Blood donation, employment

[enmassemauve]

I had my first seizure when on vacation in SC when I was 14. I saw it as no big deal, I know how bad it is, what caused it, and I know I can live my life with it. But I haven't thought much about it for a while until my school started doing a blood drive, (I'm 16).
My epilepsy medicine is lamictol, I take 100mg in the morning and 150 at night I think. I know I can't donate with the medicine in my system, don't know the reaction the person getting my blood would have. But, I can skip my morning dose, it's more of a precautionary measure which is why it's less that my night because my form of epilepsy is caused by sleep deprivation it's only before I go to bed that I HAVE to take it. Would that work out if I'm just sure to take my night meds a tad early so the medication is out of my system? I would probably be around 15 hours before my last dose before the test and the meds affects tend to be gone within 10-12 hours of me taking it. I want to donate, and my friend agreed to donate as long as I'm there.

Secondly with employment, are there any jobs I'm limited to? I haven't had a seizure in 7 months, and back then it was only because my metabolism had picked up and I needed a higher dosage, my neurologist said it wasn't too surprising since I am growing older.

I'm Britney

[Inaara]

Britney,

Re: blood donation, many anti-epileptic drug's take more than 12 hours to completely clear the system (as in, several days...just because the effects are gone, doesn't mean the drug is gone). While I personally do not advise going days without meds, and certainly do not advise stopping them abruptly just to donate blood, if being a blood or bone marrow donor is something that is very, very important with you, then I do advise discussing it with your doctor.

The first 4 years that I was in the Army, I worked in the lab and part of that I worked in the donor center and no, we did not accept donations from anyone who had taken certain medications (including anti-epileptic drugs) within certain time periods. I have and I do, however, donate my own blood for my own use in surgery because I'd just as soon not take any more chances than necessary when someone is going to cut into me, hehe.

[Rae1889]

There is no way for sure for you to donate blood, as Lamictal takes 2 days to leave your system entirely, and that would trigger some unpleasant experiances for you. Also, having blood drawn can cause seizures in people. which would probably trigger one in an epileptic more so than anyone else.

I had a friend who gave blood 3 times, the first two times she passed out. from stress and low blood pressure after words. The 3rd time she went into a tonic clonic. They arent sure if it was the stress of watching her blood leave, or the blood pressure difference. I know that both of these can cause Syncope (fainting) and in some people, fainting causes seizure like events *my fiance's sister has had a few of these*

Also, If I havent said it before, welcome to our home. put your feet up and relax with some very easy going people and have some coffee *decaf of course *

[Zoofemme]

Please speak to your doctor before considering skipping a dose. Typically...meds are administered in day and nightime doses to keep a steady amount of the drug in your system with the higher amount being at night because of the drowsiness/ stupifying effect. This is the way my meds are administered. Sleep deprivation is my big E trigger too. I take Lamicatal as well although at lower dosage from yours...I think the dr said it takes at least 36 hrs for 50mg to come out of your system? It would take longer for the higher dose to come out...so please (!) talk to your doctor

Milage will vary on employment and what your doctor will allow you to do vs finding an employer willing to work with you. Some people with E encounter a lot of issues while others have no problems at all.

[Rae1889]

I think as far as employment goes, you arent too limited. As long as you dont HAVE TO drive *in case you license gets taken away* or if you have to drive or operate heavy equipment. Also if you are photosensitive, working at a dance club or a concert hall or a...light...testing...plant??? you should be fine. If you know your triggers, then you already know to stay away from those.

I work at a site trailer manufacturing shop, as well as a heavy equipment servicing shop. I used to deal with painting the trailers on a lift, or servicing the heavy equipment. which meant using tools to remove heavy parts etc, that could fall on me, should I have a seizure. not to mention kicking away a jack stand if I have a tonic clonic. Can you say crushed? So now I chose to work in the parts department, taking parts orders for customers and data entry for the accountant/controller. I also work with 15 males, and only one female *the controller* so things are pretty "manly" around here.

[monsters_mommy0519]

when i was in highschool i asked if i could donate blood, and they said the only way i could is if i were to be seizure free for a year and off meds for that same time. and also i couldnt because of the risk of all the blood leaving the body at one time can cause a person to have a seizure, i was sooo bummed=[ so i know how it is hun.

[Inaara]

As a random but somewhat related (to the above post, anyway) aside, when I worked in the lab, I had patients who had bad reactions to having their blood drawn. Most of these are minor - sweats, chills, nausea - but one patient I whose blood I drew actually did seize as a reaction to a normal blood draw (not donating blood). I gave a yell for one of the docs across the hall who advised me to continue the draw so as not to provoke another seizure in the patient (yes, we actually did restrain only that arm because under the circumstances, it was considered the lesser of two evils at the time - restrain the arm in a medical setting and get the blood or stick the guy again and cause a second tonic clonic). So be aware that it can happen in a clinical setting as well if the seizure threshold is low enough, which is why I will always tend to err on the side of caution when folks ask about going off their meds for blood donation or things like that. I also will usually inform the phlebotomist that I have epilepsy if it's a fasting blood draw, especially if I've been kept waiting for a very long time (last week I had a blood draw over at the VA and was kept waiting for 3 hours and start feeling kind of off, for instance). I'm not usually prone to having reactions when I get my blood drawn, but I don't want to freak the poor person out if something does happen, either.

[Endless]

I was extremely surprised today to learn that I can still give blood, even though I'm on Lamictal. In fact, all anti-epileptic drug's are allowed. The reason I'm surprised is I would have thought that a sudden dose of lamictal into someone's blood supply would have carried the chance of causing a seizure. But I guess not or they wouldn't let us donate.

[Nakamova]

No, it turns out the components of the blood are separated out. (Think of all the crap floating around in the average person's blood -- BPA, meds, vitamins, Diet Coke, Budweiser...) I always thought the ban on donating for e-folks was because of the effect of anti-epileptic drugs on the recipient, but I guess it's a precaution for the health of the donor instead.