Saturnstarship
Greenlighter
- Joined
- May 27, 2017
- Messages
- 4
My brother had five Grand mal seizures 6 days ago which sent him unconscious and into the ICU. For 5 days they fought for his life and didn't know if he was going to ever wake up again. He finally woke up and is responsive and has regained most of his cognitive abilities.
My concern now is that he refuses to take anti convulsants like keppra, Depakote, etc, which is why the seizures happened in the first place. He says he doesn't like the way he feels off them but will only try for 3 days before he quits. So instead of preventing the seizures completely, he just waits until he feels like he is going to have one, and takes xanax, which to me is just a bandaid.
I need to somehow get him to realize that if he has another seizure it can be fatal and he needs to take the anti convulsants every day or else he is susceptible to another seizure. How can I do that?
A little background on him, he suffered traumatic brain injury 5 years ago from getting hit at the the top of the head, by a 6-8 foot long 2 x 4 that fell 12 stories on a job. A year later he started having seizures. And he has been having them since, more frequently as of lately (every month). A month ago he had one whIle driving and totaled his truck completely. My brother has been abusing roxacet 30s and percocets since the seizures first started because he says he has back pain from getting hit which the doctors wont address because they can't find any signs of damage in his spine. He has had a lot more seizures since he started abusing the pain pills more. He denies though that the pain pills trigger his seizures. He started abusing benzos too which I know can cause seizures in the first place from withdrawal but I know they aren't the root cause of them because he had them way before doing benzos. To top it off, he has been abusing Adderall ir's too as of lately. When he had these 5 seizures 6 days ago they found out he had Adderall and opiates in his system. He asked what caused the seizures earlier and I explained that they found those drugs in his system and told him it was time for him to make a change. But he still says he doesn't want keppra, he insists that he needs percocet 5s to manage his pain and he needs klonopin to stop the seizures from happening "when he feels it coming". How the fuck can I get him to realize that his self medication tactic isn't helping him, it's only hurting him. He is so stubborn. The doctors said they will talk with him about that soon but I don't think he will listen and just not take the keppra like he always does. I told him if he doesn't like keppra to try another one in that class, and to keep trying them until he finds something that works. But yet he still insists he doesn't have epilepsy and that he has something different and keppra won't help him. I don't fucking get how you could go through almost losing your life to still wanting to medicate yourself the same way you did when you almost died. This is really taking a toll on me. Why hasn't he realized this already? It's so hard to talk to him because he gets angry and doesn't listen if you tell him something he doesn't agree with. It's his way or the highway. But I don't want to see him lIke this again. I know his organs and brain is taking a beating. One time while taking keppra for 3 days he told me he felt like he might have a seizure but he took keppra and it went away. Isn't this classic sign of the medication working?
I just can't get it through his head. You just almost died and you still refuse to take the medication, but yet you want perc 5s? Which was found to actually trigger his seizures, not to mention it's highly addicting, which he already suffered from. Please help me figure out a way to help me get this through his head.
My concern now is that he refuses to take anti convulsants like keppra, Depakote, etc, which is why the seizures happened in the first place. He says he doesn't like the way he feels off them but will only try for 3 days before he quits. So instead of preventing the seizures completely, he just waits until he feels like he is going to have one, and takes xanax, which to me is just a bandaid.
I need to somehow get him to realize that if he has another seizure it can be fatal and he needs to take the anti convulsants every day or else he is susceptible to another seizure. How can I do that?
A little background on him, he suffered traumatic brain injury 5 years ago from getting hit at the the top of the head, by a 6-8 foot long 2 x 4 that fell 12 stories on a job. A year later he started having seizures. And he has been having them since, more frequently as of lately (every month). A month ago he had one whIle driving and totaled his truck completely. My brother has been abusing roxacet 30s and percocets since the seizures first started because he says he has back pain from getting hit which the doctors wont address because they can't find any signs of damage in his spine. He has had a lot more seizures since he started abusing the pain pills more. He denies though that the pain pills trigger his seizures. He started abusing benzos too which I know can cause seizures in the first place from withdrawal but I know they aren't the root cause of them because he had them way before doing benzos. To top it off, he has been abusing Adderall ir's too as of lately. When he had these 5 seizures 6 days ago they found out he had Adderall and opiates in his system. He asked what caused the seizures earlier and I explained that they found those drugs in his system and told him it was time for him to make a change. But he still says he doesn't want keppra, he insists that he needs percocet 5s to manage his pain and he needs klonopin to stop the seizures from happening "when he feels it coming". How the fuck can I get him to realize that his self medication tactic isn't helping him, it's only hurting him. He is so stubborn. The doctors said they will talk with him about that soon but I don't think he will listen and just not take the keppra like he always does. I told him if he doesn't like keppra to try another one in that class, and to keep trying them until he finds something that works. But yet he still insists he doesn't have epilepsy and that he has something different and keppra won't help him. I don't fucking get how you could go through almost losing your life to still wanting to medicate yourself the same way you did when you almost died. This is really taking a toll on me. Why hasn't he realized this already? It's so hard to talk to him because he gets angry and doesn't listen if you tell him something he doesn't agree with. It's his way or the highway. But I don't want to see him lIke this again. I know his organs and brain is taking a beating. One time while taking keppra for 3 days he told me he felt like he might have a seizure but he took keppra and it went away. Isn't this classic sign of the medication working?
I just can't get it through his head. You just almost died and you still refuse to take the medication, but yet you want perc 5s? Which was found to actually trigger his seizures, not to mention it's highly addicting, which he already suffered from. Please help me figure out a way to help me get this through his head.
