Starting on Keppra XR (1000mg a day)

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JustAnotherName

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Hey, y'all.

Doc wants me to start on the Keppra XR (500mg twice a day). I'm a bit worried because of all the things I've heard about the generic, but it will be alright. She wants me to take it with my Carbamezipeine (200mg twice a day) along with the Keppra for about a week before stopping the Carbamezipeine entirely.

I'll start off only taking 500mg once a day for a couple of days to get it in my system before I start taking it twice a day.

That's such a high dose! We'll see what happens. I hope it's a good fit!

MRI Monday evening. The doctor says it'll be "about 2 hours and loud..." :roflmao: Challenge accepted~ :rock:
 
JustAnotherName

I do not like keppra but is 500mg a little to high a dose to start with, I do not mean to worry you but it seems very high to me. I think keppra is one of the strong, well they all are, still think its a bit high.
 
Just another name -
I hope the KeppraXR works well for you & you don't have to many side effects.

Good luck with your MRI, are you having a regular MRI because I found a regular MRI usually only takes about 40 mins. The MRI machines are loud but you should be given some earplugs to help drown out the noise & sometimes they give you headphones to wear so you can listen to music.
 
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Fedup: Yeah, I guess it is a pretty high dosage. I'm going to give it a shot for a week or so and if it is too much, she said I can call if I have a problem with it.

CO:): My doctor did say it would be loud. I think mine will be an hour and thirty minutes. It'll be a long one, apparently.... We'll see how it goes. I wouldn't mind some earplugs, so I hope they do give me some! I wouldn't mind being able to listen to my iPod, but I imagine that's probably not possible... haha.
 
I hope the generic keppra xr works for you! Ive been on the name brand keppra xr since November 201o, and it worked wonders for me! I tried the generic keppra xr November 15, and went into seizures by Nov 30. So im now back to the name brand keppra xr.
 
momof3boys said:
I hope the generic keppra xr works for you! Ive been on the name brand keppra xr since November 201o, and it worked wonders for me! I tried the generic keppra xr November 15, and went into seizures by Nov 30. So im now back to the name brand keppra xr.
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Yeah, I waw your posts on that. :( I'm sorry it didn't work for you. I'm going to be on the look out for any auras or seizure activity in a week or so once I'm off Tegretol completely. I haven't taken my first dose of Keppra XR yet. I admit, I'm a bit nervous!
 
Just keep your eye out for any signs. I wish now I would have never tried the generic. For me, it wasnt worth it at all.
 
JustAnotherName said:
CO:): My doctor did say it would be loud. I think mine will be an hour and thirty minutes. It'll be a long one, apparently.... We'll see how it goes. I wouldn't mind some earplugs, so I hope they do give me some! I wouldn't mind being able to listen to my iPod, but I imagine that's probably not possible... haha.
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Just remember that you have to stay still the whole time you are in for the MRI, any movement can interfere with the pictures.

Between 2002 - 2011 I had 6 MRIs, 4 of them were regular MRIs & lasted approx 45mins. I had brain surgery last year, a couple of days before my surgery I had an MRI which only went for about 20 mins but I think that was more to map out the brain for the surgeons. I had a Functional MRI in Nov 2010 which was functional MRI & lasted approx 90 mins - 2 hours. It was more involved then the other MRIs.

Sometimes going to sleep can make the time go faster.
 
CQ:) said:
Just remember that you have to stay still the whole time you are in for the MRI, any movement can interfere with the pictures.

Between 2002 - 2011 I had 6 MRIs, 4 of them were regular MRIs & lasted approx 45mins. I had brain surgery last year, a couple of days before my surgery I had an MRI which only went for about 20 mins but I think that was more to map out the brain for the surgeons. I had a Functional MRI in Nov 2010 which was functional MRI & lasted approx 90 mins - 2 hours. It was more involved then the other MRIs.

Sometimes going to sleep can make the time go faster.
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Yeah, most MRIs I have are only 20-30 minutes. This one seems to be pretty involved. We'll see. I'm going to stay as still as possible. I want them to have clear pictures for my records and whatnot. :)
 
JustAnotherName

You remember to take things easy with the keppra, best of luck with the MRI as well.
 
Fedup said:
JustAnotherName

You remember to take things easy with the keppra, best of luck with the MRI as well.
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I'm doing my best. I want to follow the doctor's orders, but if I notice anything negative after I'm taking the full dosage she wants, I'm definitely not going to stand for it for long.

I took the first 500mg dose this morning along with my morning 200mg of Tegretol. I know I probably won't notice anything different until the Keppra is in my system fully, so probably not until next week.Today and tomorrow I'm only taking Keppra in the morning. I like this as it allows me time to get stuff done, just in case the meds do start to act up later. At least I'll be done with school work!

Right now, I am noticing that I have stopped jerking and twitching during the day since my 10am dose of Keppra XR. That's some silver-lining at least. Who knows if it'll last, but we'll see what happens.

I'm goiing to keep y'all updated on my progress over the next couple of weeks. I know you guys can all relate to some degree! :angel:
 
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