"Neurology department - desperate epileptic with no help!"

I was diagnosed with epilepsy three years ago, and it's been a really rocky road since then trying to find a medication to hold me. I suffered two tonic clonic seizures this January and was switched from Keppra to lamotrigine. I have still not been feeling good the last few months with absences, so my epilepsy nurse decided to up my medication from 75mg to 100mg. I am currently upping my meds to 100 mg and I am suffering awful side effects from sore heads, extreme sore stomachs to the point I'm reduced to the sofa or staying in bed, extreme nausea and dizziness. My epilepsy nurse explained last time I saw them if I eventually all the way increased to 200mg and was still experiencing seizure effects then we would add another drug in, but my body obviously cannot hold the amount of lamotrigine I am taking just now. I called my neurologist yesterday only to be told they are away on holiday for two weeks and that I cannot speak to anyone else. I phoned my epilepsy nurse also to be told they are on holiday for a week and I cannot speak to anyone else. I phoned my GP who told me they cannot touch my medication either as it is up to the neurologist but they can prescribe me heart burn medication.

I feel so totally alone and being a parent, I cannot continue to feel like this! It is getting me extremely depressed and I feel totally isolated to the fact only these two individuals can touch my medication and I am not allowed to speak to any other specialist there! It is all in my notes the plan the epilepsy nurse has made, so how another neurologist can not simply speak to me over the phone and give my instructions on what to do baffles me! I totally understand them going on holiday(everyone has rights to a holiday! ! ) and it is unlucky they have both gone at the same time, but why I can't speak to another neurologist I just don't understand? ! I am desperate! luckily I am on holiday just now, I am due back on Monday and there is no way I can go back to my job as a teacher when I can't even get off the sofa!

I saw my neurologist in June, who also sent for me to get my yearly MRI on the very day I saw them, they told me to phone back by August if it had not been done as it needs done every year due to an aneurysm I have. They also told me to phone at all if I was not feeling well in my epilepsy and they would speak to me over the phone. I phoned 3 weeks back only to be stopped by the receptionist to tell me that they would not be able to speak to me and that I would need another appointment before I got my MRI. It was sent off the very day I saw them, it is routine every year we have our 6 month appointment and I go for my MRI in August! ! Why the receptionist wouldn't even pass on this message to them completely baffles me! !

I have lost every sense of trust with Raigmore hospital in regards to my epilepsy and my aneurysm, I feel completely alone and isolated in the debilitating illness!