ramping up meds

[serendipity324]

can ramping up meds cause some crazy stuff or am I just crazy? last Tuesday night I started from 200mg 2x's a day to 250mg at night and tomorrow I will start 250mg both morning and night. All along, the ramp-ups have been done in 25mg increments.

Anyway, this past week has been a little off. Doing things, even the simplest things that i dont remember. On Thursday I forgot my morning dose, we didn't realize til I went for nighttime dose. But I would bet the house that I took it. I can completely replay in my mind, my phone alarm going off, walking into kitchen. opening the case and taking and taking the pills, I can remeber drinking the water. I don't know what happened. we checked every day to see if i took from a differneslot.I know now why I was not having a good afternoon.
Saturday, I had possibly had a complex partial..at one point I was not even able to remember my house. Sunday, the music and strobe lights got to me..not too out of norm. Then yesterday, I took 2 doses in the morning. I went and took my morning meds...then sometime a little later I apparently took Tuesday's dose...I don't even remember that..or I don't even remember taking the first dose. ugh.
could this all possibly be from the change in dosage and something that goes away? my husband has to call the doctor in 2 weeks and give the doctors report, I really don't feel like being rattled on..like maybe it's all just normal.

 

[Nakamova]

I have found that any time there is a change in meds (up or down), the transitioning creates side effects that go away once the brain is stable for a while. You might want to ask your doc about transitioning even slower -- staying at your current dosage for another week until you get a better sense of how you are feeling on it. Ideally of course, the increased dose will lead to better seizure control rather than worse, but for a few folks the opposite happens.

Do your best to take the meds consistently too -- that will make it easier to tell if they're working properly.

 

[JillT]

I have use an alarm on my phone that goes off every ten minutes until I take it. This has been a life saver since I know I dream about getting ready in the morning getting the kids off the school, only to find out that I have to do it all again.
I have three Sun to Sat Medicine trays that I have used for years. They come in a variety of forms. I used to have three weeks worth of meds set up now I have 7am and 7pm doses, My third one is used to lift the even dose up. Keeping trying different ideas and let up know which one works for you.

 

[serendipity324]

I have found that any time there is a change in meds (up or down), the transitioning creates side effects that go away once the brain is stable for a while. You might want to ask your doc about transitioning even slower -- staying at your current dosage for another week until you get a better sense of how you are feeling on it.

Thanks. I was thinking of just doing that on my own. i will put in a call to the doc tomorrow, see what he says.

 

[serendipity324]

I have three Sun to Sat Medicine trays that I have used for years. They come in a variety of forms. I used to have three weeks worth of meds set up now I have 7am and 7pm doses, My third one is used to lift the even dose up. Keeping trying different ideas and let up know which one works for you.

I have one of those too. With the seperate AM & PM sections. it's worked wonderfully til the last few days. I hadn't forgotten any dose yet in the past 4 months. Altho I may snooze the alarm once or twice.
The tray I have also allows me to pop out each day's individual section..kind of a "to go" feature. So now we are going to try with putting out just each day's section and see how that goes.

 

[valeriedl]

I have use an alarm on my phone that goes off every ten minutes until I take it. This has been a life saver since I know I dream about getting ready in the morning getting the kids off the school, only to find out that I have to do it all again.
I have three Sun to Sat Medicine trays that I have used for years. They come in a variety of forms. I used to have three weeks worth of meds set up now I have 7am and 7pm doses, My third one is used to lift the even dose up. Keeping trying different ideas and let up know which one works for you.

I have this too and I always keep my weekly pill case right by my phone so when the alarm goes off I don't have to get up and go into another room to get the meds.

 

[jyearta]

I done the same as you. JUST knowing that I had taken my med. only to find out I DIDN't.
this is going to sound so silly, but I turn a 3oz. paper cup upside down on my next medic. dose. When I or my husband sees the cup upside down and it is past my medic. times, we know I haven't taken it. When cup is right side up, we know I took it.

 

[serendipity324]

it's not silly. gotta do what we gotta do.
I've been leaving the cap popped on the tray for each dose. if it stays closed, I didn't take it. works..for the most part. lol

 

[Bluesbrkr]

I have also kept a pill case when ramping up... but I tend to be terrible at filling it after the first time...I definitely have all kinds of new symptoms and can't remember if I took them or not... which leads to accidentally taking them... or not... wonderful. plus strange new symptoms or more intense ones like dizziness or double vision that I haven't had in quite a while. It's always an adventure!!!

 

[Cherriuz]

I am currently ramping up aswell - the idea is to be at double the dose im currently on. We are going up by 25mg every 2 weeks for what feels like forever! its gunna take months. But the neurologist wanted to do it really slow to try and keep the side effects to a minimum.
I'm terrible at remembering I'm going to have to use some sort of reminder. having the packs on my desk with no idea if I took them or not just aint working out well for me.