[Scott in Fenton]

so, it's almost been 4 months into PCS for me. I've been on Depakote for about the last three, but my work comp Neuro has decided to stop the Depakote and switch to Topamax b/c I wasn't getting very far. Depakote had made me feel some better, but it only controlled some headaches, not all, and my biggest problem has been the light sensitivity and sound sensitivity, niether of which has really changed since the beginning.

I stopped taking Depakote two days ago; the Neuro wants me to call him at the end of next week to start the Topomax, so I will be without any medication for several days in between. I'm wondering what I'll feel like; will I go back to the beginning, reliving the symptoms that Depakote had been masking? I am not expecting an answer of course, no one knows. I do feel that, since nothing that the Depakote wasn't helping with has improved all this time, the headaches that the Depakote was helping with will come back. And since Topamax takes a few weeks or so to build up the dose, I will be miserable as when this all started for a few weeks. Ugh.

A month ago, the Neuro upped my Depakote from 500 to 1000 mg daily; immediately after that my blood pressure jumped badly. I told him it was the Depakote but he argued. He agreed to go back down on it anyway, and lo and behold my blood pressure went back down. Now I'm going off of it entirely. Anybody have experience with Depakote, and in particular blood pressure issues related to Depakote? What about Diabetes Insipidus? My PCP has suggested being tested for it.