and the people here are incredibly wonderful and have alot of knowledge. I am also glad to have found them. I hope we can all help each other out. I am with Robin on the nutrition thing. We are looking at her diet to see what triggers the seizures. Again...welcome..

 

[kris1230]

Hi mike. Sorry to hear about you're going through, but you're not alone. I'm sure you are stronger than you think, I think we all are. As for the depakote ER, I'm on that also and for the first month on it I was extremely tired and now that's easing up some. I was also started on 500mg and I'm a very little person (I weigh almost 110 pounds). Stick with it and good luck.

Krista

 

[Yves]

Hello there

onder:I started on Trileptal right after my first seizure. I was at that time 300mg per day. After the tumor removal, I was fine with 300mg/d.
1 month later I was back to work, and then, boom, too much stress, to tired, I got several seizures per week (up to 1/day)
=> therefore, the prescription was "drastically" changed. I soon took 900mg/d then 1200 mg/d. It took me 3 months to accomodate with such "horse" dose (it's a french expression but I believe it's clear). I was like drunk I would walk in the street very slowly and I felt despised by the people in the street Even at work, that was far from easy: I just could not think! It took 3 months for my body to ajust to this medication so that I can function "normally":zacepi:
So if i may give an advice, it's to hang on, take your pills, if your MD is not stupid, that can be done with a weak "slope" so that your body can adapt to it.
I changed twice the speed on a new medication because my body said "too much" => we arrived at the same dose but it took 2 or 3 more months
Take care:sw:

 

[RobinN]

Krista - Rebecca is the same size as you, and she can't even tolerate half what you were started with. (trileptal that is...)

 

[Bee91]

Hi!

Hi, After 14 months of being diagnosed with everything from Syncope to depression to PTSD someone finally witnessed me having a seizure during one of my "blackouts."
I was diagnosed one week ago with Epilepsy and have been on 1,000 MG of Depakote ER daily and it is making me very tired. Is that dosage normal? Seems like a lot for a first timer. I was on 500 Mg for 3 days before going to my present dosage. I've only found this site today and was glad I did because I feel/felt like I ws the only person in the world that was suffering through this crazy condition.
I'm 58 years of age and have been told it's a little late in life for someone to come down with Epilepsy.
Please tell me it's not the end of the world. I've always thought of myself as brave but anymore..............
Thank you,
Mike

Hi!!

I'm Brandi. I'm 16 but it seems like we've gone throught the same thing...well...the diagnosing issue anyway I was actually just diagnosed with epilepsy about 2 months ago(?) (something like that) but I have been having seizures for about a year and a half now...

It would take about a year and a half to give you my seizure history...But I have also been misdiagnosed with so many things....Fake seizures-not non epileptic...they actually told me that they thought me I was faking, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Psychogenic Non Epileptic Seizures, Heart Conditions...Everything...

Finally I found a good doctor who was willing to help me and now I got the offical diagnosis of epilepsy and he's put me on the right meds and had helped me incredibly...Even though I'm not completely seizure free, it feels good to be getting so close to be able to get my lisence!!!:bigsmile:

I hope the same happens for you!

Brandi