New Member of the Family, Topamax

Alright, it has been brought to my attention that I need to update this thing, lol, and I also should keep people up to date on how the changes in my medicine is going. So, here we go....hold on to your seats!

After 9 weeks of slowing going onto this medicine 25 mg a week, I am now on my full dosage, 100 mg twice a day. So far, I have been seizure free for a month, but I am also still on my old medicine, that won't go away until at least Feb. The Topamax is not without it's side effects, unfortunately, but thankfully they are ones I have been able to deal with so I can stay on this medicine. At this very moment I cannot feel my hands nor my feet. 90% of the time they have a pins and needles feeling, and then sometimes I cannot feel them at all. It's a rather annoying, yet very common, side effect. I have to do some things a little slower, but so far it has not effected my walking or anything, so praise God for that! Topamax can also cause rapid weight loss. When they first told me this I laughed at them, because they also told me it could cause anorexia, which just sounded funny because you think of someone that is anorexic as thinking they are fat.........how is this medicine going to make me think I am fat?! Lol, okay, it's really not funny though, and about a week ago I stopped laughing about it. Normally I wear size 3 or 5 jeans......I would rather wear my 5's because they are more comfortable, but on this particular day they felt huge, so I put on my 3's. My 3's were also too big...........that's never happened. So, I went over to my mother-in-law's house (she lives behind me) and weighed myself. I only weighed 107 pounds, which means since New Years Day, I had lost 12 pounds. I don't have 12 lbs to lose! I immediately began to panic, but came back over and told Brandon. Everyone keeps telling me I just need to eat............eat, eat, eat, eat, and eat some more. Sorry people, but I can only eat so much! I don't like being this low in weight and I am also afraid they will want to take me off the Topamax, since I have lost 20 lbs since I saw them in October. So I went to the doctor on Monday to find a healthy way to put on weight and try to keep it stable. He said that as unfortunate as it was, it probably wouldn't ever be stable with this medicine, it's just the way it works, but there are definitely things I can do. I weighed 104 that day...........under 100 and they discuss putting me in the hospital until I hit a target weight. So now I am going to be drinking protein drinks/shakes..........eating lots of things with protein in it. I have to drink 3 glasses of milk a day.......yuck, I hate milk, lol, so it'll be chocolate milk! :) I have to eat 6 meals a day and keep a food journal and weigh weekly. So, please keep me in your prayers, this is not fun at all, but this medicine really seems to be doing something and I want the opportunity to try it without my old medicine too. I go back to the neurologist on Feb. 18 and as long as he thinks everything is fine, he will start weaning me off of my old medicine.......so I will keep everyone up to date!