Pseudo Seizures

[stockiingmelissa]

Sorry guys I have not been on in a while. Everything is crazy for me right now. My mother-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer. My father-in-law is not doing so well and I am running circles with my lawyer! Uhhh what a year!!!! Well I am doing pretty well, they have decided my seizures are psuedo seizures because they have no other explanation. Surprise Surprise!!! A girl I know started having "tremors" with migraines after having lunch with me one day. I thought it was interesting because if she even knew what i was like to really be out of control and in pain she wouldn't act as she does. Sometimes I just want to scream my fustration at the doctors, the fakers and the haters. You know the ones that see you have a seizure and have the gall to ask if you are on drugs. I want to scream "Ya, I am on drugs and as soon as I stop them these will stop". and then laugh in their face. Unfortunately that won't solve anything but whatever. I really am thinking I will try to be on more again but we will see.

[ColmanMac]

Hi "SM" - So sorry to read about your Mum - shout if you need anything - Know just what you mean about the Docs but I'm afraid it's a sad fact of life that some folk get paid a bundle for being total aresholes!! - Still; us lot are better than them aren't we?!!
Take care; Col

[Literophile]

Argh! I know what you mean! I started having seizures (some of which were non-epileptic) about a year ago, and now my brother's claiming he's having them too! It's so frustrating! What can you do, though? You can't kill 'em, because the cops will always find you no matter how well you pull it off. I kid, I kid.

Sorry to hear about your mom- and dad-in-law. I hope things start to look uphill for you.

[Endless]

Melissa,

I'm so sorry things are so hard right now. It sounds like you are living in a three-ring cirus.

No worries about your docs not having an explanation for your seizures. I think you've probably read on here that many times there isn't an explanation, or a positive eeg, for that matter. Do the docs at least have you on medication still?

Please do come in here more often. We are always here for you.

[stockiingmelissa]

Thank You all! Yes I am on tegretol 200mg. I was on Keppra as well but my seizures went away for about 2 months and so the doctor took me off all of my seizure medicines (good idea right?) ! Anyways so about a week after taking me off of the seizure medicines I had another seizure. My seizures seem to be worse if I am in pain for one reason or another. I don't know if the two correlate or not but that definitely seems to be the way it is. I know that I will never willingly come off the seizure medicine unless they can tell me with some sort of assurance that I will not have any more seizures. They scare me, they scare my kids and I just don't like them. To make matters worse I was just diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and I am going through issues with my heart. I am now on a c-pap machine at night and the heart doctors are demanding that I have a stomach bypass to lose weight because with my cardiac condition I can't take any weight loss aides and working out at the gym isn't doing as much as they want.

With all of this being said everybody who is reading this is thinking one of two things, this girl is really going through some sh** or wow can she be any more of a copy cat faker.

Let me assure you where as I do not wish the problems I have off on anyone else if anyone wants to spend a month in my shoes I will give you my address and all you have to find is the appropriate practicing doctor that can switch our bodies!

[Endless]

I can't believe he took you off a med when it made you seizure free. Sheesh.

Think hard before surgery. One of my relatives had a lot of problems after hers - one of them life-threatening. Her electrolytes got way out of whack and she had a heart attack. My secretary got a serious bacteria-resistant infection after hers. Lots of people have the surgery and do just fine. But if it were me I'd explore every other possible solution before resorting to that.

One of those altermatives is one of those medically supervised diets. They have you drink stuff for all 3 of your meals, and you live on about 800 calories a day. You lose 2-3 lbs a week, if you are exercising. It's medically supervised because living on so few calories a day can cause side serious side effects. They watch you to make sure you are okay. Many insurance companies cover the cost of this approach. To find a program contact your local hospital, or look for a weight loss doctor/specialist in your town.

There are also programs like nutrisystem that do portion control. You only allow yourself to eat something that comes in one of their little boxes.

One of my friends got me to try Sensa, and I was surprised when it really worked. You just sprinkle this stuff on your food, and it tricks your brain and makes it not want the food. It took a couple of months to really kick in, but I lost 10 lbs pretty easily and would have lost more if I had kept up with it. I just wasn't hungry any more. (unfortunately it's not working with my current lamictal-induced eating binge)
http://dm.trysensa.com/dms2165/?gcli...FRiAgwodXgznpQ

Some say sensa is unproven so skip it:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-sensa

Anyway, please at least look into a medically supervised diet first. Maybe it will work.

[stockiingmelissa]

The problem is with my heart condition and restrictions I can't take any weight loss drugs. I have been working with a weight loss therapist and I have lost 50 pounds and I thought I was doing pretty good. If it weren't for the seizure mediciine I think I would have lost more. But I am still way to heavy and they need me to lose weight fast. I am currently following the slim fast diet and eating only their shakes and meal bars and following their diet plan. So I take in roughly 1200 calories a day. Which when someone makes a cake sucks because cake is my downfall but I am holding in there.

I was going to talk to my doctor about the weight loss band. I know someone who has had excellent results with his but they told me that was a 1 in a 1000 case.

But thanks for all of the advice and I am still working with my doctor but I see the beriatric doctor pretty soon maybe he will have an idea that can help!

