I hope the Trileptal is good for you Mari. I took it for a time, and it worked well.

waves

Paresthesia
 

Hi, Donna and Waves,


At 8:30 p.m. (three hours after taking it) paresthesia started and is still going.

I need to call the office before I take another pill but tomorrow/ Thursday is a holiday.

I will call Friday. I do not know what else to do.


Mari

Hummm... Mari, I think the best thing would be not to take another pill until you can call... Or, you could treat this like an emergency ? I mean, calling tomorrow even when it is holiday...

Hi Mari.

What you do depends on how bad the paresthesia is and how long it lasts.

Can you describe the paresthesia - location, sensation, intensity? Is it upper body numbness, by any chance? Are you experiencing anything else - somnolence, fatigue, vertigo?

Do not take another dose until it goes away, obviously, but see how long this spell lasts. I am hoping this paresthesia will resolve within 3-4 hours. If it does not, or if it is very disturbing, I would certainly contact a health professional before taking another dose.

FYI, this drug has a very short half life in typical individuals. It produces an active metabolite with a signficantly longer half-life.

I wonder if you can cut the thing into quarters? What shape are your tablets? It is possible this might be only a transient side effect but a slower titration might be good, if possible.

Take things one step at a time and follow your instincts.

:hug::hug::hug:

waves hoping you feel better soon.

pins and needles
 

Waves and Majo,

I took the pill at 5:30.

The dull foggy head appeared about 2 hours after I took the pill.
At 8:30 pm pins and needles started in my thighs and arms. Then it spread to my face and other areas.
It is still going at 2:00 am although it has diminished a great deal and is mostly in arms and face.

I am glad I took the initial dose early enough in the evening that I could
1. be awake to notice it
2. be awake to notice it diminish.


Mari

So, it has actually spread correct ?

I do not like this side effect Mari... Maybe this is not the med for you... Im usually not too paranoid when it comes to meds side effects, but this doesnt sound too good...

Please call tomorrow....

:hug:

Majo,

I feel better now.

At 5:00 am the pins and needles feeling is mostly gone except for some kind of risdual-like effect in face and arms.


These meds are weird.
You never know what you are going to get until you put them in your mouth and swallow.
When I was young, I was brave (or stupid, not sure which) and willing to take meds to get better.

Mari

Hahaha ! You are right Mari...

It "amuses" me how meds have a looong list of side effects and we have to swallow one to discover which one(s) are we gonna get :rolleyes:

Im glad to read you are better now...

You know, some side effects are just temporary but others mean we do not process the med so... Argh. It is dificult.

:hug:

Not sure you want to hear this.

But there is a 150mg pill. But I'm personally not sure this is a good idea
for you.

Glad its stopped though.

Donna:grouphug::hug:

Trileptal & paresthesia
 

Dear Mari

I am glad that the paresthesia wore off. I hope you are feeling ok today. :):hug::hug:

If you still feel ok about giving the med a shot, please call the doctor first. If she says it is OK, I would let her know about your reactions to baby doses of other meds, and ask for the smaller tablets.

FYI, one symptom that arose after almost a year of my taking Trileptal without incident... was paresthesia. I didn't want to share this before, Mari, because I didn't want to precondition you to expect it. I did not have the tingling/pins and needles kind, I had numbness affecting my arms first, then spreading to my torso, neck and face. For some weird reason it was upper body only.

I also had general weakness, somnolence, and some vertigo - I could not stand up and usually had to lay down while the effects wore off. Sometimes I'd fall asleep as nothing would combat that somnolence.

Fortunately the effects did not last long and occurred only with my AM dose I was taking 600mg 2ce a day. The s/e would start about 2-3 hours after taking the am dose and last about 2-4 hours.

Now, I had a bad virus for quite some time right before this happened; I couldn't help feeling that had something to do with it. My doc had me try a lower dose for about 10 days but never ordered a blood draw. :rolleyes::( When the sx did not resolve, he had me d/c. I was sad to have to stop the drug because it had been great until then and all prior bloodwork had been good. I have always wondered if I might not have been able to interrupt treatment for a short while and then resume successfully.

It probably sounds crazy that I wanted to stay on it when I could not even sit up straight, but for some reason I still felt safe - perhaps because the s/e's reliably wore off. I believe in following one's instincts. Do what feels safe to you.

waves