Day 1: Took 25 mg at 7 pm. Felt very spaced out. Had some vision distortion. Had some taste distortion (very minor).
Day 2: Woke up, had a slight headache (probably not from the topamax), no longer feel spaced out, some taste distortion, maybe some mild appetite decrease (or just wishful thinking). At 8:00 pm took 25 mg. Felt a little spaced out, much less than last night. Significantly less side effects tonight which surprised me. Still have a tad of a headache but again I don’t necessarily think it is from the drug.
Day 3: Felt fine all day. I had no change in appetite. Soda still tasted fine. I decided to consider taking 50 mg tonight since I haven’t had much in the way of side effects. I have decided for sure yet. I took 25 mg at 5:00 pm and may take another 25 mg later tonight – I will wait and see. I am a little spaced out right now but not too bad. I decided to go ahead and take another 25 mg at 7:30 pm. I feel just as spaced out as I felt the first night. Nothing too bad, so I think I will continue to take the 50 mg each day until I get back from vacation and then increase to 75 mg. I hope to see some impact on my appetite and migraines at 50 mg.
Day 4: I woke up feeling fine this morning. I stepped on the scale, hoping to see something going in the right direction but I had GAINED a small amount of weight, WHAT!!! I am hoping it is just a fluke. I am going to try and be really careful about what I eat today and really monitor what my appetite is saying now that I am taking the 50 mg. I have been trying to read what people say about WHEN they started seeing the weight loss. Most people don’t directly tell you but it some say, “I lost 5 pounds or 11 pounds in the first 2 weeks” so I have to assume that means they started losing weight right away and that they didn’t start out on 100 mg per day so they must have lost weight on lower doses like 25 or 50 mg. I drank soda this morning and it still tasted only mildly flat. Not bad enough that I couldn’t drink it and since it is my “coffee” for the day, I want to drink it as long as I can tolerate the taste. I am able to tolerate large doses of meds that affect others at smaller amounts – like I need large amounts of valium to do anything and I can take 2 doses of muscle relaxers 2X per day and not feel tired, so this may be part of the reason why I am not being hit with side effects from the Topamax. But… I really want it to work on my weight as well as my migraines. No migraines yet but it isn’t like I get them all the time so it hasn’t been long enough to tell if it is working on those yet. I plan to take another 25 mg. after I get back from my chiropractic appointment today since I don’t have to go anywhere and then 25 mg. this evening around dinner time. I did take another 25 mg. Continued to feel spacey. I was still hungry and ate a normal dinner – no change in appetite at all So far don’t see any impact on weight loss at all, really hoping that is going to change. I will be taking another 50 mg. tomorrow. I will take 25 mg in the morning since I don’t have anything to do tomorrow but clean the house.
Day 5: I took 25 mg this morning (well, it was more like noon by the time I got up). It made me feel feel sleepy. It definitely didn’t decrease my appetite at all. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a bowl of pasta for lunch, and 3 slices of pizza for dinner! I checked my weight and I did “lose” the pound I had put on at the beginning of this, so that is good but still no weight loss or loss of appetite. I also haven’t had to “do number 2.” That may be part of the weight – I am going to have to take something to get things moving, had no idea that this could cause constipation but things seemed to have just stopped – so I guess so. I will be taking another 25 mg later tonight. Took it before I went to bed, got tired and went to bed early.
Day 6: I can’t believe it has been 6 days already that I have been on these meds. It is disappointing that the weight is not falling off like I hear from many of the other posts that I read So far my biggest side effects are constipation, fuzzy head, and tiredness. Not what I was hoping for. So far no migraines but I will need to go 1 month without migraines to feel that it is working for that since my migraines can be sporadic. I took 25 mg. in the late morning today and will take another 25 mg in the evening sometime tonight. I will stay on 50 mg throughout my vacation and then move to 75 mg when I return. Soda still tastes okay. There is a small change and it takes a little flat but tolerable. I am still hungry although my cravings for sweets seems to be a little bit less – we’ll see if this continues. I certainly won’t be boasting 5-11 pounds of weightloss in 2 weeks like others though I read some studies last night that definitely showed weightloss was correlated to dosage meaning the higher the dosage the more likely you were to experience weightloss. So maybe if I go up in dosage, I still have a chance, however, I don’t see myself going above 100 mg per day with all the side effects and of course, I hear terrible stories about going off the meds, basically if you ever go off – all the weight will come back no matter what you do… I would like to see someone who says that isn’t true for them!
Day 7: The day has finally arrived. In addition to finally getting my constipation a little bit under control, the scale registered a 2-3 pound weight loss this morning. Maybe this is the beginning? I will wait to see more… I am also having pins and needles in my hands, feet, and legs!!! It isn’t too bad (yet)! I took 25 mg this am and will take my second 25 mg tonight.
Day 8: Well, today was not as promising. I haven’t done my official weigh in but it looks like I am not showing any more loss and my loss is closer to the 2 pounds rather than the 2-3 pounds from yesterday. On the other hand, my weight seems directly related to my constipation – so when food goes in but nothing is coming out, I am going to weigh more – so maybe if that was normalized I would have seen more, who knows. Also, it may not be a daily thing. The good news is that I am still down 2 pounds from the start in 1 week which is healthier than losing more than that in such a short time. So, we will continue to see what happens. I did find a slight bit of an increase in appetite reduction. I did not want to eat anything at all last night and I usually get hungry for a snack while watching TV in the evening. This morning, I feel hungry but don’t want to eat, it is strange. I am due to take my morning pill, so I am off to do that and then I will keep you posted. Not too much to report today. My side effects are much less now after 8 days on 50 mg per day. I would normally increase my dose right now if I were not leaving on vacation but I don’t want to mess with things as it is I am concerned about how my constipation will impact (no pun intended) my trip. I took 2 more laxatives and am waiting but am thinking I may have to take an enema as I am getting uncomfortable. No more tingling, fatigue is better, no more vision issues, head feels clear, no headaches, and weight loss remains at 2 pounds. Although soda doesn’t taste bad, I don’t seem to want to drink it, I am thirsty a lot and my main drink is koolaide made with sweet n low. I drank one glass of tea today and that was the only caffeine I had all day. Will continue to report – although I am sorry to say that there will be no reports or weight updates on the 6 days that I am gone on my trip, you’ll be left in suspense to see what happened! I will be increasing to 25 mg in the morning and 50 mg at night when I return, however.
Day 9: No change in weight. Holding steading at -2 pounds.
Day 10: I will report my weigh in soon but today is going to be my last post before my trip. Summary: some mild side effects but nothing too bad still bothering me at 50 mg, constipation is still a HUGE problem and not sure what to do about that, weight loss is still minimal – hoping that my increase in dosage upon return from my trip will jump start the weight loss.
Day 19: Well, I am back from my cruise. The trip was great, TONS of food. I did not have the side effect of “aversion to food,” I ate quite well – still hoping that maybe I lost weight…. wishful thinking. I stepped on the scale when I got home and had GAINED weight – like 5 pounds or so! Yikes! But, this morning, I was back down to just 1 pound more than when I left. I had no side effects on the ship EXCEPT that my eyesight became really blurry when I read. I read about the vision problems that can be associated with topamax. I have an appointment scheduled with an ophthalmologist to check and make sure I don’t have high optical pressure in my eyes.

