[nikon]

hi there
I'm on five psych meds and have heard that topamax can cause language problems. i sometimes work as a secretary and so have people spelling their names over the phone quite a lot. A few months ago i was having lots of problems with this and my dr reduced the topamax. Today i worked and suddenly had it really badly again, although not for the whole day. i think stress makes it a lot worse, but it's basically like if someone spells a name to me, the letters sound like nonsense. they all sound the same. if someone says "mary - m-a-r-y" it's easier, because i automatically know "mary", but if they just spell it i desperately guess what the letters are, because "m" sounds like e and a, and a sounds like e and r sounds like a....

just wondering if people can relate. my hope is to not work with people as much as possible because i get so stressed out doing it, but sometimes i get quite a shock when i'm hearing letters but they sound like gibberish. i talked to a friend about it and he suggested all these things like keeping a page with the alphabet on it by the phone etc, but in a busy office environment people aren't going to wait around while i trace letters off a page... i just have to guess as best i can and then try to find people on the computer system with what i do have. it's my plan to minimise work like this as soon as i'm finished with this stint, which ends next wednesday, but it made me so stressed today.