Hi Everyone. I have a question about side effects. I am wondering if anyone has issues with a constant side effect of a medication being ataxia and general balance issues? I am on my 3rd medication and all three have caused the usual listed side effects but also made walking almost impossible. I have an appointment on Friday and hoping I can make it until then to figure out what to do. Since this all started in May I feel like things have gotten worse with medications instead of better. Thanks for any input.
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Starting a new med
- Thread starter Ktp
- Start date
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Hi,
Usually this is a common side-effect I believe with seizure medicines. From what I heard, anti-seizure medication tries to slow down active neurons which thinking, spinning around, and so forth uses and it tries to slow them down to suppress seizures when they occur. So, I assume this is the reason you have these issues. The key is to find the right medicine and right dose of medicine to control seizures, which are able to suppress seizures without slowing down other active things. At least to prevent you from having terrible side effects such as this. So, they may need to lower your dose or change your seizure medicine. I could be wrong, and I am still learning a lot about epilepsy, I am not a doctor or had any medical training so don't I could be wrong.
Usually this is a common side-effect I believe with seizure medicines. From what I heard, anti-seizure medication tries to slow down active neurons which thinking, spinning around, and so forth uses and it tries to slow them down to suppress seizures when they occur. So, I assume this is the reason you have these issues. The key is to find the right medicine and right dose of medicine to control seizures, which are able to suppress seizures without slowing down other active things. At least to prevent you from having terrible side effects such as this. So, they may need to lower your dose or change your seizure medicine. I could be wrong, and I am still learning a lot about epilepsy, I am not a doctor or had any medical training so don't I could be wrong.
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From what I understand, a symptom like ataxia is a sign of overdose or having increased to the desired dose too quickly (not necessarily the patient's fault). I have learned to slow down dose increases from the so-called typical dose increase plan, and to request controlled release versions of a medication when available.
Request to have your blood levels of medication checked as well, to check that you are in the therapeutic range, and if the medication is helping at a lower dose there is usually no need to be at the typical adult dose if a lower dose is controlling your seizures.
To use my case as an example, I am very susceptible to double vision, ataxia, and "mind-numbness" with these medications and in an effort to control seizures my specialist is trying lower doses of 3 medications to control the seizures rather than piling on a high dose of the same one. It has worked in terms of side effects, but we are still working on finding the most successful combination to establish the best control possible.
Request to have your blood levels of medication checked as well, to check that you are in the therapeutic range, and if the medication is helping at a lower dose there is usually no need to be at the typical adult dose if a lower dose is controlling your seizures.
To use my case as an example, I am very susceptible to double vision, ataxia, and "mind-numbness" with these medications and in an effort to control seizures my specialist is trying lower doses of 3 medications to control the seizures rather than piling on a high dose of the same one. It has worked in terms of side effects, but we are still working on finding the most successful combination to establish the best control possible.
So you are saying using a combo of meds and because it is a combo you can use smaller doses? I am slow these days so making sure I get it. Right now I am on 1500 of Keppra dosed throughout the day but I got to that dose in 24 hours while I was in the hospital. It does seem like ataxia, balance and weakness and fatigue are my big problems on seizure meds. They are not mild symptoms. I am literally counting the hours until my appointment Friday. It is exactly 72 hours away...just FYI.
Yes - taking a combo to enable the use of smaller doses. I believe Keppra is one a person can take a higher dose of fairly quickly, but here again (with me being me lol) one of my doctors said to start at 500 at night for a week, then 250 AM and 500 AM for a week, then 500 AM and 500 PM, then 500 AM and 750 PM, then 500AM and 1000 PM . . . and while we tried going higher I ended up having to stop at this point due to issues of intolerance.
Hang in there, Ktp, and keep asking questions as they arise. Generally when someone asks a question, it turns out that the rest of us who are new or fairly new to all this would have asked the same thing if it entered our heads to! I've had seizures for 3 years, but have only been diagnosed for a year and a half so I consider myself in new territory, too.