What a BIG MISTAKE

[Loki1018]

So Sunday night I had made the decision to just stop my lamictal and was doing good all day Monday and half way into Tuesday. As I was doing more and more research one thing that came across was to titrate down the meds but I was like “No need to do that I’ll be fine” well by Tuesday night (yesterday) I was getting a little scared from all the reading and it was about to be a whole 48hrs with no meds, I decided to take half of my dose and right after got a call back from my doctor regarding about how I had abruptly stopped my lamictal and he said to take 1/2 the dosage and that we’ll speak about it on my up coming appointment this Thursday. Well I woke up today ok and when leaving to work as I said bye to my bf I just started to break down and cry. He asked me what was wrong and really there was nothing I just felt sad and overwhelmed all of sudden and that when I noticed I can’t be off meds and to see how fast the rapid cycle occurred scared me.

[HearYou]

Oh, Please don't beat yourself up. And please do not be sad you need medication. Be very happy you have such a marvelous body to tell you when you need help

I did stop one of my meds the same way once, and didn't feel badly anxiety wise, and the rx on the bottle said "Take as needed", so I thought ok, I don't need it. Didn't take it for two days.

Then I had two gran mal seizures hit the dresser with my head and hit the wooden floor of my bedroom. Thank goodness my husband was there and called 911 and I was in a hospital for three days while every sophisticated exam and test you could think of was run to figure out the reason for the seizures.....only thing unusual found was that medication missing in my body, and the fall caused a vertebral fracture.

I was so frustrated and disappointed too that my body will need medication forever maybe.

And I also so embarrassed, but so grateful I survived, I don't have a seizure disorder, and I am actually fortunate that creation granted this particular body to me as there is a way to help it. Two generations ago there would not have been.

Live a very full and good life. You and your unique body is yours and yours only and you have many travels ahead.

[Justswimming in reply to HearYou]

So what medication was it? I'm just starting taking welbutrin and have a xanax script and I'm scared of having a seizure

[HearYou in reply to Justswimming]

Why are you afraid of having a seizure? The basic moral of the story is don't stop taking any rx suddenly.

Take it as prescribed by your doctor.

Let him/her help you reduce the medication gradually if you and the doctor believe you no longer need it.

The only reason I had a seizure was I didn't take my medication for two days.

[Justswimming]

So why where you stopping ? Do you have insurance?

[Loki1018 in reply to Justswimming]

I have insurance the reason why I decided to stop is because it’s greatly affecting my short term memory. I’m a surgical technologist and one of my responsibilities is to always keep count of instruments, needles, sponges, etc and I been finding it that it’s getting hard because throughout surgery things are always being added and usually I’m good with that but lately I been having trouble remembering my tallies of things and that’s a big NO NO in that field although my nurse has a count sheet and also adds to the count when ever something is added but people can make mistakes and I always have my counts up to par with out having to even refer to the nurse if the par is right but lately it has been like that. I also find that my reactions are delayed and at times my speech is being affected. These are all symptoms of the medication because it’s slowing down my brain activity. I’ve always been a hyper active person running at 100 mph. I’m not used to being like this nor was I ever like this. I’m on lamictal but did research and most mood stabilizers which are anticonvulsant meds for epilepsy do that to you greatly affect your short term memory. I can barely remember conversation I have with my bf the night before at times things told me I can’t remember 5 mins later.

[Loki1018]

I was given Wellbutrin SR by my OB/GYN Dr to quit smoking but had a very delayed reaction about almost 3 weeks into broke out in a rash all over my body so I had to stop that.

[HearYou in reply to Loki1018]

Hi, hope you're feeling a bit better at the moment.

Appears your neurological system is like a very fine-tuned 12 cylinder Ferrari, and your high power personality and occupation match that.

The second part of your post mentions a reaction from Wellbutrin rx by your ob/gyn. Your Ferrari rejected it with a severe rash. That medication is rx by psychiatrists for depression, sometimes in conjunction with Cymbalta. Raises a question: does a OB/GYN really KNOW in depth how that medication could affect your neurological Ferrari?

Tommorrow you're seeing your doctor that prescribed Lamictal; you didn't mention his medical specialty.

Is it possible, like your ob/gyn, he is dealing with your neurological system that a specialist in a different medical field is actually better equipped to treat a Ferrari?

I don't know if you have a bipolar situation, but Lamictal is sometimes rx that or for seizure disorders. But without knowing his medical specialty, I am just raising a possibility.

I have to watch my medications, too, due to memory issues. I can't remember traveling to Spain by air and coming back by ship five years ago; something was terribly wrong with my meds. The rx doctor was a neurologist who had not consider the affects the meds might have with a person with minor brain injury. My meds are now rx by a psychiatrist.

There must be a medication appropriate for your Ferrari without clogging 6 of it's cylinders.

[Loki1018 in reply to HearYou]

lol love your analogy of me being a Ferrari couldn’t have been a better one. I have a psychiatrist who I will be seeing today and he’s the one who prescribed my lamictal and xanax. Yes I’m diagnosed bipolar depression and anxiety.

My OB/GYN has prescribed me Chantix was doing great on that until I started having all the negative side effects such as aggression depression agitation etc. also I relapsed So she then later on gave me the Wellbutrin it’s prescribed for pregnant women who still smoke.

At the time of her prescribing me those two meds I wasn’t yet diagnosed with bipolar, depression,& anxiety.

Finally I have quit smoking cigarettes, I started to use an e-cig and am weaning myself off the nicotine it’s going on now 2 months and the the liquid I use is purely made of vegetable oil, glycerin, nicotine, and mint flavoring a lot better then the 10,000 unknown chemicals in cigarettes