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Re: Cold Heartless Psychiatrists (some not all) » helenag

Posted by headachequeen on June 18, 2004, at 23:30:12

In reply to Re: Cold Heartless Psychiatrists (some not all), posted by helenag on June 18, 2004, at 21:22:59

> > I'm barging in--interrupting really--apologies. I've been on serzone, 400 mgs which is going off market. Stopped taking lamictal and began feeling better but went into mild hypomania--too much energy, needed to paint the hall NOW--3 to 4 hours of sleep OK, that sort of stuff. Better now. On 300 mgs Topamax which keeps me from bulemia and and drinking, although it keeps me in a mild absent minded fuzz. pdoc wants to restart wellbutrin at 400 mgs augmented with 200 mgs trazodone (wellbutrin pooped out on me before serzone came on scene.) Anybody had any experience with this stuff? I don't want to gain weight on deseryl. I don't want to get seriously depressed again. I'm 62 and bpII. again, sorry for interrupting.
> >
> >
> I've been on Topamax for a year, dose at 300mg, which is now at 200mg. At 300mg for several months and then the side effects for some reason really began to get to me. Maybe because I stopped drinking?
>
> Topamax helped level my moods. I do put up with side effects: tingling in the feet, the "stupids", dry eyes, tiredness, and yes, I have lost weight from loss of appetite. Infact, today I realized at 3:45pm that I had not eaten yet for the day.
>
> I had asked my pdoc about the side effects and I noted myself that when I accidently forgot my morning 100mg dose, I was not as tired nor as foggy. As an experiment, I skipped that dose for a week and found an improvement in all the side effects except the appetite loss. The cognitive slowness was beginning to really bother me as I couldn't recall names of people, objects, etc.. and it made me look incredibly wierd in front of people who knew nothing about my psych meds. Instead, I appeared like a dip-sh*t. Or like someone on some kind of street drug.
>
> One person's experience....hope it helps rounds out your answer. helen

hmmmm a few things rattling around in this old brain....

first of all, forgetting only one dose would not change things that fast as far as side effects are concerned...
I have on a couple of occasions... well several actually forgotten a morning dose of the anti seizure meds and the side effects do not disappear... the tingling -- oh such a euphemism for electric charges stabbing in my hands and feet thanks to dear old tegretol... I would not wish it on my worst enemy (well, most days)...
the stabbing pains in the abdomen and the nausea do not suddenly disappear because of one missed dose...
and when I was having the cognitive and muzzy thinking side effect of topomax, and the drier eye reaction to it, they did not disappear because I had forgotten it, either...
the excessive thirst never goes away...
I could forget the stuff for a couple of times in a row and that would not go away...

I, too, have been on topomax for a year... and have been at 300 mg twice a day for several months now...
the side effects have retreated...
when the side effects did kick in, I simply retreated to the previous dosage until things settled down, gave my system time to adjust, then and only then moved up, as the neurologist had told me to do...

I did decide, after reading the warnings that came with the anti-side-effect med to stop taking the tegritol... the side effects that came with the anti-side-effect med were worse than the ones it was supposed to stop... so it seemed to me that the only answer was to just stop taking tegretol and rely on the topomax...
My own doctor had asked the neurologist to change the basic anti-seizure med to one that worked and would not allow breakthrough seizures... still waiting for an explanation of that silly term sigh...
and one that did not require meds to help me live with the side effects... they are truly awful... I had been taking meds to help me survive them long before I met Topomax!!!!!
Instead he prescribed a med that has the SAME side effects only WORSE as a means of combatting the side effects. Now what sense does that make?

So I stopped the tegretol and relied upon the topomax...
I had been told or had read that stopped the tegretol would cause the seizures to start again at once...
but I was hoping the topomax would hold them off...
things were fine for almost a week... then it was chaos... seizures began with a vengeance..two a night and three a night and I went crawling back to Tegretol.. don't have to titre up to dosage on it so we just started our old love-hate relationship, moderated by the topomax...
my doctor told me that the topomax had probably kept me from having some really awful nights...
and I don't want to think about it...

Someone in this post mentioned the possibility of not drinking contributing to the muzziness... and I wonder if that is not a factor... and if it will not alleviate itself with time and with the body's adjustment?
I was told I could not have coffee or any form of caffeine or other stimulant for 48 hours before that last eeg... this for a person who thinks that coffee is the main food group...
by the time I reached the hospital for that test, my hands were beyond trembling into shaking; I had to keep them jammed in my pockets.
I had not slept for the required 12 plus hours but it was the lack of coffee that was doing it... no coffee and my whole system goes into some sort of serious arrest.
I could go cold turkey on the effexor and zyprexa, but caffeine -- don't even suggest it.
I am an addict and I know it. A day without twelve or more cups is a day that I have slept at least 18 hours.
My mind was a mess until I was able to find the nearest source of coffee and restore the balance and I am not trying to be funny. Sleep was not a problem; I can do without sleep because I am accustomed to that, but no coffee is not something that works for me. My thinking was addled, my responses to the simplest of questions... for instance my phone number and my date of birth... my middle name for heaven's sake... these were things I could not remember because my mind had simply shut down; gone on strike... it needed the caffeine or it would not or could not function...
and I had been off the tegretol and topomax for three days at that point as well... so can't blame either of them... :(

In an earlier post someone mentioned handwriting... if your handwriting is impaired or not as tidy as it used to be... try writing one letter at a time... that is how the banks used to have tellers write names and such in the days before computers to be sure that everything was neat and legible and it works...
I have the worst handwriting except when I do that...
and that is something I have used since long before either med to ensure legible handwriting...
can't blame my excuse for penmanship on meds sigh...

kat


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poster:headachequeen thread:5053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040614/msgs/358007.html