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Depakote and keppra

Posted , 6 users are following.

allen07303
allen07303

hi all my name is Allen and I was wondering if anyone would know the answer to this question?!

9/9/2015 I had a subdural hematoma resulting in an epilepsy diagnosis.

im 57 years old and they put me on depakote for three weeks that helped but didn't stop the seizures completely so he's switching me to keppra and am in the process of doing that today is day 8 at 500 milligrams and at two weeks I'll be taking 1000 a day.

he tells me that if this isn't successful it could be stress related.

im still having 4 to 7 seizures a day and am hoping the keppra will do the trick.

my question is does anyone know of another med I that works with  keppra that I could bring into the conversation if need be?

thank you smile

 

1 like, 105 replies

105 Replies

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  • Winnie143
    Winnie143 allen07303

    Posted

    Hope you are all well Today Friday 30.10 2015 

    Have a good weekend and I hope VNS works Karen and everyone has a Great Weekend  xx

    Good luck All ..keep a smile close at hand..hands out smiles to All

    We deserve a weekend of happiness.  xx

    Win xx xx

  • allen07303
    allen07303

    Posted

    Hi everyone,

    i want you all to know this morning I decided I'm going to do whatever it takes to find one "positive" a day through this...

    why?......because I've been angry with myself all night about being taken advantage of by a close family member o the tune of $205.00 yesterday and it's my well being that's paying the price for it.....

    unless anyone objects I'm going to list them here every day one at a time..

    1- if this hadn't happened I'd never have known you good people exist and that we're all unique with our on individual story .......  I'm well aware that there'll be days when trying to find that positive thing will be difficult but I'll do my best.......have a great day :-)

    • karen26258
      karen26258 allen07303

      Posted

      Stress and epilepsy is a Bad combination so take care Allen. Anything that reduces your stress can be a bonus. ☺
    • allen07303
      allen07303 karen26258

      Posted

      Hi Karen

      You're so right and you've dealt with it far longer than I.

      God bless😊

    • mo-jas
      mo-jas allen07303

      Posted

      5 days to go till you up the meds.. we'll all be around to hear how it goes when you do.  i for one will be counting those 'one a day' positives as you list them along the way!

      winnie's thoughts above are great but i'm a little worried about lines like "we deserve a weekend of happiness".  blimey, if i'm going to get what i deserve i'm DEFINITELY in trouble!!   eek

      ..and karen - i believe you just hit the nail right on the head re the epilepsy/stress thing.  well said.

    • SteV3
      SteV3 allen07303

      Posted

      Hi Allen,

      Being "positive" get's me through most days, even though I have had a bad one, probably sounds stupid.

      Take yesterday as an example, it was all going well until I tried to do something that a person like me should not do. I have to use a Zimmer to get around the place, regardless if its a short or long distance, well I class it a long its only a few metres. I decided to try and go to the bathroom without no aids, instead use walls and other furniture - but I mis-calculated the distance going in to the lounge, lost my balance and fell down, banging one knee on the door frame as I went down. I got back up with the aid of my son and into my chair.

      So, today I got a nice black bruise and grazed knee - because I tried to be more independant. With me though, it's a kind of fight - I am continously fighting Dystonia all day, it always wins, yet I never give up - regardless of what happens.

      I used to look at life with a "negative" attitude, but all that did was get me down, depressed and totally unhappy.

      I started reading books on the web, true stories which interested me, and because I am creative anyway, I try to write my own stories, but it is difficult. There is always one thing trying to stop me, Dystonia - it's like everyday, I must fight it, and come out feeling "positive". Day in, Day out - but then I think and know there are many people out there much worse than myself. I know many people think how do I cope, but after 30 years with it, and still progressively becoming worse I will not let it beat me.

      I look back over the years, and thought no way will I ever sit in a wheelchair, because I seen how people treat you - it is like being 'alienated'. But that day come, I had no choice and thought what the hell, other people are in wheelchairs and they may feel 'alienated' but they do not let it show, so why should I be any different!

      Allen, we are unique for a reason, hence it would be a boring world if were all the same. I know there's no one like me, even my own Neurologist calls me a complex case, but he always shakes my hand everytime I see him, the same applies to my own Doctor, she even asks me to go and see her, so she can get new training doctors to meet a person with Dystonic disorders, and which ones I suffer from. 

      I know people should not take others for granted, and even being Epileptic should not mean they should take advantage of you, but look at it from a different perspective and what would you have done with the $200 yourself, I know that is quite a substantial amount of money in our currency - if it was me, I would class it has a "loss" and just avoid the person, and never have anything to do with them again. This day and age, people like ourselves think we are easy prey, hence take liberties, when they shouldn't - if someone gets me to irrate then I will shout at them why. But that's me, I have learn't over the years - people see me as an easy target, or my wife - then again, nobody would cross my wife if they know whats good for them.

