Don't Back Down

Just a week ago, my Zonegran dose was bumped up to 500mg. Nothing much interesting has happened in the last week - which is certainly good news, to be sure - so it's time that it go up another pill. That's right, hold on to your hats, it's time for: 600mg! It's really not as exciting as it sounds, but it does bring a change with it.

As I mentioned last week, I'm no longer taking all of my 400mg pills at night. Zonegran does have a longer half-life than Dilantin (or so I'm told), which means that I could take all 6 pills at night, but it just seems strange. That, and that's a lot of pills to take at once, and the Zonegran pills aren't exactly small, you know. So last week I dropped down to taking 3 of them at night and 2 in the morning. Today I picked up an extra one in the morning, so now I just take 3 whenever I'm brushing my teeth. Easy to remember. And I have a monstrous bottle for a month's supply. It's really rather impressive what a 50% bump in dosage will do. I go back in next week for an ambulatory EEG. Turns out that I don't have to have an MRI after all.

At least not yet. That's cool.

Way back on March 8, 2006, I bumped my Zonegran level to 400mg, which is where it's been even since. A little over two years! And everything had been going along just swimmingly. Until Sunday. I don't really know why (or if) the Zonegran has started to be less effective, but after visiting the doctor, we decided that it was time to bump up the dosage a bit.

My best guess is that I've put on a bit of weight - currently I'm hovering around 250 - so for now, I'm going to go to 500mg of Zonegran, and in a week or so, I'll go to 600mg. Rather than taking all the pills at night, I'm going to split up the dosage. While the Dilantin was relatively short-lived, Zonegran lasts longer in the bloodstream, which is good, but I still feel better about spacing it out some. It just doesn't seem right to take it all at night. For the time being, I'm going to take 200mg in the morning and 300mg at night. Then next week I'll take another pill in the morning to bring me up to the full 600mg. Hopefully that will keep me seizure-free.

As if all the fun we had Sunday morning wasn't enough, it didn't end there. Trying to keep things calm, we figured we'd just hang out and do nothing except sit around and decompress. With any luck, by the time the kids did come home and we had to speak to another human being, it would be late in the day and the events of the morning would just be long gone. Unfortunately, someone out there decided that just wouldn't do.

Around noon we were kicking back and watching an old movie when I was visited by yet another unwelcome visitor. At least, I guess that's what time it was, because I really have no idea. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the back of the ambulance, on my way to the hospital. That's right, I had a seizure. Joy of joys - could the day get any better? At least the ride wasn't a horrible one, but I still had to go through the whole barrage of questions in the back of the bus while they determine if I've come out of my stupor. It took a while, but eventually I came around.

Read "Seven Seizures Down, How Many Left?" »

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.

Read "Eighteen Months of Zonegran and I Feel Fine" »

Tonight marks a full dose of Zonegran, at 400mg. I've been feeling a bit drowsy, but I think it's from the high level of drugs in me right now. Hopefully with the Dilantin starting to taper off, that will be better soon.

Adding another 100mg pill to my nightly dose of Zonegran. Nearly a full dose at this point.

Strangely, I think I'm actually feeling better, even with the additional medication, than I had been on Dilantin alone. Perhaps it is just the relief of a potental end in site.

Tonight the dose of Zonegran goes up by another pill, to 200mg. This is one-half of the (expected) full dose.

Starting tonight, I will take 100mg of Zonegran. This amount will gradually increase to a full dosage (400mg), and eventually will replace my Dilantin dose (currently 500mg). Stay tuned.