We purchased our VW Rountan as a used 2009 minvan with 14,000 miles on it. We bought the extended warranty of 6 years and 100,000 miles. Here is what I like about the van and what I don’t like:

Like:
1. Remote start: This is a great feature to start your car ahead of time without having to go outside – it allows you to cool down or warm up your car – and it is just a really cool feature.
2. Automatic with shifting – I didn’t think I would care about this feature but I really love it. When I need to downshift to pass another vehicle or if I am on a hilly road, it is very nice to be able to handle your own shifting (yet clutch free) and use regular automatic when in more normal driving conditions.
3. Seat heat warmers get VERY hot, which I imagine will be really nice on a cold day.
4. The wireless headphones so that I don’t have to listen to the TV when the kids are watching it, I can listen to my stereo!
5. The Bluetooth connection is great.
6. Having a hard drive and an Aux connection is great
7. I really like having the rear camera for backing out especially with how big the van is.
8. Having 3 power doors.

Dislike:
1. The force and location on the air vents. It gets really hot in NC in the summer and I wonder if the AC will make me feel cool enough, I am used to the high speed, freezing cold air blowing in my face in my Sienna – the Routan doesn’t angle up enough to hit my face and the amount of cold air does not seem like it will be enough.
2. The dual TV’s block my rear view out the window.
3. The controls to use both DVD players are not very user friendly – especially the DISC one, the VES works easier.
4. The fact that you can’t store the front seats in the floor.
5. The van is very long and bigger than the other minivans although it has less head room for really tall people.
6. Watch out that you don’t hit someone in the head with the power lift-gate.
7. I wish the engine had a little more power – it is not bad for a minivan but a little more spunk would be nice.

I will add to this list as I come up with more likes and dislikes.

Went in Monday 6/22/09 to Duke Univ. Hospital for a L5/S1 fusion. The n-surg did two 2.5 inch cuts in my back and did a minimally invasive fusion. He cut off 1 facet and ground it up to use as an autograft. It was put in a cage and put in where the L5/S1 disc had been. He then secured it with rods and screws. They used glue, no stitches.

