Newly diagnosed with TLE

[LJT517]

Hi everyone! I am new to this site. I actually discovered it looking for pictures of the Lamictal rash....which luckily I did not have it. I had two grand mal seizures on May 17, 2011. The first one happened at work. I am a teacher so luckily it was at the end of the day and my students had left. A friend was walking by my classroom and caught me before I fell down. The 2nd seizure happened in the emergency room. I was in the hospital for 3days. MRI and CAT scan were normal. I had a 48 hour EEG that showed activity in my left temporal lobe. Fortunately, that whole experience has been sort of a blur. I have been on Keppra and Lamictal for two months. The only side affect I have experienced has been tiredness. They have been slowly increasing Lamictal. I saw my neurologist yesterday and he said my Lamictal levels aren't high enough to start weaning off the Keppra. Before the grand mal I was having auras for about a 1 year. I had no idea what they were. They lasted 3-4 seconds. I thought that they were hormonal because I am 40 years old. I know now that they were seizures. I have always had a poor memory and I sometimes stammer looking for the right words. Well that's my story....looking forward to visiting this site. It has certainly been very informative so far. Thanks!

[Nakamova]

Hi LJT517, welcome to CWE!

It's possible your seizures do have a hormonal component -- high or fluctuating estrogen levels and low progesterone levels can be trigger seizures for some folks.

I hope the Lamictal continues to give you seizure control. One thing to note: Your neurologist may well be right that your Lamictal levels are too low to start weaning off the Keppra. However it's also the case that there are no set levels for Lamictal -- what works is different for each person. In my case, my neurologist insisted that my Lamictal dose (175mgs per day) and blood level (5.0) were too low to provide seizure control. But in fact they do the trick for me and have continued to do so for over 3 years. I'm not encouraging you to start messing with your meds, just letting you know that there can be quite a bit of variation in the therapeutic dose. If you start experiencing any side effects on the Lamictal there may (or may not) be "wiggle room" to decrease the dose.

Best,
Nakamova