Ok, so here is a new one for you. I have had migraines for a very long time, since I was a teenager, and never really sought physician treatment because in our family a headache was "nothing to cry about". So, now that I am married with 4 kids and an advancing career, having migraines on a weekly basis isn't something I can live with anymore. So I went to my doctor. He said what about preventing them with Topamax. I know what Topamax is, I'm a nurse, I know what the potentials are, but I had not really heard of the side effects when using it in a perfectly healthy person. ANd I must say it has to be my own fault for saying "sure" and not investigating first. WARNING= Topamax is a drug for seizures, effecting the central nervous system, and will have effects on a healthy person's central nervous system. Now, not doing my research I will also not have known that you are supposed to be titrated very slowly up with increasing doses, starting at a suggested dose of 15-25 mg per day for the first week the 50 then to 100, etc. I was begun at 50 mg/day for a week then 100 mg a day thereon out. Please, if you experience the symptoms the pharmacy warns you about, but they are exaggerated, go back to your doctor!! Here are my symptoms by day
Days1-3- Normal effect- tingling hands/feet, taste loss of some drinks, foggy unable to think clearly
Day4-5- horrible head pain, back of my head, not like my migraine pain, stabbing and pins/needles in hands/feet, still can't taste, nausea, dizziness, confused (like I couldn't find my way to my doctor's office confused)
Day 6- And I am entirely embarrassed to say this one because I am a nurse, and I know what it implicates... Pseuedoseizure. I was in the doctors office, in the waiting room and I could not control my muscles. I knew it wasn't a seizure because I could hear some of what was going on around me, but something was not right. I couldn't move anything and I didn't remember everything. And all the above symptoms, along with. But, naturally normal CT...
Day 7- It happens again... And this time I have some right sided weakness and all the above, that's it, it has to be the Topamax, we are done. It's only been a week, so cold turkey.
That is my experience with Topamax, and unless I am actually seizing, it is a journey I will never take again, I have 4 little ones that depend on me too much. PLEASE research before you try whatever is handed to you!!