By far, one of my greatest challenges is keeping my med
toxicity at bay. I take varied doses
four times a day, and the ones in the morning and evening are doozies. The one first thing in the a.m. (300 mg of
carbamazepine and 200 mg of lamotrigine) is especially tough to tame, and it
can literally leave me flat on my back for two to three hours. Needless to say, excuses for being late to appointments in the morning can wear thin!
Over time, I’ve found five tactics to lessen the toxicity
and keep me alert. They’re not rocket
science, but maybe one or two of them will help you:
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Caveat: I hope this goes without saying,
but, on the off chance it isn’t obvious, make sure your doctor is bought into
this idea before you do it. Do not
do it on your own. If you haven’t
evaluated your meds and/or titrated your doses with your doctor for a long
time, it might be a good place to start.
When I was pregnant and had gained serious weight, we had upped my daily
doses pretty darn high. After having my
son, of course I lost weight, but I didn’t go back to where I was before. Now, 15 years later, I’ve gone back to my
original weight. Feeling that living
mornings toxic isn’t necessary for someone with controlled epilepsy, my doctor
cut back on my morning dose of lamotrigine, and it’s made a world of
difference. I’m now in a position to do
a few other things to cut back on the toxicity.
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Eat a fibrous breakfast, making sure you get
some bread or other grains in. At least
for me, it provides a buffer in my stomach.
I find that oatmeal without all the sugary fruits and syrup is best.
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If you’re a coffee hound, as am I, cut back on
it or make it weaker. You also could
put more milk proportionally in it. As
you can imagine, caffeine tends to make blood race just a little faster… and it
can throw the meds into your bloodstream and up to your head at a rate your
brain is not ready to assimilate.
Bam! Wooziness.
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Similarly, don’t bend from your waist to pick up
things, letting your head follow the action down. The gravity pushing on your head also will do
a number on the blood rushing to your brain.
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Here’s one that’s counterintuitive: Don’t lie down. While it feels good, I’ve found that sitting
up keeps the blood pumping at a normal rate in the morning. Lying down, while not making the blood rush,
makes it a lot easier – and, thus, faster – to get to your brain.
So, for me, the takeaways are to make sure you don’t do
anything that will encourage your blood to rush to your head for a good while
(for me, an hour), buffer your stomach with a decent breakfast, and stay seated. And, of course, I’m grateful to my doctor for
giving me a green light to reduce my lamotrigine, even ever so slightly. It made a big difference.
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