Lamictal 300 mgs: Side Effects Lessening

A few days ago I went up to what I hope will be my final dose of lamictal -- 300 mgs.

I've been experiencing some not fun side effects since titrating up to 150 six weeks ago.  In addition to some pretty obnoxious GI complaints, my mouth felt like the Sahara desert most of the time, so I was drinking gallons of water, and having to pee every 15 minutes.

Last week, that seemed to improve.  I was taking a three hour car trip from my grandmother's current abode to her new house.  She hates to stop on road trips if she can avoid it, so I sucked on xylitol mints and tried not to give in to my thirst.  It worked.  The cool thing was that it continued to work after that.  My mouth felt less dry, I needed less water, I wasn't running to the bathroom constantly.  I only had to use the bathroom once during my six hour flight from the East to the West coast.



It even seems to be helping my delayed sleep phase, but that could be jetlag and the continued exhaustion from my trip.  Sleeping in a strange bed is always hard.  At my aunt's house, at least my sister and I were in different beds in different rooms.  At Grandma's, we shared a double bed (not actually big enough for one adult) that happened to have a broken box spring.  I woke up every single time my sister rolled over, which she did often, in an effort to keep scrambling up the sloping mattress so as not to land on the floor.  Then, of course, we would go to bed and spend an hour and a half talking, because we're very close, but also because we find each other endlessly entertaining.

Oddly, adding to my general fatigue is the fact that my grandmother is hard of hearing, and talking to someone in that state somehow feels a lot like trying to speak French.  I don't speak French at all well, so it's slow and laborious and requires a lot of conscious effort.  Likewise talking to Grandma.  I needed to remember to speak with complete clarity and to make sure I was facing her when I talked.  If there was background noise things were even more difficult -- and there usually was background noise, what with my sister and I making a lot of phone calls, and the fact that we were glued to the TV trying to get weather reports most of the week.

This was another thing that struck me as being a lot like ADD.  My hearing is fine -- it's just that if there's too much background noise, like the TV or music or other conversations going on, my attention is divided and I only catch half of what anyone says to me, and I have to ask them to repeat themselves.  It's also very tiring.

I've been able to go to bed before midnight, and wake up around 8:30, though today I slept in until 10:30 because I really felt like I needed the sleep.  I think I'm finally caught up.

I was concerned that going up to 300 would reinstate the side effects, but so far, so good.