So Many Medications

Hello everybody! Time to talk about drugs, and I do not mean illegal drugs.

Since I first started having seizures about seven years ago, I have been on numerous medications. The first one I was put on was Keppra, which I am currently still taking. Now. My Neurologist at the time did not help at all. He would order tests after almost every appointment, and nothing would show up. I decided to switch to a better Neurologist at the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. She was much better, and cared deeply about my health.

When I continued to have Grand Mal Seizures, my new Neurologist put me on Zonegran. Now. Zonegran did not work for me. While on it, I lost my appetite, and as a result I lost about 10-15 pounds. I was taken off of that, and a day after, my mom took me to Denny's and I ate a large meal. That was fun.

After that, I tried out Trileptal. Trileptal was fantastic because it stopped the Grand Mal Seizures, and I would only have Complex-Partial Seizures. In my previous post, I talked about those, and I explained what they looked like specifically for me. I would clench my left fist, turn my body to the left, and freeze in place.

One day at one of my appointments, we were discussing if I should try a new medication. At that point, I was rather nervous to try a new medication, but I was willing to try. I was put on Lamictal. I am grateful I went along with it, because I stopped having Complex-Partial Seizures, and only had Simple-Partials.

When I turned 18 years old, I stopped going to that Neurologist because I was too old, and I started going to one that is about 30 minutes away. She is always booked, and so I have only seen her twice. Instead, I see her Nurse Practitioner. She is fantastic, and she has helped me tremendously. She put me on another medication called Vimpat, which was the worst medication I have ever tried. It caused me to have extreme double vision and dizziness. She continued to tell me that I should wait a month to see if my body would get used to it, but I refused. I told her that I would not stay on that. I was crippled. I could never leave the house or go to work.

My Neurologist put me on Extended Release for all of my medications, seeing that it can make a huge difference for controlling seizures. Extended Release is when you only take the medications once a day, but the dosage is still the same. The only medication I was not on Extended Release for was Trileptal. For about a year and a half, I had extreme double vision, although it was not as bad as when I was taking Vimpat. My Neurologist had given me samples of the Extended Release of Trileptal to see if that would make the double vision go away, and it worked. Soon after I ran out of the samples, I learned that my insurance would not cover the Extended Release, which is called Oxtellar XR. We would have to pay for it out of pocket, which would be about a thousand dollars a month. Obviously, my parents would not be paying for it. The only option would be to write our insurance company to request it.

After confusion, and the letter my Neurologist wrote to them did not arrive, my parents and I wrote separate letters to our insurance company. I did not care if it was a nice letter. I let out all of my feelings, and told them that I was not able to do anything. I could not go to my classes and I was stuck in bed half the day until the double vision went away. About two weeks later, the request was approved. My mom called me and told me that it was approved, and that I would be able to take Oxtellar XR! That was one of the happiest days of my life.

I have been on Oxtellar XR since May of 2015. I have not had double vision since. I have been incredibly grateful for being able to take Oxtellar XR.