Medication Update

[hiddenmuse]

I'm on what seems to be my 50th different seizure medication in as many months - Keppra, while keeping me seizure-free, had a nasty side effect. One that made the hair loss and weight gain from Depakote almost seem tolerable.


How can I put this, without freaking people out? ... Hmmm ... I'll just come out and say it: Keppra made me suicidally depressed. I NEVER attempted. I just had this incredible, overwhelming depression - a feeling of guilt over nothing at all, coupled with the sense that I should be in Hell.

Then, yesterday, it happened again. I was at the top floor of a department store, looking out the window and admiring the view of downtown. The next thought that came into my head was "what if I jumped from this ledge?" It scared the hell out of me, to go from a perfectly rational, decent thought ... to a suicidal thought - something totally irrational and insane. It was the medication thinking for me, which freaked me out. I got away from the window and broke down, because I was scared over what had happened.

Hopefully, this will be ending very soon, as I am being weaned off the Keppra - and going onto Lamictal. Granted, I'll be spending the first week on 3 different seizure meds, and the schedule for going on Lamictal is utterly screwy (only to keep patients from developing a rare, but potentially fatal rash) ... but anything is better than Keppra Hell.

Comments

[hiddenmuse.livejournal.com]

I've been on Zonegran through all of this (for almost two years) - even took Zonegran for almost a year by itself with no seizures ... until the doc told me it was a secondary drug. :-/

So now I'm going off Keppra and its nightmare side effects (the worsening depression was happening even though I'm on anti-depressants as it is!) - and onto Lamictal & Zonegran.

Hopefully I'll find something that works.