I don't know how to tell you this...

...but I can't drink soda anymore ... at least not while I'm taking Topamax.  It's not that I drink a lot of soda - I usually just have one of those mini cans once a week on Fridays, when we eat our frozen rising crust (that tastes as good as delivery) pizza for dinner.  Sometimes, rarely, I'll have one of those mini cans during the week when I'm not eating pizza, but I don't make a habit out of it. 

What I'm laboring to say here is that soda is an occasional treat for me.  So by the time I'd had it again since I started Topamax, the medicine had a chance to really build up in my system.  

I was warned through my research that anything with carbonation just wouldn't agree with me - but did I heed said warning before I poured my adorable mini can of Coke into my glass with just the right amount of cherry juice & two ice cubes, and sat down with my perfectly baked pizza?

No.  I didn't.  And I paid a price, my friends.  When I sipped that soda it was as though a thousand tiny pennies pounced on my tongue and started biting.  Didn't agree with me?  That soda had a vendetta.  I'd call it a carbonation mafia, but I don't want to beat a dead horse.

...and before you suggest I let the soda go flat, allow me to suggest you go drink a warm, flat Old Milwaukee.

In other news, I've started taking the 2nd dose.  I'm not smelling cigarette smoke constantly, just on occasion.  Word finding hasn't been as impossible as it could be, but like I said - I've just started the new dose.  I have one more step up in a week, and that should be it. 

Other side effects that I've heard can happen, and almost want to happen because they could make my kinda boring life a little bit more interesting: deja vu (I know I've seen this shit before) and jamais vu (who moved my shit? ~or~ this isn't my shit!) 

Honestly, the potential for hilarity staggers.