Posted by headachequeen on March 30, 2004, at 11:44:58
In reply to Re: topomax and voice changes, posted by Maggie-VA on March 30, 2004, at 9:59:32
> I have been on Topomax for over 5 months and lost 37 pounds. I take it for seizures along with 600 mgs of Trileptal. I started out on 25 mgs a day and went up to 100 over the course of about 8 weeks. I had to reduce the dosage due to asthmatic symptoms, rare at best. I still have the hand/feet tingling and the word loss and loss of concentration, but alot less with the decrease in dosage and I am feeling more and more "normal" for the first time in 2 years.
>
> At first, I hated all foods except eggs of all silly things. Eggs and water. I still can't stand sodas of any type. I don't eat sweets like I did, just don't have the craving for them. I can go with out eating everything on my plate and be satisfied. I don't hate the food any more, I just don't crave it. It is wonderful.
>
> I am seizure free now for more than 7 months and looking better and feeling better about myself. The depression is lifting, but I can't say that it is strictly medication related or just that I feel better, who knows.Isn't it wonderful to be seizure-free...
I guess I cannot claim to be seizure-free actually... although I have gone several months at a time without the wretched experience...
and have this time been over a week without one...
oh joy and expect when Tegretol is out of my life to experience the pleasure again...Topomax certainly moderated the seizure experience once I started taking it...
no more two or three a night and no more two or three a week... for a while I had eight months with no seizures and thought I had found paradise...
no migraines for over a year... that is wondrous indeed...the weight loss is wonderful too...
and has certainly affected the manner in which I view myself...
I am not close to the size I was before the negative self-image and the depression entered into it.. well, I guess the negative self-image and the depression led to the weight increase, let's not put the cart before the horse, but the weight certainly increased both the self-loathing and the depression...
at the moment I almost like myself...
in fact there are days when I like myself almost all day!!!
Last night a friend I had not seen for several months dropped by and was amazed...
new hairstyle different clothing styles and new style me...
her daughter (a ten-year-old) was quite vocal in her admiration of the new me... and it was wonderful...
today I feel amazingly good about being me although for the past week I have had doubts about whether or not I liked me and being me...as for the effect of Tegretol on food likes and dislikes...
I find no difference in the taste of soda (we call it pop up here <g>) but I do find that it doesn't have much appeal to me... it certainly did before...
but I am drawn to the protein foods, so much so that I asked several times if others found themselves craving protein....
eggs... I could eat them by the chicken factory...
scrambled, poached, fried... you name it....
I wanted to eat eggs...
chicken too, for that matter...I no longer want sweets at all... I look at chocolate in stores and it has no appeal... even the Laura Secord chocolates and those wonderful Laura Secord Easter eggs with the yellow centres... and their butter mallow bars...
now that is incredible, sports fans!!!! I could never walk past a Laura Secord display without serious cravings... and never walk past without buying!!! I have not bought or eaten chocolate in months... and don't want any either...and I, like you, can leave food on the plate, despite those starving children that were always haunting my childhood ... we were taught to clean our plates because of starving children somewhere and I was always offering to mail them the foods I did not like...
but now, not only do I not finish things that I do not like, I do not finish things I do like because I am not hungry enough to finish... and seldom ask for seconds of anything... and seldom if ever want or eat desserts...life is changed indeed... and so am I...
no head-aches
few and milder seizures
less weight
and this weekend I am going into Ottawa to buy some new clothes for the summer because nothing fits...
kat
poster:headachequeen
thread:5053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040329/msgs/330323.html