My husband was just put on trileptal after suffering a grand mal seizure on Sunday. He is suffering from fatigue and feels "out of it". He is a very active person, teacher, coach and dad. Does anyone know if the side effects will diminish at all? Also, is anyone on this medication? Any info would be greatly appreciated. We are both quite scared at this point. Thanks.

Hi..I was on trileptal for grand mal seizures also. First, they didn't control my seizures. I had two more, and with each seizure, an increase in the dosage. Personally, I never got used to the side effects. I don't mean to be negative, because I know some people on trileptal have had good experience, but personally, I do believe I went toxic, as there is no way to check the levels on it.

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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

~Beth

Hi- thanks for the info. So you never got used to the side effects? What medication are you on now? How many seizures have you had etc... He is really having a hard time on this medication. He's never been on medication for the other seizures- the first one 21 years ago and the other one 6 years ago. So he feels "why stay on medication if I'll only have seizures once every few years." I can understand his thinking because he really can't function on this stuff. The doctor , however, insists he be on medication. Any thoughts? Thanks for the valuable information anyone can give. Have a great day!

Hi again....I never got used to Trileptal. Maybe because I was changing the dosage every month. I've heard good from those who are at a steady level, and that it does take time to get used to it. I am now on Keppra and Topamax. I have had only 8-9 seizures. However, my seizures last for anywhere from 12-21 hours of unconciousness. I'm definitely not the usual case. My last seizure was on Thanksgiving day. It was 21 hours before I responded to anything, and about 4 days before I really had a grip of what had happened and what was going on. It's been 12 1/2 weeks since my last seizure. I took Trileptal for about 3 months. Around then, I averaged about 1 12-15 hour (end up in the hospital) seizure a month. I was up to 900mg a day, and it didn't work for me. As I said, I am not the normal case though. How much Trileptal does your husband take? It does take some time to get used to the medicine. Time will tell. I wish you the best.

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"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

~Beth

Was your husband feeling fatigued before the seizure?

Does he drink a lot of fluids (what kind?) or work out a lot?

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Mark Yannone
mjyannone@aol.com

Hi again- we've been away visiting family in NC and haven't checked messege board. He was told to take one pill two times a day- 12 hours apart. That was a total of 600 mg. While we were away he decided to take half a pill during the day and a whole one at night. He just can't function. He goes for some tests on Thursday so I guess he'll talk to the doctor then. He is so frustrated trying to figure out why he has these seizures. He's come up with a few theories- stress( he was extremely stressed out all 3 times- mentally)He gets headaches alot- maybe a axis problem in his spine. He wonders if they have anything to do with his dream pattern. He was tired the day of the seizure, coaching at a day long wrestling tournament, but he has tournaments like that one all season long. He was very keyed up though. Lots of bad calls by officials that made him yell till his veins were popping out!!! That's not like him either. He is pretty mild mannered. He drinks a decent amount of fluids- not that much. Mostly water and gatorade. He is fairly active-more last year than this year though. He ran the NY marathon last year but since then hasn't been running consistantly. He's a phys ed teacher, lifts, plays softball, golf and while coaching wrestling and soccer, gets a fair amount of exercise. I'm worried he is going to take himself off the medicine completely. I can't sleep at night... waiting for him to have a seizure. I was so scared. Thanks for listening and all the advice.

[This message has been edited by coachdad (edited 02-25-2001).]

[This message has been edited by coachdad (edited 02-25-2001).]