Question: Hello -- You may recognize me from answering a question in October about temporal lobe epilepsy.Currently I am beginning to organize questions to ask you as I articulate what I need to know. OK? I continue to be mystified by quite a lot. The question on top is whether having the diagnosis of Left Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and using 600 mg/tegratol/day and being a woman my age would contradict the good sense of having an operation for removing the varicose veins in my legs. In other words, should I continue to plan on having that operation? [It involves both legs.]Thanks!XXXX

Dear Dr Hajiazam, Here is the clearest wording of the query I sent this weekend that you mistakenly left out. You have a couple of other editions of this query – use this one. It is the best. BACKGROUND. In 2011 I was diagnosed as having pseudo-dementia, presumably caused by a major depression that was not addressed until the Cymbalta was added last week. In summer 2013 neuropsych testing showed my intelligence to be unimpaired, though close to the designation of minimal cognitive impairment. Since late 2013 I have been taking tegretol with the dosage increased to 600mg on January 24, 2014. I am suspecting that the tegretol MAY be having a notably adverse effect on my memory, judgment and processing speed – prior to the addition of the Cymbalta. TWO QUESTIONS 1. Is it possible that as my system adjusts to the tegretol AND Cymbalta – my mental capacity will revive? 2. If I discontinued the tegretol [this is only hypothesizing. I am not thinking seriously of discontinuing the tegretol] would my system revert back to its more intelligent state? Can the tegretol do permanent damage? As I have mentioned, I will probably be sending quite a few queries for a while. I very much appreciate your input and this simple system. I urge you not to rush to get responses back to me. I am not in a hurry. Many thanks,XXXX