Eighteen Months of Zonegran and I Feel Fine »
In 1986, I was in high school when I had my first seizure. I was at a friend's house and we were playing Boggle. That's about all I remember. According to him, I sort of half-stood and then leaned over, as if I was playing some sort of other game, and shortly thereafter he realized that I wasn't. That's when he got his mom, who realized that I was having a seizure. I'm glad that she had worked in a day care environment and knew what it was, as I had no idea. It was my first.
I went to the doctor and some time later was diagnosed with epilepsy, which doesn't really help - it just means that you are prone to seizures. Thanks, doc. For the next twenty or so years I took Dilantin of varying strengths. My mom tells me that when I was in high school, I had so much in my that I slept. It may have just been school. I don't really recall. But about eighteen months ago, my neurologist decided that it was time for a change. He suggested Zonegran.
Now I'm not really averse to change, but when it mucks with my nervous system, I have a few issues. Most notably because when I do something like this, I don't want to drive for a while. If I have a seizure it's bad enough. I don't want to have one while I'm driving. Switching medications meant I'd have to not drive for a while. But recently my trusty Dilantin had seemed to be not working as well, so perhaps it was time.
The recent level of Dilantin I was taking was 500mg, so it took close to two months to work it all out. Of course, it would have been faster if I was just going off of Dilantin, but first I had to work up to a full dose of Zonegran - which was 400mg. That took about a month, and once there, I started to work the DIlantin out of my system, which took almost another month. After that, I started to feel better almost immediately.
By the time I was exclusively on Zonegran, I felt much, much better. The dizziness that I had been feeling left completely, and I just wasn't so sluggish. To date, it's been exactly eighteen months and I'm doing fine. No seizures, and I'm still taking 400mg of Zonegran daily.
There is just one different in Zonegran - because it has a longer life in your body, you can take it all at once (I take it at night, though I don't know if it matters much). With Dilantin, it doesn't last as long, so you're actually better taking it in separate doses - for instance, I was taking half of my dose in the morning and the other half at night. It's nice not having to worry about that any longer, and just taking it at one time. Most important is not having seizures, however. My wife worries less a well.
