Newbie Needs Advice!

[Katef]

Hi, Mine is a strange story. My father, now 78, had a grand mal in 2000. Since then he has been on Lamactil, low dose, and not had any further seizures. Recently, we had a few worries when he was driving my daughter and did not see a bollard on the road and drove straight at it. My daughter later said he seemed to be in a trance - she banged on the dashboard and he managed an emergency stop. Additionally in the past few months, he has hit his car 4 or 5 times and cannot actually recall doing it. We started watching him, i confess looking for dementia... we noticed a few occasions where he simply went into a very quick 'trance like state' , staring through us, but not at us, commenting on a statement made a minute earlier, and not appearing to realise he had lost the thread. He doesnt do it often but it is odd. We went to his GP who said it was almost definitely absence seizures and put his medication up and stopped him driving. I dont object to the latter as even if it isnt epilepsy, he needs to be off the road, but althuogh she is sending him to a neurologist she said tests don't always absolutely diagnose absence seizures so even if the tests were negative, because of his past history it will be deemed to be epilepsy. Does anyone know anything about these seizures?? Many thanks!

[epileric]

It sounds like one of the types of seizures I have. I was told when my parents first discovered I had seizures we were around the dinner table and I was telling my parents something when in mid-sentence I just stopped, stared straight ahead for 30-45 seconds then came back to earth & picked up where I left off.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pet...eizure/DS00216

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absence_seizure

[Nakamova]

Hi KateF, welcome!

I'm glad your daughter was able to avert a serious accident with your father at the wheel. The episodes you describe do sound like absence seizures, and and a neurologist is likely to come to the same conclusion. I hope the increased Lamictal dose makes them stop. Either way, you might want to consider if there are any contributing factors or triggers. Is your father on any other medications? Have there been any changes in his overall routine or health? Does he have any cardiac or circulatory issues? Those could also be playing a role.

Best,
Nakamova