Gastrointestinal Symptoms & Complex Partials?

[sturg]

Yes, I have taken a bedtime dose of Dilantin & Lyrica. Both have helped me control nocturnal seizures. I stay brand only on the both Aed's. Later this year when the generic becomes available for Lyrica I will switch to it. I will stay with brand only Dilantin. there are to many breakthrough seizures associated with them. Since I have been on Lyrica my stomach problems have been better. This drug has a bêta- blocker which can prevent the effects of MSG on seizures in the brain.

 

[jbo359]

Lamictal

I began having partial complex seizures in 1996. They were not being controlled by prescribed medications and I used many different ones and various combinations. Basically, they were uncontrolled and by 2005 I was having as many as 10-12 per day. Life was to say the least was a challenge.

In 2005, I also had gall bladder difficulties arise, I thought the two may be connected. However, no abnormalities found during a diagnostic ultrasound. A new doctor I saw suggested there was a connection between the gallbladder symptoms and the seizure situation. I followed his nutritional and supplement regime precisely for 6 months. No change except improved bowel movements. Ergo, I doubt the two are connected as well.

Fortunately in 2009, I was referred by a friend to an internist that suggested I take lamictal. Thank God she did and prescribed it...within 2 weeks the partials stopped dead in their tracks after 14 years of continual worsening. I've had little problem since. The only time they flare up is if I work too hard or have an unexpected overly stressful situation occur.

My advice...if you've got uncontrolled partials...and haven't tried lamictal, talk to your doctor about it. I hope it helps you the way it helped me. If you've tried lamictal with no luck...don't give up. Maybe do some biofeedback or general relaxation techniques in the meantime until you find a med that works for you.

Personally, I feel the malfunction within the brain that produces a partial is also the malfunction somehow producing gallbladder symptoms and not the other way around. For whatever reason the brain is not working properly, you have to find a med that works for you. Another reason I like lamictal...it's cheap!

 

[sjconner]

I was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. I had surgery and have been cancer free for one year. After the colon resection I still had bowel issues similar to what you describe except for the color. When I had my follow up colonoscopy earlier this year, my doc said my colon looked good. He did take a biopsy of the wall of my colon. I have microscopic colitis - specifically lymphocitic colitis. It causes all sorts of bowel problems.

 

[KarenB]

Personally, I feel the malfunction within the brain that produces a partial is also the malfunction somehow producing gallbladder symptoms and not the other way around. /

Interesting hypothesis, and one that I was considering about 9 months ago, when Jon was having diarrhea daily, and all sorts of seizure daily.

It seemed that both the diarrhea and the seizures cleared up simultaneously, but we were treating both simultaneously, so hard to say if one helped the other, although I'm convinced that's the case.

Jon trialed Lamictal several years ago, and had a strong allergic reaction. However, the drug that's currently working for him is Zonegran, along with the Ketogenic diet. He's been seizure free now for 6 months, and also been having normal bowel movements, with just occasional and brief flare-ups of his Inflammatory Bowel Disease during that same time.

His nutritionist/pediatrician (we found one who was both) put him on a regime of a high dose of zinc (followed by a lower maintenance dose), pancreatic enzymes (he continues on these), and probiotics (only when having a flare-up) and we temporarily adjusted his diet to take out foods that might be triggering problems (most of which have now been added back in). The zinc seemed to help more than anything else.

His neurologist increased his dose of Zonegran, took him off the other seizure meds, and we tweaked the ketogenic diet he was already on -- for one thing -- adding in MCT oil, which has great benefit for those with malabsorbtion issues.

Malabsorbtion seemed to play a big factor -- if Jon wasn't absorbing fats properly, this would skew the ketogenic diet. He probably also wasn't absorbing his meds properly.

But, I don't think malabsorbtion was the only issue. I suspect that there's some underlying autoimmune disease that is causing both his epilepsy and his IBD.

 

[IslandLiz]

Re: Specifically, I haven't had a normal bowel movement for probably 10 years, maybe longer. My stools are always some shade of yellow or orange (rarely brown anymore), usually either fatty and tubular or gloppy in appearance (never a 'clean wipe' anymore).

I, too, experienced the "never a clean wipe" part of this, although the stools are brown. This went on for months and months -- maybe two years -- until I took a short course of doxycycline in an attempt to fix a dry-eye problem. The DAY AFTER I started the doxycycline, my stools went back to normal (soft solid) with clean wipes -- but the drug seems to have triggered really severe complex-partial seizures with accompanying dyspnea and other unpleasantness such as I hadn't experienced for years.

I stopped the doxycycline after 9 days of this, but the stool situation (and dry eye problem) stayed "fixed" for about six weeks. Unfortunately, the fix wore off. Now it's back to the need to use half a roll of toilet tissue each time, and the dry eye is weeping again, but I'm afraid to start up on the doxycycline again.