Acceptance

[shadesong]

Further on from something my brain was tossing around yesterday.

I know that, re: my body, I am supposed to Accept, to Let Go. So what was fuddling me was whether I was acting counter to that by getting the medication changed. Is that Fighting It in a negative sense? Is it better to just sit and Accept the side effects with the Lamictal? Is this Not Letting Go? Or is it a valid exploration?

I don't know.

Comments

[twisteddaydream.livejournal.com]

Valid exploration. Not trying works converse to the Accepting and Letting Go and moves into denial and avoidance. You know the Lamictal is bad for you, so you need to try something else, something else that might help you more with the Accepting. If that makes sense.

[elfwench.livejournal.com]

Clearly getting down to 92 lbs. is not acceptable nor healthy. Is it possible, though, that it's something else causing the weight loss? Perhaps that's something you should explore with your primary physician.

However, the fact that the neuro. is blatantly prescribing off label on something so specifically stated by the FDA concerns me. I still think you should get a second opinion.

It is also possible that you are having both seizures and pseudoseizures brought on by stress. So the more you can relax, the better things will go.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

However, the fact that the neuro. is blatantly prescribing off label on something so specifically stated by the FDA concerns me.

Find me a doctor who doesn't! It's perfectly valid... especially when the patient's body isn't reacting to something in a normal way. If the patient is having mega side effects on something "mild", try something "milder" that's still been proven to control seizures.

[fiddledragon]

The problem is that the FDA can't keep up with research indicating new uses for drugs. If research supports the use of off-label usage, then it's not a bad thing - and the more research there is, the easier it will be to get the FDA to eventually approve those uses as well.

[fiddledragon]

hrm - I'd say valid exploration. It sometimes takes time and work to find the right medical balance. You're young, and while there are things that you *do* have to accept and let go (like the fact that you need to take medication in order to lead some semblance of a normal to you life), part of that is going to be finding the right medication. It's going to be hell, there's no way around that. Hopefully it won't take all that long to get there.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

while there are things that you *do* have to accept and let go (like the fact that you need to take medication in order to lead some semblance of a normal to you life), part of that is going to be finding the right medication.

*nods* You see where I'm coming from, yes?

Accepting limitations is so foreign to me...

[fiddledragon]

ah but taken another way, finding the right medication is in a sense removing limitations *from* you - because *with* the proper dose and type of medication, you have more freedom to do the things that you *want* to do :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Is sense-making.

[pbcookie.livejournal.com]

I know people have probably suggested this, but have you checked for diabetes, regarding the weight loss?

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*nods* Tested for that as well as liver, kidney, and thyroid stuff... the medication I'm now transitioning from made me constantly horribly nauseous for the first few months I was on it, which is where most of the 40+-pound weight loss comes from...

[lubedpumpkin.livejournal.com]

There's an article in the August issue of Glamour about a woman who had terrible seizures that controlled her life and had parts of her brain removed to stop them. The article detailed everything she went through. She's living her life completely normal now and has been seizure-free for a year.Just thought I'd pass that along in case you wanted to read it.

Don't feel that you have to settle for side effects and a poorer quality of life. Fight for your life, it's the only one you get. Good luck. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[moonfire77.livejournal.com]

i think in this case that acceptance is in looking for the right medication for you. acceptance is in doing your best to be who you are in the face of these changes. denial would be saying, "i'm not going to take the medication at all, i'm not going to try to do the best I can with this situation, no matter how bad it sucks." denial would be failing to acknowledge these changes. by working on the medication you're working through the loss of what you had before. I think it's very healthy.

my two cents.

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

I also hate limitations, and usually deal with them by refusing to admit they exist. Yet I have some hard limits in my physical capabilities. I'm mostly deaf, for one, and have been since birth; my hearing aids compensate decently for most things, but there are still very significant limitations I have that most do not. A couple of years ago I heard about a new surgical device that was supposed to be near-miraculous for what it could do, and I found myself seriously flipping out, just to be able to consider the possibility that I would be able to hear normally, for the first time in my life. (The device later turned out to not be All That.)

I accept that my hearing will never spontaneously turn normal, and I even accept that the chances of surgical correction within my lifetime are practically nil. However, I don't accept that I will never be more functional than I am now, or that I will never find better ways to get around the limitations that my natural hearing creates. And there, I think, is the key distinction.

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

It's like the Serenity prayer. Have the courage to change the things you can, the serenity to accept the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Drugs work differently for different people. It's wisdom to know that other drugs might be more helpful for you, and courageous to tinker with them until you find the optimum mix.

[skitty.livejournal.com]

Valid exploration. You owe it to yourself feel as good as you can. Your doctors want to help, and they won't stop until you are as well as they can make you. You shouldn't, either.

[my-catharsis.livejournal.com]

Between Accept and Let Go and Fighting It lies a happy medium called Choose Your Battles Wisely. This is like the Serenity prayer someone mentioned earlier. Whether you have epilepsy is probably not a battle worth fighting, but how you manage it probably is. I can't answer for you whether the battle over this particular medication is worth fighting, but it doesn't seem right for you to accept this kind of damage to your health (such as the weight loss) without at least investigating other options.

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

Why ask why? An who are "they" to be telling you how you should think about your own body anyway?

Do as thou Wilt, after all, and who better to love you than yourself? Act from that love, or don't act, also from that love, and you cannot go wrong. (You may make a mistake, but that's not the same as being wrong.)