Hi, I am new to this forum - looking for some help, info, and support. My mom is 84 with a large brain tumor. She started having occasional (visible) seizures 5 years ago. Dilantin has pretty much kept them under control. And, then eventually Keppra was added earlier this year. About 4 weeks ago she started having some visible seizures again (head turned to right, eyes rolled up in head, and spaced out for about less than a minute - then would come back to herself and her conversation). This happened several times in a short period so I had her rushed to the emergency room.
She has now been in the hospital under a neurology team and an epilepsy team. She has had several different seizure meds - usually about 5 at time. Among the ones I can remember are lamictal, tegretol, topamax, keppra, dilantin (phenytoin), Vimpat (lacosamide), Depakote (Valproic Acid), Decadron (steroid). They finally settled on Keppra, Phenytoin, Valproic Acid, Vimpat, and Decodron - And she was seizure free for over a week, when she started having some sub-clinical ones again. They have decided not to focus on the sub-clinical ones, but only the bigger ones.
PROBLEM IS - When she went into the hospital, she was awake, aware, and eating on her own. By the end of the first week, she became drowsier and drowsier until she became unresponsive (only response was to intense pain stimuli to her toes). She was like that for 5 days. Then she started to become somewhat aware on a very limited basis. For the past 3 weeks, she's been on a feeding tube, can become somewhat aware if really awoken and she may try to talk at these times but you can't understand what she's saying ( a word here and there), an occasional smile at something funny- but out of a 3 hour visit, there may be a collective 5-10 minutes of responsiveness.
She goes into her sleepiest stage right after getting the doses of her meds - which are slowly being decreased. But, getting to my question - it is starting to appear that Vimpat may be the culprit. Near the beginning of her stay - Vimpat was started at 200 mg twice a day. It was not gradually built up starting at 50 mg twice a day as what is recommended on everything I read about it. She became totally out-of-it on the 3rd day after receiving it. It was decreased to 100 mg twice a day 13 days after it started, and just yesterday was reduced to 50 mg twice a day - waiting to see what happens...
Has anyone had any experience or heard of Vimpat (or any of these seizures meds) causing any symptoms/side effects such as these? We are rather stumped right now.
Thanks for your input.
She has now been in the hospital under a neurology team and an epilepsy team. She has had several different seizure meds - usually about 5 at time. Among the ones I can remember are lamictal, tegretol, topamax, keppra, dilantin (phenytoin), Vimpat (lacosamide), Depakote (Valproic Acid), Decadron (steroid). They finally settled on Keppra, Phenytoin, Valproic Acid, Vimpat, and Decodron - And she was seizure free for over a week, when she started having some sub-clinical ones again. They have decided not to focus on the sub-clinical ones, but only the bigger ones.
PROBLEM IS - When she went into the hospital, she was awake, aware, and eating on her own. By the end of the first week, she became drowsier and drowsier until she became unresponsive (only response was to intense pain stimuli to her toes). She was like that for 5 days. Then she started to become somewhat aware on a very limited basis. For the past 3 weeks, she's been on a feeding tube, can become somewhat aware if really awoken and she may try to talk at these times but you can't understand what she's saying ( a word here and there), an occasional smile at something funny- but out of a 3 hour visit, there may be a collective 5-10 minutes of responsiveness.
She goes into her sleepiest stage right after getting the doses of her meds - which are slowly being decreased. But, getting to my question - it is starting to appear that Vimpat may be the culprit. Near the beginning of her stay - Vimpat was started at 200 mg twice a day. It was not gradually built up starting at 50 mg twice a day as what is recommended on everything I read about it. She became totally out-of-it on the 3rd day after receiving it. It was decreased to 100 mg twice a day 13 days after it started, and just yesterday was reduced to 50 mg twice a day - waiting to see what happens...
Has anyone had any experience or heard of Vimpat (or any of these seizures meds) causing any symptoms/side effects such as these? We are rather stumped right now.
Thanks for your input.