End of June, my boss pretty much told me that I could not work until I was off the meds. The Trileptal was really rocking my world - worse than it ever had. Fortunately I had already started planning for surgery. With me, it got to the point that the meds were almost as bad as the pain. What was weird was that they messed me up more physically than they ever had. I simply could not function in a normal manner with them anymore. But, they were much less effective in controlling the pain. I always said that I would fight it with the pills as long as I could so that I could avoid surgery. But now that I have had the surgery, I look forward to not having to take the medicine almost as much as I look forward to being pain free. That's saying a lot because the pain that I had was unlike anything that I have ever experienced. How much meds are you taking? I was 2400mg Trileptal / 4800mg Neurontin per day. Hopefully you don't have to approach those levels. Good luck.

i am to work my way u to 2400 of triliptal... the side effects are slowing me down so i am at a stand still till my stomache settles,,, i am now being worked up tfor M.S. also.. scary *****.. i am not at work but hopeing to get back as soon as i have some relief.. so far not working. at he end of the day it is excrutiating pain and through out the day if triggered same results... Doc has considered adding another drug but will not discuss it until we are up to full dose of tripiptal... hope you are felling welll could yo discuss more about the surgery and the recovery time you expect...

I have also been having cognitive issues with the start of meds... no short term memory.. hard time with word recall and speech is stumbling often.... anyone else have these issue....? i am in healthcare with high stress and high need for in depth cognition.. this is scaring me for my future employment issues...

I had trouble with speech when I was on the medication. My MVD was on August 9th. I was in pain for a few days afterward with some headaches. But, that was expected and paled in comparison to the pain I had before the surgery. I am fully recovered from the MVD. I have no pain and will return to work next week. I had a misconception that I would feel great immediately after the surgery. It wasn't as easy as I thought, but again, well worth it.