Well, I got off that one…

This Briviact medication that I recently started, I chose to stop. The choices towards this are based (mainly) on the price. Medicare does not cover the price of this very much. Too new for it to be recognized as a medication I need for seizures? Probably. Medications, especially seizure ones, can be prescribed to people for other reasons.

I was also given the chance to have it at an extremely lower price… as a “tester”. OK…. that wouldn’t be too bad. But then I learned that this “testing” only lasts for two years. I would only pay the lower price until the two years are over with. Uhhhhh… I’ll pass. Hate to say it, but I only want to change to this one if I can take it for a hopefully a longer amount of time.

The other reason…. It is too tiny of a pill to believe (my opinion) that there will not be any problems with anything. It expected to work completely without a doubt. To me, I honestly think that I have taken SO MANY different pills in my life for seizures, but not this tiny.

Now, this Depakote ER that I still take is still working. I hate some of the side-effects that I’ve had for (about) a decade, but still it still works for controlling seizures.

Lets go a bit further with what we have today. So, I got onto the new Briviact easily within a couple days. That was easy. Next, I would need to get off the Depakote ER. That would need to take several weeks to finish this. I was down to “half as much” of the Depakote ER, before choosing to not go with Briviact. Getting off (or back on) a Depakote ER pill takes time. I’ve done this so many times in my life, too.

What have I done with this Depakote ER, that I should (maybe) be getting back on?? I’ve made this decision to NOT go back up on the Depakote ER. I’ll just (for now) not go down any further.

So! Where are we now? I have another Neurologist appointment soon. The two of us will discuss the NEXT medication to do, and give that one a try.

Neurologist Visit.

I saw my new Neurologist yesterday. With all this COVID-19, I didn’t do the medication change several months ago. But now… I have decided (after “understanding” this COVID-19) to start a medication-change again. I’ll start this in a couple days (this weekend). I’ll have to see how all this is working afterwards. Any of these new meds have all-new side effects and everything changes for me. I’m getting OFF the Depakote ER that causes the increased tremor and inability to speak all the words that I’m thinking of.

So… What is the new one?

BRIVIACT

After looking this up, I see the main side-effects are… 

Drowsy (just like all the others I have ever taken) 
Dizziness (just like all the others I have ever taken)
Loss of balance or coordination (just like all the others I have ever taken)
…and a few other things. (nothing new) 

One pill in the morning and one pill at night. Then I have to go through the whole process of getting off an old one. I’m not getting off ALL of them. Just changing the Depakote ER.

As long as my entire speaking comes back, the extreme tremor is lost and seizures are controlled, this will work just fine.