[Crystal11]

i thought i would talk about my friend Austin who all of a sudden started having seizure-like events. For some strange reason he kept asking to come to my neurologist appointment to have my ambulatory EEG/ambulatory EEG taken off. My neurologist was passing by in the hallway when Austin said "You look goffy! hahaha" and then took a picture on my cell of me sitting there. I was being silly and told Austin "Maybe you should have one done- they won't even find a brain in there! LOL" So we were both laughing and my neurologist said to Austin "Maybe you should have one- you wont like it though." although Austin doesn't have any neurologist conditions. So we go home and the next appointment I go to, I go alone. I found out that the aEE showed spike-n-wave and I was diagnosed for the 4th time with Complex Partial seizures. I've had them since I was 6 but at 13 started treatment as they got worse. My Mom said "They aren't bad enough to take meds." So I never really understood what was going on. At 22, the year I'm talking about with Austin- I started medications up again and this time two at one time- not just one at a low dose.
SO- i go home upset and tell my friend Austin and his wife about it. They hugged me and my twin (who also was re-diagnosed) and said they hope things go better and if we need anything they would help out.
No more than 10 days later, Austin and I are in a van going to the vet with me and my guide dog Umbro when Austin is staring off into space and his hands were shaking a little. I said Austin! What are you doing- you're scaring the lady next to you. Stop it." He didn't. I have heard of psuedo seizures before and knew that this was one of those events that aren't even that- but a behavioral condition. It hurt my feelings because he was basically making fun of me in a way- seizures are a BIG deal weather they are GMs or complex partial seizures. So he ended up in the hospital for observations and was doped up on meds and while in the ER- the doctor said "You're shaking buddy. Whats going on?" Austin's vitals etc and O2 were normal and showed no indication of neurologist probs or seizure.
So from there Austin made my last semester of college a living hell. He would have a "seizure" infront of everyone we knew on campus- not at all one time but he did it even on the phone! OMG I couldn't believe it- he did the whole fake-hearing loss too. I am HOH/Heard of Hearing and have been my whole life. I wear hearing aids and use tactile sign language and am visually impaired and use Braille and my guide dog Umbro. And of course Austin has to make his vision imp (not severe) turn into blindness one month and partial vision the next! His actual eye condition doesn't cause total blindness to begin with!
Ok- so back to the seizure-like event.. he is on two meds like me- and they don't work so he was dx with psuedo seizures after many events and observations were made in the hospital- I told him "Normally people with real seizures have them while the EEG is running." Because Austin was highly suggestable I told his this. I knew that not all people do etc and its actually not as common for someone during the EEG to have a seizure but they look at the waveforms etc.. So what does Austin do? He has a "seizure" as the EEG is machine is being applied! The nurses knew that something was up but treated him as if it was a real seizure just to make sure until they knew more. I go up to the bed and say Austin, what are you doing?" and he isn't responding but his eyes are closed during this grand mal like event which isn't possible during real seizures..The nurse asked him to squeeze his wife's hand which was actually the nurses'! His eyes were closed so he never knew.
After all this- he does get dianosed with psuedo but is on meds probably so the docs cover their a**.
He doesn't even show the same signs as psuedo! He is able to get up real fast, never hurts his face and EMS even thought it was real odd that nothing was broken on his face as most people that have a grand mal and fall down have serious brusing, bitten toungs, broken noses (somethings) or hurt in some way and/or complain about it afterwards.
Anyway...he has psych issues and everyone knows it but he acts as if its as real as real gets- he doesn't even care he taking meds that aren't working- they have nothing to bind to or control in his brain..

Psuedo is a real condition and they are seizures going on but the brain isn't the cause- as in neurological electrical discharges and such.

Austin has stressed many people out and scared people to death when its not even necessary. Most people don't even realize the difference because people with a psych prob or whatnot normally do the most obvious dramatic type seizure which is? Grand-mal/Tonic-clonic seizure.

Its a totally different feeling when someone does it out of behavior issue compared to pseudo or a real seizure.

So its interesting how much you can learn from situations like this- I still have no idea why he does this. Now that he doesn't live near me he doesn't have them hardly at all. I still just don't what to think..

Everyone take care and be safe and warm.
Crystal

[stockiingmelissa]

Crystal11,

You know I have had people question my seizures and it really bothers me but I shrug it off. I know that if I was faking and showed serious emotion while being questioned then no one would believe me, instead I shrug and walk away. EMS took me from my front yard to the hospital because I had had a seizure that caused me to have muscle control issues - which I later found out was really because I had laid face down in the yard so long my CO2 was seriously high. This caused my muscles to kind of atrophy. I have broken my nose, bruised my eyes, damaged my knee (which I have to have surgery on) because I fell down our stairs. So I really really hate it when people fake this disorder for attention. I think if I ever knew someone that was close to me and started having pretend seizures I would break their nose for them while they were having their "seizure".

[Rae1889]

oh wow, I so agree with you. If someone were faking their seizure infront of me I'd go right ahead and break something they find useful so they know what a real seizure does.

I have broken BOTH my wrists at once, bloodied my nose (never broken luckily) needed stitches in my head or face, sprained things, dislocated things etc.

I have a friend (ex) who told me after my first tonic clonic that landed me in the hospital that he knew what I was going through because he has lung cancer and had it for a while. How the hell is that the same? to boot, he is obviously lying as he says he;s had it since he was 16-17 years old and his parents dont know. and that he refuses treatment. He is 23 now so he would be dead or on deaths door with ZERO treatment. and he continues to smoke. The longest documented case of lung cancer with no treatment is 5 years. The the person dies. So he is still very much kicking.

[stockiingmelissa]

Wow that's crazy. He must be excessively healthy otherwise, and not having any treatment at all he must have one he** of a imune system if it keeps fighting the cancer by itself. Some things people say are just too ridiculous to even be acknowledged.

[Endless]

He obviously doesn't have cancer. Isn't this a form of munchausen? The guy needs some medical attention, but not from an oncologist. Has he seen a psychiatrist lately?