Hi everyone, this is the first time i've posted in this forum so i apologize if any of my questions have been anwsered previously...

My roomate and best friend has just been diagnosed /w a mild form of epilepsy. She had a seizure a few days ago and I had to call 911 and take her to the ER... They did an EEG, CAT scan, blood test, etc, etc, etc, and for the time being they have given her a prescription for Tegretol since they found a mild nurological abnormality. She's still waiting to see a specialist (I love Canadian healh care, but sometimes the waiting lists are months long)...

Anyway, I've been reading a lot over the last few days about her condition and also about Tegretol and I'm just concerned that there may be some negative reaction to this medication. This girl doesn't even take tylenol or anything, she loaths medication but in this case it seems very necessary so she's going to start taking it. My concern is that since her body is not used to stuff like this it might be really hard on her... They've started her off at 100mg and there planning on upping it to 200mg after a few weeks...

What have your experiences been with Tegretol? Can anyone recommend any other drugs in the same catagory that may be safer/milder that would achieve the same effect?

Any info you can provide me with is greatly appriciated... I'm very concerned for my friend and I want to make sure that I can be as supportive as possible to her during this whole thing. She's handleing it really well, but she's really stressed out because it happened at a time when she's really busy and doesn't even have the time to deal /w the extra problems... Thank you in advance.

Kind Regards,

Rob.

Hi everyone, this is the first time i've posted in this forum so i apologize if any of my questions have been anwsered previously...

My roomate and best friend has just been diagnosed /w a mild form of epilepsy. She had a seizure a few days ago and I had to call 911 and take her to the ER... They did an EEG, CAT scan, blood test, etc, etc, etc, and for the time being they have given her a prescription for Tegretol since they found a mild nurological abnormality. She's still waiting to see a specialist (I love Canadian healh care, but sometimes the waiting lists are months long)...

Anyway, I've been reading a lot over the last few days about her condition and also about Tegretol and I'm just concerned that there may be some negative reaction to this medication. This girl doesn't even take tylenol or anything, she loaths medication but in this case it seems very necessary so she's going to start taking it. My concern is that since her body is not used to stuff like this it might be really hard on her... They've started her off at 100mg and there planning on upping it to 200mg after a few weeks...

What have your experiences been with Tegretol? Can anyone recommend any other drugs in the same catagory that may be safer/milder that would achieve the same effect?

Any info you can provide me with is greatly appriciated... I'm very concerned for my friend and I want to make sure that I can be as supportive as possible to her during this whole thing. She's handleing it really well, but she's really stressed out because it happened at a time when she's really busy and doesn't even have the time to deal /w the extra problems... Thank you in advance.

Kind Regards,

Rob.

I'm sorry that I don't know much about Tegretol. It seems to me that stress can definately be a big problem for me. I had my first problems when I was VERY busy and under a lot of stress. Different people react differently to the medications so I would wait and see how she does and if there are any problems, then got to thte doctor and switch. For example, I had terrible memory problems on other drugs that others said they didn't and Topamax doesn't give me any memory problems but gives other people terrible trouble. Educate yourself as much as you can. Stick together. Life has just hit the spin cycle. Crystal

Rob, I took tegratol for 8yrs. Meds effect everyone differently, but I didn't notice any side effects. Tergatol can do liver damage, alcohol can intensify the effect. I had blood work done once a year, and the resolts were always positive (no problems). I did drink socialy. I've switched to a new med called limictal. I think it's supposed to be easier on the liver. I'm not an expert or a doctor. Hope the info helps.



George
ps [removed]

thanks for the quick responses...

the doctors did mention that stress may intensify the whole situation that's why the seizure may have happened... i'm glad to hear that Tegretol doesn't have too many side effects for you, it's just that when you read about drugs on the internet the listed side effects go on and on and on, so i just got a bit nervous... once again thanks for the info...

-Rob

Wow, 30 seizures per night? I can't even imagine how hard that must be on you and your family... You're clearly a very strong person...

My roomate only had 2 seizures in her entire life, one about five years ago and then this one last week... After the 1st one her doctor told her it was stress related and caused by the fact that she sufferes from learning diablities (dyslexia, ADHD) and that her brain was trying really hard to compensate for those problems and just got too exhausted...

That time though it was several hours before she saw a doctor, this time I had to call 911 and she went directly the ER (because the seizure lasted for several minutes) and they did a number of tests right away. Her EEG showed an abnormality in her brain activity and that's why they prescriped tegretol to her. She just started taking it yesterday, and she also has the flu right now, so she generally just feels like crap these last few days...

Does anyone know how quickly the dosage is usually increased for tegretol and what the 'average' maximum dosage is for someone /w mild epileptic symptoms such as the ones I've mentioned?

Thanks for the info everyone, and I wish you all the best of luck in the future in dealing /w the problems you're experiencing.

-Rob.

Hi Rob,

Kudos to you for being such a supportive friend.

My daughter Jenny, 15, has been on Tegratol since Sept. 03. The biggest side effect for her was sleepiness. She comes home from school and naps every afternoon. Certainly not her norm. She is still doing this - but I'm also thinking that she's going through a big growth spurt - 3 inches in the same time frame (since Sept).

Your friend may also experiance an increased appetite for a couple of months. This does tend to level out. She may also notice a slowing or slurring of speech for a few weeks, this too should fall away by the 3rd month.

Something to think about... ADHD? Is she taking meds for this as well? Jenny was on Concerta when she started the Tegratol and we had really pronounced stuttering (in addition to the slurring) while on both of them. She dropped the Concerta in Nov and within days this disappeared.

She may also notice that a lot of her ADHD symptoms go away with the Tegratol. Jenny still has the energy/buzz/constant movement of ADHD, but she is able to concentrate SO much better. The neuro thinks that most of her ADHD issues were in fact siezures - they look like absent seizures, however they last between 30 and 45 seconds. Jenny's only had one seizure that even came close to looking like what most people "think" a seizure looks like - Her's are not the Grand Mals that our Jake (my baby age 2, also has E) has.

Hope you find this helpful. Stop in anytime... Everyone here is in the same boat one way or another. Welcome aboard! ;)

Light,

Lisa and kids