Don't Back Down

Though actually my medication has been changing for a couple of weeks now, it's taken on a new direction. To recap. For roughly 20 years I've been on Dilantin. With a few notable exceptions, we've been able to get along just fine. So switching medicines has been a bit of a nervous option for me. Frankly, I haven't wanted to do so. I know a lot of people don't like Dilantin, but for a drug first synthesized nearly 100 years ago, I'm okay with a few potential side effects. At least they are well known. For a newer drug that perhaps only has been around for 10 years, the answers just aren't there.

In any case, since the last four years or so have shown that my seizures seem to be growing not only in severity, but in frequency, we decided it was time. So for the last three weeks or so, I've been stepping up to a full dose of Zonegran, which will be 400mg. This will start tonight (I'm on 300mg now). But this morning saw my first reduction in Dilantin.

I had been taking 500mg per day (200mg in the morning and 300mg at night). The schedule for switching medicines had me slowly (100mg per week) ramp up to the full dosage of Zonegran, then slowly back off of the Dilantin, which is where I am now. So this morning saw a drop from 2 pills to 1. Thus far, I can't say that anything feels much different. But we'll see how it works.