Newby, need advice

[strike]

Hi everyone

I have a type of brain seizure caused by a brain trauma that I had back in late summer 2009. I used overdose(predisone eye drops(recommend by eye doctor) to treat my inflammed right eye. Woke up one morning with massive headach/dizziness. Went to hospital, felt better after a few days. Few months later seizure slowly developed, didn't know what caused it until just recently looking back at what happened. Going to see a neurologist in july. What should I expect/options I may have, and if there's any natural treatment that may help? Thanks Harry

My symptoms:

Mental fatigue/exhaustion

Even more mental fatique/exhaustion when I think of sex(yes I know doctor thought I was crazy) Yes I'm damn lonely. I avoid women just to get by everyday and keep my job(I'm subdivision design engineer btw).

Overall low energy/metabolism

[Nakamova]

Hi strike, welcome to CWE!

What kind of seizures do you have? Do you lose consciousness during them? Are you on anti-seizure meds right now? If you are on meds, those can certainly cause exhaustion/fatigue/low energy.

Here's some introductory info about other treatment approaches out there: http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/...ive-treatments

Best,
Nakamova

[strike]

I'm not on any medication right now, which would you suggest or tends to work best with least side effects? I have something where I'm constantly having seizure in the brain(no moving body parts). I feel sensation, tightening, and clicking noises in the brain. Almost like constant orgasm without the pleasure(sorry hard to describe). Ofcoarse when I fantasies about sex/watch porn, the effect intensify, and I get more mental exhaustion. Thanks for any help or suggestion.

[RobinN]

We can't recommend any particular medication. That would be up to the physician that is treating you. However, IMO it seems highly unlikely that an eye drop would cause continuing seizures. Perhaps it is just a coincidence and there is another cause.

Are you under the care of an eye doctor? Have you had an EEG or an MRI to make sure there isn't another physical cause to what you are experiencing?

Finding ways to raise your seizure threshold is one approach.

[strike]

I'm almost 100% sure it was the steroid eye drops, cuz I can't think of anything else that caused the massive headach/dizziness. I never really had even a normal headache in my life. Any case, it was quite a trauma. It was so bad, I couldn't sit on a chair waiting at an emergency hospital, but lied down on the floor, otherwise I would vomit and more dizziness and headach. They took me CAT scan which was unnessasary. Doctor gave me a needle and dizziness pills and I felt better after a few days. Who knows, maybe it was some kind of viral brain infection, but I'm quite certain it was the steroid eye drop.

[Nakamova]

Infections are known to lower seizure threshold, so that might be a potential cause.

As for treatment -- Robin's right, your doctor is the best person to discuss the different options once there's a better sense of what's going on. The neurologist may do some tests first -- EEG, MRI -- before coming up with a treatment plan. It's a good idea to write down any questions you have and bring them to the appointment. And it can help to have someone with you to keep track of what the doctor says. If it does seem like meds make sense, there are many out there to try. The medications affect people differently -- what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another, and side effects vary from person to person -- so sometimes it can take a while to find something that works.

[Endless]

Hi, Strike,

Welcome to the forum! I'm so glad you found us.

A head injury can cause seizures, even years after the injury occurs. Multiple mild head injuries is on my short list of seizure causes, and those happened during a span of 40 to 5 years ago.

Steroids can be a seizure trigger, even the low dose from eye drops if someone is very sensitive.

Do work together with your doctor until you see the neurologist. July seems like a long wait. What country are you in? If in the U.S., the emergency room can be a fast track for seeing a neurologist. If you go in after a seizure you'd see the neurologist on call, who would schedule you into his office for a follow up after the hospital. A shortcut can also be your general practitioner calling the neurologist's office and get your appointment moved up.

But, who am I to comment? It took 3 months to get in to see my epileptologist. I saw other neurologists before him with a 1 month wait, but because he's well known, it took 3 months to get in to see him.

Hang in there. With only one seizure, you may not have another. That may have been it. If you do have more, with the right meds and a little luck your seizures will be under control and you'll never have another. That's the experience of most people. But not necessarily for the people in here - we're the ones that are having problems with our seizures or meds, or are newly diagnosed. The ones that were successfully treated with few side effects are happily skipping down the road....

Hang in there.

[valeriedl]

I know that fatigue and exhaustion are deffently things that will cause a seizure for me. I've been doing alot of spring cleaning and yard work lately and I've had a good bit of little seizures.

Deffently keep a diary of when your seizures happen, what you did that day and what they were like when you were having them. Make sure you write down any questions that you want to ask the dr. This could help the neurologist see if there is something that might be triggering them.

[strike]

I think I have seizure all the time because I feel my brain moving, tightening with clicking noise(like rice crispy cereal). It intensify when I think of sex. I hope I can take EEG and find out the right diagnosis, because it seems like mine is quite rare.

Off topic, what do you guys think of stem cell? Their websites show they can cure lots of diseases, painless, and no side effects? I just happened to read about it surfing the net.

[Nakamova]

Stem cells show a lot of promise in treating seizure disorders, but I think all the studies so far have been done in rats. It may be a treatment of the future if it pans out in humans (and there aren't any compromising side effects).

[strike]

How is anti epilepsy medication compared to anti depressant and anti anxiety medication in terms of side effects? I read that anti anxiety has more side-effects and it's more addiction. How about anti epilepsy medication?

[Nakamova]

There's no easy way to compare anti-epileptic drugs, vs. anti-anxiety meds, vs. antidepressants -- there are so many different kinds and they vary enormously in side effects. Plus every person reacts differently. Plus some meds -- like Lamictal -- have been prescribed for both epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Your best bet is to talk to your doctor about what makes sense for you.

[strike]

which anti-epilepsy drug has the least side effect/low toxicity level?

[Nakamova]

There's no way to predict because they affect different people differently -- an anti-epileptic drug that may be trouble-free for me, may give you horrible side effects.

But you can read some individual opinions here, that might help make things clearer: Which AEDs give you the worst side effects?