> I am
> also worried about side effects and am trying to decide if my pain is
> something I can/should live with versus taking a drug. I am on anti-dep.
> Serzone and yesterday I took a Serzone and also took a Fiornal to try to
get
> rid of some of the pain (I have Fiornal for my headaches) and the two
> reacted and I was VERY 'out of it' for quite some time. I do not wish
this
> to happen if I take the Serzone with the Tegretol. Has anyone had
> experience with these two drugs? Can anyone tell me abit about Tegretol
and
> their experience. Should I 'tough' it out to avoid taking another
> medication. This is the first medication I have been presc. for my
> Myelitis. Any input would be very helpful. Thank you.
>
> Sandy
> skwiczak(AT)rapidnet.net
Dear Sandy and Linda,
I have been on Carbamazepine (Tegretol) for just a few weeks. I'm only
taking 100 mg twice a day. The neuro. said he thought I should be taking
more...guess we'll discuss that next time we talk. the reason he wanted me to
try it was that I had developed some new symptoms, numbness in new areas,
especially on my head and around my eye, flashes of light in my eye (checked
out by opthamologist -- retina ok) and twitching around it, and spasms and
odd feelings across the back of my head. This was in addition to the original
symptoms of numbness in both legs and left arm and hand and pain in back. The
dr. said he thought the TM had "altered" my nervous system, making it more
sensitive. The Carbamazepine is an anti-seizure drug but is also helpful, in
his words, in "calming down" the nervous system. He said it is given to
children who have seizures. I checked with my pastor, whose 7 yr. old
daughter has been taking medication for seizures for some years now, and that
is the same medication she is on, and she evidently has done fine with it.
They are in the process of weaning her off of it; if that is not successful,
she might have to be on it the rest of her life.
For me, it does seem to be helping the new symptoms, but not the
original symptoms. I don't know if increasing the dosage would help there; I
would assume so.
When I first started taking it, my ears started ringing. The dr. said to
go off of it for awhile and see if that stopped. I did and it didn't, so I
guess it wasn't the medicine but something else. Still happens off and on.
I struggle, too, with whether to stay with the medicine I'm on or go off
of it or try other things. I'd rather not be on any medication at all,
especially long term. I'm concerned about side effects -- this was the first
I'd heard about possible liver problems. I'm also concerned about not knowing
what symptoms are "me" and what symptoms are side effects. I do seem a little
drowsy with this, but not unbearably so; but that makes me cautious about
increasing dosage, as I have three children at home. I'm averaging taking
Tylenol about once a day for back pain; I figure it's milder than some of
these other things, yet I know long term usage of it is not good, either.
I guess all we can do is ask a lot of questions and try different things to
see what is the least harmful and least amount of medications that will work
to achieve the balance we need. I'd personally rather experience a liitle
pain than be painless yet "out of it", but, fortunately, it doesn't seem to
have to go to that extreme.
That is the only medication I'm on just now besides Synthroid (after
thyroid surgery about 7 years ago due to benign tumor there). I was on
Baclofen for several weeks but it seemed to increase urination (18-24 times a
day). I was on Xanax (an anti-anxiety drug) for a couple of days in the
hospital, and left with a prescription for it, but did not have it filled
because it wiped me out -- could hardly stay awake. I was pretty wiped out
then, anyway, so I might respond better to it now, but I've been told it's
one of the most addictive drugs there is, so I'd rather avoid it. I was told
that it was an anti-anxiety drug but was also used in situations like this
and that it helped with muscle movement. I did believe the dr., but secretly
wondered whether it was subscribed because twice, in discussing my case with
two different neurologists, I ended up in tears. But I think that was
justified since I was in the hospital and couldn't walk and didn't know why
or what would become of me. I know stress can be a factor in TM (or anything
else), but I didn't want to be medicated out of what I felt was normal
emotion. (Besides...sometimes tears can be a helpful temporary stress
reliever). ;-)
Since I'd rather avoid any unnecessary medications -- even Tylenol --
I'd rather deal with symptoms with as little medicine as possible and try to
deal with what I can in other ways (stretching, rest, especially prayer. I
haven't figured out yet whether exercise helps or makes it worse.) Yet I am
glad for the medicines that do help and that at least we do have some choices
to try.
Sorry to go on and on...most of my high school and college papers had
"wordy" written in the margins... need to learn to be more concise.:-)
Barbara