The first few days were HELL! It would have been a lot better if I had some nurses to help in the hospital but I got no help and no pain relief (see other posts for details on how that got screwed up).

I spent just 1 night in the hospital and welcomed coming home so that I could get my pain under control and get some help.
Once home, I went to see my primary care doctor to get a good routine for pain meds. I am on Oxycontin 30 mg, twice per day for long term pain control. I have Percocet (10 mg) for breakthrough pain and Tramadol as well. Yesterday, I made it through with just the Oxycontin and tramodal without needing any extra Percocets.
I also had arm pain (near my bicep) – a big red splotch, very sore when I moved my arm, and kind of hard. I went to the doctor who sent me to the hospital for a sonogram. They found superficial blood clot and inflamed vein. I was given antibiotics for infection, told to take 600 mg. of Motrin 3X per day (even though normally I would not be allowed to because of the fusion), and told to put heat on it. It is somewhat better today.
The one week mark came with a definite improvement in overall pain. My incisions look great and I am moving more easily. My back is sore but overall – I feel so much improved. I still can’t tell if the surgery was successful at reducing my pre-surgery pain for severe Degenerative Disc Disease or not.
I am walking every day. Yesterday was my first walk of any significant length, I went about 1/2 + mile. Today, I am going to the gym and trying the treadmill so that I can see how much I can tolerate. My legs are sore but I have a massage chair at home that will massage my legs and that has been very helpful to get the blood flowing better through my legs.

It did take me 7 days before I had my first BM post surgery and it was very difficult. I feel like I didn’t have any muscle strength in that area. I am still a far way away from being back to normal in that area but I am happy that at least I started feeling the need to go again!
If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear them!

Finally, they put the mask on and I was out in about 2 seconds, maybe less.  They went to Joe to report on status periodically during the time.  I think the surgical time was about 2 hours although I was back there about 4 hours between getting ready and an hour to get me awake.

I don’t remember much waking up.  I know I was crying out in pain and asking for drugs and then falling back to sleep within seconds.

The first thing I remember was being in my room.  I could not stay in one position for very long (and lying on my back was not even an option) so Joe kept helping me to slide from side to side by pulling on a medical pad that was underneath me.

The evening nurse was great and so very helpful but she had to leave at 7 pm and Joe left slightly before that to go home and take care of the kids.  From then on, I was on my own!  The next 2 nurse shifts I got were useless.  They didn’t help me or check in on my.  I told one that I was going to throw up so she is puttering around looking for a bedpan and I said, “I am going to throw up NOW.”  She pushed the waste bucket towards me and I vomited a lot.  The nurse decided it was from the pain meds, so she decided not to give me any more oral meds and just give me my “breakthrough” morphine that was order.    Of course that was not enough to touch pain.  I also had so much IV fluid that I had to get up and use the bathroom every 1.5 hours – nurses were too busy to help!  It was horrible, getting in and out of bed.  I couldn’t stay in one position for long, so I was trying to roll over from one side to another or switched out with the car -  which is too hard to use as a single person who just had back surgery.  The bed was an airmattress and constantly deflating so I had no support for turning or getting in and out of the bed and all this with very little pain meds to control my pain.

The next morning, the new nurse was even worse.  She had a attitude that she knew what was best for me despite what the doctors or what I said.  They made me keep track of the frequency of the pain meds, so I would have to ask for them every 2-3 hours and then she would give me attitude about taking so much even though my doctor told me to stay ahead of the pain.  Someone screwed up my breakfast and I didn’t get any food until 9:15 am.  I asked for some crackers and got “the last one” with the read between the lines – and we won’t go find anymore.

I really could go on and on about the nurse care I received, it was really bad.  My whole situation could have been so much easier to deal with if I had someone compassionate and helpful like I did until 7 pm.  I had to ask the to empty the toilet measuring device so that I could pee the next time without it overflowing (it was clear that I was peeing just fine – but they refused to take it out) and I would get attitude that they were annoyed with me for asking for the few things that I had to ask for – even though I should have gotten help with so many other things.

I started to push for discharge as soon as I awoke the next morning since I knew that I needed to be on a healthy regime in order to get better with consistent pain control and help for getting up and down before I ended up falling and hurting myself.  The surgeon came in to talk with me and was also appalled at the lack of care and he said that I just needed to get an xray and then I could go home.  They brought me down for xray but then said they didn’t have discharge papers.  The intern wrote up discharge papers and of course he wrote for a different set of drugs than what my surgeon had told me to take.  I was just happy to get out of there though.

Getting in the car was quite painful.  The ride was okay until about the last 10 minutes or so.  I went to sleep once we got home and took pain pills on a schedule, used a lot of ice.  Moving was still very difficult but I had some periods when I wouldn’t move and was more comfortable.  More to come as I feel better and can write more.