I had to slowly build up the dosage of the drug over 6 weeks, starting with a half a teeny pill at bedtime, then a whole pill, then a half in the am too, etc. I'm still only on 50 mg/day, and my doc said that some people take up 600 mg a day to get results! Wowza. Glad I don't need that much. At any rate, I slooowly started to add back in the good stuff - bread, cereal, honey, a couple sips of wine here and there, and finally, at long last - I ate an apple. You can't imagine how good this feels unless you've ever gone three months without eating a piece of freaking fruit. I still haven't braved an orange, but I eat apples, bananas, and prunes (stop snickering - I'm in menopause, people) like a champ now. I've also added back in a half-glass of wine on occasion, things with small amounts of sugar IN them like yogurts, cereals, granola bars, etc, and sugar-free treats like frozen-yogurts, "sugar-free" candy, etc. I have tried to eat actual sugar/chocolate, and sometimes it's fine and sometimes it isn't. It is the one thing that still seems to trigger a headache, so I don't push it.
Interestingly enough, Topamax can also be used to control alcohol and drug dependencies, which means it curbs cravings, so my DESIRE for sugar and wine has actually gotten less, which I find to be a fantastic side-effect. They cause headaches when I'm not taking meds, and they're terrible for me anyway, and I can take a drug that stops the headaches and makes me not want them as much?! AND, incidentally, also generally lessens the urge I have to eat everything in sight, actually helping me LOSE the weight that all the other drugs make me gain?! Brilliant!
I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to go to bed at night and not feel the gnawing worry that I will awake in pain. I can't tell you how much I enjoy eating my Fujis and Honeycrisps. And that occasional glass of Malbec is oh-so delicious, and I appreciate it oh-so much more now that it is so hard-earned and mindfully consumed. For that matter, I appreciate everything so much more now...but that's fodder for another post. At the moment, there's an apple calling my name.