Hi all,

I am a 31 year old female who has suffered from what I believe are grand-mal seizures since I'm a little kid. Back then the dr's tried many drugs to try and control my seizures, such as phenobarbitol (I was allergic to it), tegretol, topamax (made me extremely forgetful), and finally they found the winner which controlled my seizures 100% and made it so I could live a normal life. This was Depakote, which unfortunately has all these bad side effects. I am only 5 feet tall and I went from 105 lbs to now 133 lbs, which is very noticeable in my height and has badly affected my self esteem. None of my clothes fit and I hate to shop. Also, my hair thinned too. Anyway, now that I am 31 I am seeing the top neurologist at LIJ Hospital here in NY where I live. He (along with my regular neurologist) were dead set on me switching off the depakote, even though it has made me seizure free for 8 years now. That is invaluable to me, however I do want to have kids someday and they said this is a terrible med to be on for that and also it has caused me to have some bone loss in my hips. The specialist at LIJ has decided to put me on Keppra, switching very slowly off the depakote along with introducing the Keppra slowly at the same time. Now, from what I understand, Keppra is not to be taken on its own, but this is what he has prescribed. I love the idea of finally losing all this weight, but now that I find out this med is not to be taken alone and this specialist (with EXTREMELY high credentials I might add) has prescribed it that way. This makes me nervous. I do not want to start having seizures again after living seizure free for over 8 years. The thought scares me to death! Has anyone here switched from Depakote to Keppra? If so, what were your results? Also, what can anyone tell me about Keppra being used on its own? Is it possible for it to be effective that way? I'm very scared.