PT-LawMom

Called the neurologist today to discuss the fact that I can barely lift my arms to drive my car this week, much less lift my heavy textbook (that’s what I get for all the handwriting I’ve been doing in preparation for finals). He suggested raising the Topamax back to 100mg twice/day (i.e., crazy psychotic girl level). I said, “No thanks” and asked if he could recommend something topical to get me through exams because no way am I changing meds right now! Tried that last semester at exam time and look what happened. He said I could try Capsaicin cream (burns like you wouldn’t believe!), but that I should come in to see him ASAP to talk about alternative medications.

Right now I’m on Topamax for the pain (not working) and Celexa and Buspar for the depression and anxiety that the Topamax cause. Meds for the meds - yippee. Sound crazy, but I was literally weeping in my car and in front of Pumpkinhead so I had to get on something. So my current choices are the following:

1) Increase Topamax dosage and potentially lose my mind (I really went psycho/nuts at 100mg - ask anyone who knows me). Not to mention that I’m already sounding stupid/confused enough from this stuff (orally, not in writing, because it affects the speech part of my brain). I’m not sure how much more my ego can take! On the plus side, Topamax does cause weight loss which is a nice side effect. Also causes kidney stones…

2) Come off the Topamax and the Celexa/Buspar and switch to a Tri-Cyclic Antidepressant (all of which are apparently great for neuropathic pain but cause SEVERE WEIGHT GAIN — wouldn’t that be an ironic twist?!?!)

3) Go back to the Neurontin I was on in the fall, which requires me to take several horse pills three times each day. It also causes confusion and weight gain.

Yep, brought this on myself. Now what do I do? Bleech. Send some cooling arm vibes my way, will you? At least for this week so I can get through my exam? (P.S. I did try the cream, but it requires application four times a day for a week before it deadens the nerves sufficiently to get full relief. I’ll keep going but in the meantime it just feels like someone sliced my arm and rubbed the cut with Habanero slices.)

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Health . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.