      One thing that really bugs me, is these people in large BMW cars, park across 3 spaces for disabled people. It is annoying I have to pay £15 for the EU Exemption Disabled Parking Badge and you get these stuck up people with nothing wrong with them apart from being too lazy to park their cars properly.

      Enough rabbling from me, read the Poem my Neurologist wrote that I replied to Karen's message, it will calm you down and put you in a positive mood.

      Hope the rest of your day is better, I started writing this message hours ago, but I cannot type that fast and suffer from spasms in my hands, which is why I write long posts, but take hours to reply!  Can't win really, but I get there in the end, that's what counts. rolleyeslol

      Regards,

      Les.

    • allen07303
      allen07303 SteV3

      Posted

      Hey Les,

      i enjoy reading your stories and "instances"

      you must have a million friends smile

      Allen

  • evelyn_35266
    evelyn_35266 allen07303

    Posted

    Hi Allen- I wish you well with the Keppra. I was on a similar increasing graduated dosage of Keppra but unfortunately had too many side effects and wasn't able to reach the higher dosage so had to shift to other medication. I suggest you inquire about clobazam ( 2 tablets of 10 mg each is the dosage without Keppra so could be lower if in combination with other medication. The other medication which neurologist is enthusiastic about is limotragine but while the latter can be taken with clobazam , at least during a titrating up on the latter and gradually weaning away from the clobazam, I don't know if limotragine ok to take as a companion medication with the leviteracezam ( Keppra). 

    Good luck finding the effective medication and dosage that gets you to a seizure free place and sustained... I am not there yet either, but promising signs of ever longer intervals between seizures at least. I am same age range as you. Stress reduction efforts also reasonable and characteristic advice!! 

     

    • allen07303
      allen07303 evelyn_35266

      Posted

      Hi Evelyn ,

      I'll be up to 1000 mil a day on Monday and still phasing out of the depakote....

      geez I don't know I'm trying to stay as upbeat as I can but today has been lousy sad

      continual petit mal seizures from 8:00 this morning until about 9:30...

      then again this afternoon another episode and I've been in the tank ever since....id set a personal goal yesterday to find at least one positive a day thru this but today it not happening.....

      i have another appointment with the neurologist a week from Monday and will keep your suggestions in mind,

      thank you dear lady,

      allen 

  • mo-jas
    mo-jas allen07303

    Posted

    hello again allen

    first re evelyn's - does lamotrigine 'go' with keppra..??  i've been doing both together since the beginning of the year; was on 1200 tegretol / 2g keppra at its worst.. last year was spent with them reducing the tegretol and when i was almost off that, started with the lamotrigine.  as i said above they're not great but are light years better than what i have been on over the years.

    had thought your 14 days meant you upped the keppra midweek but see it's sooner - yes, the raise may well knock you for six for a while but you're probably used to the disruption of med changes - chances are it will settle before too long.  i can only speak from my experience but i'd say hold onto a little hope that they'll do more good than harm.

    i'm so sorry you're struggling to find even a single positive through the flood of episodes you speak of.. it says you wrote that 13 hours ago so 'today' is probably now 'tomorrow', if you see what i mean.. hope you're having a calmer time of things.

    as ever, all our best wishes go with you; you must surely feel as though it's all resting on what happens this coming week.  take heart and make it a good one!   

    • allen07303
      allen07303 mo-jas

      Posted

      Hi mo..

      im watching the lions and chiefs in wembley stadium right now and it's almost 10:00 o'clock .....

      kinda helps me distract my mind a bit...

      thanks mosmile

    • mo-jas
      mo-jas allen07303

      Posted

      ur welcome allen  wink

      "rah.. rah.. rah! ..go chiefs"!!!  (or should it be "go lions")??!! ..hahaha

    • mo-jas
      mo-jas

      Posted

      ps.  ..no idea how second 'wink' smiley thing appeared there.

      anyone else noticed they don't even give us a regular, honest to goodness, straightforward, simple "smiley" option???

      curious.

    • SteV3
      SteV3 mo-jas

      Posted

      Mo-jas, the smilies appear because certain characters, rephrase that, combination of characters together are parsed when posted within a message. In the database, they are stored as normal characters, but change when displayed in new messages.

      The actual coding of these message boxes is one that is coded in to forum scripts, there are numerous functions with the one they use on here, but they keep it very simple and most of the functions which were good are not even enabled.

      If there was enough of us, we could ask to have a certain function enabled, it only takes one person to put the idea forward and others need to vote on it. Then it is put to the developers, whom hopefully would put it in place.

      The character problem is caused by "parsing" code incorrectly, it is easy to fix, I only know because I used to code add-ons for forums.

    • mo-jas
      mo-jas SteV3

      Posted

      ..erm ..ask me one on sport, les! ..haha

      things coding and computer are so out of my payscale i stop at asking the question "does it work if i press this button?" and leave it at that!  wink  (rubbish wink, huh??)

      thanks for the info but think i'll stuggle on with what they give us rather than risk starting a 'smiley' war!! ..lol

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