A General Plan

O.k., so now I'm obsessed again with coming off of these things. Sorry, but seizures don't seem all that bad to me and I believe through lifestyle modifications, I can significantly cut, if not eliminate, my seizures. I found this blog about coming off of Lamictal from someone who uses it for depression.

She and her doctor agreed on this plan:

• 150 mg for 3 months
• 100 mg for 3 months
• 75 mg for 3 months
• 50 mg for 3 months
• 25 mg for 3 months
• 12.5 mg

Mine was more like this:

• 150 mg for years
• 100 mg for 1 year
  
• 50 mg for 3 months --> seizure
  
• 100 mg for 7 months
  

Since it takes weeks to change the level in your body (at least), perhaps I will try 75mg whilst cracking down on my lifestyle. What lifestyle?

1. Eating healthy - cut gluten because of the strong neurological association with inflammatory molecules produced in the gut as a reaction to gluten. Sucks, but it kind of happens anyway when you clean up your diet to be more whole foods. Increase veggies, protein and healthy fats in fish. Include protein shake with omega 3-6-9 Udo's oil. Snack on nuts and dried organic fruit.

2. Supplements: B vitamins with MTHF (activated folic acid), multivitamin, Zinc (in the am), Vitamin D (because everyone in the NW is deficient), antioxidant support, probiotics (because most neurotransmitters come from the gut), Magnesium (pm), 2.5 mg Melatonin before bed. Pantethine 250mg in 1 Tbs Lecithin throughout the day for my heart arrhythmia likely induced by lamotrigine.

3. Bed by 9:30-10:00 wake at 6:00 (which is great for the puppy anyway - did I mention we got a Newfoundland puppy?)

4. Prioritize and focus on the assignments I have to do to graduate and take boards. More focus means less time surfing the web and chatting over email and facebook. Unnecessary.

5. Exercise. Puppy walk x 1 hour every morning (except Mondays when I have to race in for grand rounds and take the pup to daycare). Other than that, I have got to find something I'm into that makes me sweat and doesn't cost a fortune. Maybe P90X

6. Herbs: Bacopa (god it tastes gnarly), St Johns Wort (mood and nervous system support - they can piss off about contraindications; I've done my research, I know the biochemical pathways & know this was blown out of proportion in the medical world), Nervines like passionflower, valerian, lemon balm and kava to aid in my stress response. Ginko & tumeric are contained in some things that I take to increase perfusion to cells and decrease inflammation.

I have to wait on detox in case I'm pregnant. I don't want to mobilize my toxins on purpose because there will already be quite a bit moved into my circulation and into my baby naturally when I start tapping into my tissues for nourishment, (I believe no matter how much you consume)

7. Financial Health - this has to do with stress. I need to really follow my budget (I've made it a few times, but when I'm hungry and didn't plan ahead, I spend quite a bit on food). I need to start making some money and seeking the opportunities that are abound. Should be easy as a doctor, right? How about a doctor that isn't playing the insurance game?

8. Wellness - paying attention to my relationships, walking outside without my shoes on in the sun, gardening, baths with essential oils 2xper week and taking time to relax. Cortisol and the effects of stress are hard on the brain.

That's off the top of my head. Now that I strongly suspect I am physically being impacted by a drug long term AND that the effects have been shown to be cumulative even in the research, my motivation has increased... by a lot. If I find out I'm pregnant this next week, a lot of things will change very quickly. Oh, I've sent my records to a neurology group - we'll see if the doc will tolerate me.