Updating My Medication Journey

[paucek.sheldon1]

Hello,As I go along this journey I try to share information from my neurology visits.I have been on Lamictal for 11 months and Tegretol for 5 months. So I took Lamictal for about 6 months before the Tegretol.I did not noticed a change with the Lamictal, but did with the Tegretol. So the doctor tells me to taper off the Lamictal.By itself I think that is a good idea. The dosage of Lamictal is high and it might be making some things worse.I am to monitor the tapering off of Lamictal and to see if I notice any changes. So I will do that for the next month.Still the Neurologist also told me that this may be as good as it gets under the meds. That they may not decrease the symptoms any more.I convienced the Neurologist to keep me on Tegretol for 1 year. At that time he will want me to taper off that as well.I am away from home for business. Now I hear this. I am depressed.It always seems that it takes me a few days after a doctor's visit to regain my equilibrium. It messes me up.-43RichyThe43rd

 

[Krackersones]

Why do you have to be tapered of the Tegretol? Is it because the long term use effects are too serious or is it that the benefit can continue even after being off the drug?

 

[AllGoodHere]

My last neuro visit was a bummer too. I am finding that the not knowing of where to go with this quest for health is a difficult state in itself. It takes away some of what we thought we knew about ourselves, it causes us to re-evaluate. However, if you do that and include all your life's blessings you will feel better. Didn't you say something of the sort to me? My neurologist would agree with yours as he maintains that all of these type of drugs (anti-seizure, etc.) must be adjusted through time as most people will get to some sort of stasis with them. Increasing after that point may encourage too many side-effects and you may become over-medicated and this condition in itself causes problems. You may have thought you were off the merry-go-round of trial and error? Anybody feels a little down about this kind of stuff because we're again put in the position of a patient; 'wait and see'. I do believe that this is the hardest part for me also, it's like you have no baseline healthwise. Just when you feel like you are managing this condition along comes yet another complication, increase in symptoms, or even a decrease that gets your hopes up only to be shattered in a few days. In limbo. But all in all, 43RichyThe43rd, you should be happy that you can drop some meds. Personally, I would like to stop all chemical ingestion. Think about it though, that is a much better place to be if you can manage it. He said it is as good as it gets with the meds, not with your healing.

 

[edadoStar]

A sincere Neuro is preferable to one that offers expectations that can not be met.Neuro drugs, are drugs by all means.As I said in many ocassions, I'm deeply convinced that either you know the cause of a problem, so that you can think about possible ways of treating/curing the issue, or better desist from any intervention, unless this is an open-minded attempt (if it works, ok; if it doesn't stop it there).I herein may be wrong, but I think to remember that it has been described persistence of lower limbs fasciculations following epidural. To me this seems to be hinting that it could be even the peripheral excitability at the level of the muscle itself to cause the "ripping". And we can do all the blood tests we like, but if there is an electo unbalance just there, we would not find it. So, I may even arrive to the point of considering that Neuro drugs could do nothing. If anything, muscle relaxants could do something, but then, muscle contractions are too fundamental and unless you are ready to stop vital functions, you can not go too far away with symptomatic control.All the above are just speculations and nothing more.I've tried many different approaches, but apart from quinine, I could not find anything I tought made a difference. I did stop quinine as I tought the relief I was getting was not justifying its chronic use. But, that had been a personal choice.

 

[nameDissin]

why did the doc put you on lamictal to begin with? i thought this was a bipolar med?