by Marcia Purse
Note: If you haven't read Starting Over, go and read that first, or this won't make any sense.
Things have not worked out exactly as I'd hoped ...
Well - not at all as I hoped.
Quitting Gabitril was a prescription for disaster. On Friday, July 17, I took no Gabitril and only 1 mg Lorazepam (Ativan) while adding 25 mg Topamax at bedtime, as planned. I also cut out the antihistamines.
A couple of hours later - maybe midnight - I took another milligram of Lorazepam. Then an hour or so later I swigged cough syrup. I have no idea when I got to sleep, but it was restless, choppy, ugly sleep.
On Saturday I felt sick all day and finally went back to bed for a few hours, but never really felt rested. A headache bothered me all day. That night I went straight to 2 mg Lorazepam. Went to bed at 11:45 and started reading, as usual. Then I noticed it was 1:45 a.m. and I still wasn't sleepy, and at that point I took a couple of milligrams of Gabitril.
Sunday night didn't go too well either - I was late to work Monday morning and felt like hell that day. Obviously either I'd become habituated to Gabitril, or it had been doing a lot more for me than I realized - and so Monday night I went back to taking 4 mg Gabitril and 2 mg Lorazepam at bedtime, while continuing the added Topamax. Since Tuesday, I've been fine ... but instead of reducing my meds, I'm taking MORE!
But I'm not looking to make any new changes immediately. The last one was too scary.
