Newb here

[kinosuma]

Hello all,

My wife sent me a link to this forum, so I'd thought it would be cool to sign up!

To give you a little background on myself: I'm in the Navy; been in about 18 + years and lookin forward to retirement. I am a Chief Petty officer in the Intelligence Specialist field.

In 2005, I had a seizure (can't remember what type, it's escaping me at the moment) while I was stationed at USCENTCOM. The Air Force wanted to Med Board me before I transferred. Well, to make a long story kinda short, I got around them by going to the Navy Med types in Jacksonville and getting my Sea duty screening done there (this was in 2007). I argued that since I had only had one, have been controlled by my meds and have no serious side effects other than some drowsiness, I should be allowed to transfer. the Doc there agreed with me and signed my tranfer order. Looing back on it all, if it had been a military Doc vice the civilian one I saw, then we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

Now, fost forward to October 7 of this year. Went and saw a neurologist while I'm stationed here in San Diego. This time it's a military Doc....uh-oh....he looks at me, asks a few questions,puts me through the usual motor drills, and then says to me.....you shouldn't be deploying; I'm taking you off your ship and and scheduling you for a med board.

So now I'm on limited duty awaiting a med board to happen; don't know exactly when. I should mention that I'm on Depakote 500mg/twice daily. No serious side effects except for the drowsiness I mentioned earlier. I figure I'll look through all of the helpful info that's been gathered on this site to help me with my rebuttal of all this mess; I just want to retire and get on with my life is all.

[Rae1889]

welcome!

wow, i would get another opinion from a different doc. Seeing as you only had 1 seizure, they cant exactly diagnose you with epilepsy. And normally you wouldnt be put on meds until you second seizure. Did you have an MRI? CT scan? EEG? any testing at all?

If not i would be inclined to ask the doctor what makes him so sure that you should not be deployed. it has been 5 years since your first and only seizure. even if you had 2 at the time, that is plenty long enough for you to be taken off the medication (should you want to) and have a drivers license given back.

I would get that information if I were you.

[epileric]

It never occurred to me that we'd have so many military personnel on this site but I guess it does make sense. If nothing else you're in good company.

Have you been doing anything else for your seizures besides taking your meds? You can start tracking your sleep cycle, when/what you eat, when you're stressed, and anything else that might effect your seizures. You may find what triggers your seizures (hopefully).

Meanwhile you might want to use the "search" option at the top & check for other military members & see what they have to say.

[kinosuma]

welcome!

wow, i would get another opinion from a different doc. Seeing as you only had 1 seizure, they cant exactly diagnose you with epilepsy. And normally you wouldnt be put on meds until you second seizure. Did you have an MRI? CT scan? EEG? any testing at all?.

Hi Rae,

Thanks for the welcome. Don't know if it's possible to get another opinion; the paperwork for the board has already been started. According to the Doc I had in Florida, She diagnosed me with "Primary generalized epliepsy", and told me I will be on this medication for the rest of my life. I've had three EEG's, inclduing a sleep deprived one, a CT Scan and an MRI and they all say that I still have brain fluctuations, or whatever they're called.

If not i would be inclined to ask the doctor what makes him so sure that you should not be deployed. it has been 5 years since your first and only seizure. even if you had 2 at the time, that is plenty long enough for you to be taken off the medication (should you want to) and have a drivers license given back.

I would get that information if I were you

I have asked him, and all he has said so far is that "I shouldn't have deployed with those meds"....and that's all the info he's given me....even though I'm in possession of a year's supply of meds and can get more in either Afghan or Iraq. Oh, and after not having one for six months, my Doc in Florida said I was okay to drive, and I have been since 2006. I even ride my motorcycle every day and have not had a problem.

Guess we'll wait and see how all of this plays out.

[epileric]

If not i would be inclined to ask the doctor what makes him so sure that you should not be deployed. it has been 5 years since your first and only seizure. .

Woops, I guess I missed that little detail that you'd only had one seizure. I know other people here on the site have been told that they not only have to be seizure free but medication free to go back into service.

Where I think you might be able to fight this is that the medical community (can't speak for the military) only considers someone epileptic after they have a minimum of 2 seizures. The problem is whether you can not have another one without the Depakote.

[kinosuma]

Woops, I guess I missed that little detail that you'd only had one seizure. I know other people here on the site have been told that they not only have to be seizure free but medication free to go back into service.

Where I think you might be able to fight this is that the medical community (can't speak for the military) only considers someone epileptic after they have a minimum of 2 seizures. The problem is whether you can not have another one without the Depakote.

Hmm....never thought of it that way....I'm guessing since I still have epileptic brainwaves or whatever in my last EEG that getting off this stuff's going to be difficult. I'm still going to fight though. I didn't go through 18 years of BS only to have them say thank you and kick me out the door....I still need the Navy to pay for college!

[epileric]

Hmm....never thought of it that way....I'm guessing since I still have epileptic brainwaves or whatever in my last EEG that getting off this stuff's going to be difficult.

If you do try to get off of it I would recommend you do it very slowly. There'd be less chance of another seizure that way.

Also check out the alternative treatments for epilepsy. I'd recommend trying one first before trying to get off of the meds.

As well, be aware of your sleeping & eating habits & find at least one way to process stress & anxiety as all those things are common triggers for seizures.