Dear Donna
 

the other thing i'm wondering is if he could be eating or drinking anything lately, more than usual (or started taking some OTC med?) that could be inducing metabolism of his meds - lowering the levels. but i don't know what meds he's on - if they have interactions. if he has more seizures, another advantage of going to hospital is they can draw his blood levels on the spot, and see if the meds are maybe out of whack. i hope he doesn't though. :hug:

~ waves ~

Yep, we would have them drawn. I will probably call and have the
doctor's office leave a order at the place we get it drawn so its ready
when we go back. The bad thing about this is he was to maybe
have a med lowered or see if we could take one away. Because
the two that are being considered are very high. And have
been one's he has taken a long time.

I think we will still be considering lowering the generic for trileptal.

I have a feeling the culprit is the generic for the zonegran. WHich
medco changed the manufacturer.

Which they have been requested not to do. But they do it anyway.
I can't remember for sure, But I believe last time they changed it
this happened too.

I don't have any of the other left or I could rotate it.
I am going to call the doctor's office and see if we can come up
with a solution. He has two kinds of insurance, and its possible
the second one will fill a month at a time in the local pharmacy
now.

I plan to start having it filled that way anyway.
Thanks Waves. The one thing I know he hasn't had is Grapefruit
its a no no period.

He takes trileptal and zonegran generics. And Dilantin and seroquel
brand names.


Donna

barb-b-que
 

Hubby and I had barb-b-que because we stopped at a nearby place when we had an errand to do. I ordered pulled pork, baked potato, cole slaw, and even a tiny order of baked beans. - clearly a meal not for everyday. :eek:

Today I think I will pick back up on my plan of eating lots of fruits and veggies. Cherries have been on sale for weeks now.
I like a huge romaine (or mixed leaf) salad with a little feta cheese and a little low fat salad dressing. :)

I hope that everyone is doing well.:hug:

M.

Donna,

Ooooooh. :( i bet that's the problem! SOOOO many people with E have had problems with generics, switching from brand to generic, or switching between generics. since this is the second time they pull this despite instruction not to, maybe your neuro would write them a letter to require brand name. i don't even have E but it makes so mad they do this, i have read of so many folks losing seizure control due to generics gymnastics pulled by pharmacies. it's not a small thing, how dare they play with this stuff! hmmmph. :mad:

~ waves ~

Mari

the BBQ sounds filling - but good. i like romaine lettuce-based salads too and feta is nice... i have had it on salads when eating out. at home, i used to do a lot of romaine-spinach-dandelion. i would dress it with parmesan cheese, pepper, and french vinaigrette (oil-vinegar-mustard).

---

i had a hot dog for lunch. we don't buy them often. my appetite has been very low but today i was getting very hungry so i ate that. hardly even noticed it other than it fixed the hunger. musta been really hungry.

the weight has stayed off - actually looks like 1-2 more now, so definitely the last two were not water weight.

i do think the benzo may have had to do with the appetite changes but it was clearly transient and since it went both ways i don't think it caused the weight loss.

~ waves ~

Waves,
Seeing the weight loss on the scale is affirming.
Keep doing what you are doing. :)

You make nice salads.

M.

I'm not sure what to do with Medco. I'm working on stayingaway
from them completely for Derrick at least.

Donna:grouphug:

Medco
 

Dear Donna,
Why do you need to stay away from Medco?
Are they are your insurance company?
Are they causing difficulties?

M.

Dear Mari
 

Derrick has been having a lot of breakthrough seizures. changes to/between generics are known to have impact on seizure control. Medco is messing with one of Derrick's meds, generic zonegran:

Generic AEDs are not therapeutically equivalent, not for the purpose of treating epilepsy, anyway. Many folks with E have to get a doc to require brand name, or stick with the same generic manufacturer.

~ waves ~

Mari and Wave / everyone else

Its also just plain weird the only medications we have ever had trouble
with are the ones Derrick takes. Medco, which is a mail order pharmacy
has always messed his up. Every sense we started being required to use them I've had one headache after another.

So this is just the next. It doesn't seem to matter to them if I tell them
no other generics. They just change them. This particular generic
there are 14 known different ones. This is the 2nd or 3rd different one
we have received from them. For some reason, its only theirs that seem
to matter.

The first they sent was fine. The one our local Pharmacy uses is fine.

So since he has medicaid I'm going to start having it filled monthly instead.

Another seizure this morning. This is at least 8, we haven't seen this many
sense before VNS time.

I'm sad right now.

Donna:grouphug: