Hi,
I did something supremely stupid last night. I had a grand mal seizure and I took three medications that cause serotonin syndrome yesterday. Two of them were taken together before I went to bed (when I had also been drinking alcohol as well) Alcohol also increases serotonin, so I may have done this to myself. I also have Panhypopituiarism (for which I take Synthroid, Cortef, DHEA and Human Growth Hormone. and Focal Epilepsy, which was just diagnosed about a month ago for which I take Lamictal. Admittedly I only took 10 mg of Buspar, 25 mg of Tradodone, 5mg of Flexerill, which I haven't taken for over a year and only took because I did a hard workout yesterday and my shoulders were killing me. I should have done a drug interaction checker before I took the Flexeril and I hadn't taken it for such a long time. I normally do a Medscape interaction checker before I take anything I haven't in a long time or anything new. I did it this morning and it said "serious use alternative" about trazodone and Buspar, AND Trazodone and Flexeril. The addition of the alcohol (stupid stupid STUPID!) likely increased my serotonin even more.
My husband was wailing and holding me last night and called an ambulance because he thought I was dying. We went to bed about 9:30 pm and I woke him up convulsing and not being able to get my breath at midnight. The paramedics came and by them I had stopped. They didn't take me to the hospital because my vitals were good at that stage and they didn't think there would be anything the hospital could do. They had a seizure and said I would likely be tired and confused. the first thing I remember is my husband crying next to me but I was extremely tired, confused and irritable after the seizure so I just wanted to go to sleep and didn't really put together what happened until I woke up around 2am. I started doing research on everything I had taken the night before and came across the stuff about Serotonin Syndrome. My husband didn't know I had taken that stuff along with alcohol and is extremely upset with me. Now, I didn't do it on purpose obviously and had no idea all three would cause serotonin syndrome but it was still stupid and irresponsible. I have already put him through a lot as I took a deliberate overdose last year and landed myself in the psych ward for three days. I was taken off temazepam and xanax at that time. My husband has now confiscated my Trazodone and Buspar and says I can only have it if I ask him, quite frankly I don't blame him. The overdose last year was caused by depression which I think was in turn caused by the Focal Epilepsy. I have been doing so much better in every respect since the Epilepsy was diagnosed and I have been on the Lamictal. I have now screwed things up completely by doing something so stupid. I called my PCP this morning and he thinks I'm right and it was likely Serotonin Syndrome and my existing Epilepsy that cause the grand mal. I've never had one before and I hope I haven't started something new now with my stupidity.
I called my neurologist 's office answering service and asked to speak to the doctor on call. They said it wasn't an emergency and to call them tomorrow.
I guess there's a chance it WASN'T caused by that and maybe I've just developed a different type of Epilepsy now for whatever reason. However you'd think the Lamictal I'm already taking would have prevented it. I'm currently taking 75 mg of it twice daily. I had to titrate up slowly to avoid Steven Johnson Syndrome. What does everyone here think?
I did something supremely stupid last night. I had a grand mal seizure and I took three medications that cause serotonin syndrome yesterday. Two of them were taken together before I went to bed (when I had also been drinking alcohol as well) Alcohol also increases serotonin, so I may have done this to myself. I also have Panhypopituiarism (for which I take Synthroid, Cortef, DHEA and Human Growth Hormone. and Focal Epilepsy, which was just diagnosed about a month ago for which I take Lamictal. Admittedly I only took 10 mg of Buspar, 25 mg of Tradodone, 5mg of Flexerill, which I haven't taken for over a year and only took because I did a hard workout yesterday and my shoulders were killing me. I should have done a drug interaction checker before I took the Flexeril and I hadn't taken it for such a long time. I normally do a Medscape interaction checker before I take anything I haven't in a long time or anything new. I did it this morning and it said "serious use alternative" about trazodone and Buspar, AND Trazodone and Flexeril. The addition of the alcohol (stupid stupid STUPID!) likely increased my serotonin even more.
My husband was wailing and holding me last night and called an ambulance because he thought I was dying. We went to bed about 9:30 pm and I woke him up convulsing and not being able to get my breath at midnight. The paramedics came and by them I had stopped. They didn't take me to the hospital because my vitals were good at that stage and they didn't think there would be anything the hospital could do. They had a seizure and said I would likely be tired and confused. the first thing I remember is my husband crying next to me but I was extremely tired, confused and irritable after the seizure so I just wanted to go to sleep and didn't really put together what happened until I woke up around 2am. I started doing research on everything I had taken the night before and came across the stuff about Serotonin Syndrome. My husband didn't know I had taken that stuff along with alcohol and is extremely upset with me. Now, I didn't do it on purpose obviously and had no idea all three would cause serotonin syndrome but it was still stupid and irresponsible. I have already put him through a lot as I took a deliberate overdose last year and landed myself in the psych ward for three days. I was taken off temazepam and xanax at that time. My husband has now confiscated my Trazodone and Buspar and says I can only have it if I ask him, quite frankly I don't blame him. The overdose last year was caused by depression which I think was in turn caused by the Focal Epilepsy. I have been doing so much better in every respect since the Epilepsy was diagnosed and I have been on the Lamictal. I have now screwed things up completely by doing something so stupid. I called my PCP this morning and he thinks I'm right and it was likely Serotonin Syndrome and my existing Epilepsy that cause the grand mal. I've never had one before and I hope I haven't started something new now with my stupidity.
I called my neurologist 's office answering service and asked to speak to the doctor on call. They said it wasn't an emergency and to call them tomorrow.
I guess there's a chance it WASN'T caused by that and maybe I've just developed a different type of Epilepsy now for whatever reason. However you'd think the Lamictal I'm already taking would have prevented it. I'm currently taking 75 mg of it twice daily. I had to titrate up slowly to avoid Steven Johnson Syndrome. What does everyone here think?