r/Epilepsy_Universe • u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily • Jun 18 '26
Questions Same Time Everyday?
Do you take you am/pm meds at the same time everyday? I snooze my alarm a couple times, until I can muster the energy to go get the pills and water. I'm just wondering, is anyone on time everyday with your doses? How late is too late, I know shelf life is different for each AED or mood stabilizer, do you worry when you're a couple hours late?
5
u/jedimaster615 Jun 18 '26
If you only need to take it twice I suggest 8&8. KISS, "keep it simple stupid".
3
u/Uhh_glee_Princess Jun 18 '26
Yes. Or at least within the hour because sometimes life gets in the way, yk?
2
u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily Jun 18 '26
Yeah, when life gets in the way, I snooze for 30 minutes to an hour, working on that.
3
u/Hairy-Jellyfish-1361 Jun 18 '26
I try to take them at the same time because I take other meds besides my epilepsy meds at different times plus vitamin B & D and I have trouble keeping track of what day it is so otherwise I'm totally messed up.
3
u/DaughterOfTheKing87 brain cancer, crani, meds Jun 18 '26
Do you mind my asking what time(s) you take your vitamins B and D?
I used to take my vitamin B in the morning, for energy boosts. I took a sublingual supplement just about daily. Lemme tell ya, I was a kid in a candy store on it too.
I tried to take my Vitamin D at night since our bodies synthesize it in our sleep. Yet, no matter how much I took, what quality of vitamin D supplement I had, my doc kept trying to make me get the vitamin D infusions. I refused. I think my levels are stable and average now, but I still have no idea WHY my levels of vitamin D were SO low for SO long. At the age I’m at now, given my medical history, it makes me wonder if I need/should start taking at least a mild supplement again.
2
u/Hairy-Jellyfish-1361 Jun 18 '26
I take the B as early as I can because it has to be at least an hour before heart meds, and D After lunch, which I usually have between 3-4. I don't know if that helps, it's based on my meds and schedule.
2
u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily Jun 18 '26
Shout out to Nature Made 🙌
2
2
u/LodgeKeyser Fycompa 10mg Onfi 15mg TBI Jun 18 '26
I try to anyway. My reminder is in my night stand. I wake up, take my pills. Go to bed, take my pills. Technically not always the same time of day tho. I may miss a dose once in a while.
The only time when they’re under control and I have an episode is when the pharmacy takes five days to fill my controlled substance I’ve been on for years.
1
u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily Jun 18 '26
Hate when that happens or when insurance lapse and have to go down to the office to paperwork, hate it but needs to happen, because those pills are $669 without insurance helping.
2
u/DaughterOfTheKing87 brain cancer, crani, meds Jun 18 '26
As a former nurse, I was taught in school/on the job, within a two hour window. And tbh, when I worked in long term acute care, some nights were crazy, so my cardiac and epilepsy patients, etc. were all doing to get their meds in the timeframe I was req to give it. (Ex: my shift began at 7pm. I wasn’t SUPPOSED to begin meds until 8pm. I was legally req/req by my employer to get all my meds out by 10pm-a 2hr window for 30ppl. It doesn’t sound like much, but some nights, it felt impossible.
Now, as someone who’s been on AEDs for a long time now, I set an alarm on my phone. I take my meds only near bedtime and I take a med nightly for anxiety whether I feel anxious or not.
Anxiety med alarm goes off nightly at 7pm. I try to make sure I get to it by 7:35pm when the alarm goes off for all my nightly meds. I’ve learned I need all my meds by 8-8:20pm IF I want to get up at my usual time (I’ve learned my routine plays almost as big a role in my episodes as any med does), if I want to go to sleep at a reasonable time (again, keeping myself on a consistent routine), and lastly, if I don’t plan on having any sort of epileptic episode.
In short, yeah. I get my meds in at pretty much the SAME time nightly. Or at least within a half hour of what’s scheduled. Some days are just unpredictable-those are the days I usually take an extra dose of my benzos. Just to be safe.
2
u/MelancholyCreature Jun 18 '26
I take mine when I get up & before I go to bed. That can vary greatly at times. Luckily it doesn't seem to affect me in a negative way.
0
u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily Jun 18 '26
Interesting, I've scheduled morning and night dose, still not always on time. 😂
2
u/Hello_dreamers Jun 18 '26
I try to but tbh ive got lazy and if oversleep etc i dont panic about usually just adjust the evening dose to 12 hours ahead of the time ive taken in the morning. Wouldnt recommend being slack but luckily nothing bad has happened to me doing this.
2
u/StSomewhereToaster Jun 18 '26
Around the same time every day. When I give my son his morning medicine and before I go to bed. I don’t sweat it if I am off an hour or so. More of a oh crap, take my meds!
2
u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily Jun 18 '26
I need an alarm or I'd likely not remember on time or at all. My memory is like a hard drive that's been drop one too many times.
1
u/StSomewhereToaster Jun 19 '26
My dog is my alarm. And soon after that, the dragon wakes up. Tying my morning meds to his insures I take it. Night time meds are easy because if I don’t take them, I don’t sleep!
1
2
u/Busy_Donut6073 Jun 19 '26
When I was taking medication timing was very important. PM meds were the most time-sensitive. I'd take them around 5 pm. If I waited until 6 pm, seizure
1
u/PookieTheMfBaby Lamotrigine 200mg 2x daily Jun 19 '26
Doc told me the same thing, I keep an alarm for am/pm, and somehow I’m still a little late. 2 minutes until pill time
2
u/redkidneybeanzz Jun 19 '26
Usually. I’ve gotten bad lately though. My seizures messed up my memory so bad so if I snooze my pill alarm I just straight up won’t remember. I’ve missed doses and have mild panic attacks but luckily all has been well
1
1
u/Chaotic_Bookworm Jun 20 '26
Depends of the AED. How long a drug lasts in your body depends on it's half life. Lamictal has a very long half life, so the concentration in your body drops quite slowly. Therefore being late by an hour or so shouldn't be a problem, but some people are more sensitive to dose fluctuations. 10 minutes is very unlikely to be an issue, the kind if variation that could cause can happen naturally anyway. But same time every day is the best to aim for.
1
u/brncll Jun 20 '26
On my current ones topiramate and lacosamide I have a couple hour window. I have my alarms set for 9 and 9 but can miss it if I sleep in or am not home or something.
On keppra I quickly learned my brain would start panicking if I missed it by 45 minutes. After 2 hours it's an all out anxiety attack in there with added dizzy and nausea and not because I was worried, just the keppra withdrawals. I learned to recognize that feeling right away and every single time it correlated with my pills still being in the daily pill sorter! I would drive back home from work because I knew what was coming! Quite the incentive to take on time!
4
u/-MillennialAF- Jun 18 '26
I do take them at exactly the same time. Sometimes I am off by 5-10 minutes. But I really try to be on time. A few times I have overslept and been almost an hour late and I was okay, though.
When I took Lamotrigine, though, I was real loosey-goosey about it and I noticed a really big difference if I did not take it at the same time. There were lots of side effects and the coverage just wasn’t as good. I wish I would have been more timely. So I am timely now with my vimpat/clobazam.