Types of Seizures

[Melanielindsay]

Hi all, I have posted before I have a daughter is has just been diagnosed with epilepsy. She has now been prescribed meds, which dont seem to be working. She initally just had the occasionally grand mal seizure and partial seizures daily which involved the right side , always her mouth loosing control , dribbling , not able to speak and then progressing down right side to arm shaking. Well things have now changed. The Grand Mal Seizures have become more frequent, the partial mouth seizures have increased to two or three times a day and she now has blackouts, where she doesnot shake just looses conscienceness. Is this normal? Neurologist wasnt much help and getting worried by the day.

[Bee91]

Hi all, I have posted before I have a daughter is has just been diagnosed with epilepsy. She has now been prescribed meds, which dont seem to be working. She initally just had the occasionally grand mal seizure and partial seizures daily which involved the right side , always her mouth loosing control , dribbling , not able to speak and then progressing down right side to arm shaking. Well things have now changed. The Grand Mal Seizures have become more frequent, the partial mouth seizures have increased to two or three times a day and she now has blackouts, where she doesnot shake just looses conscienceness. Is this normal? Neurologist wasnt much help and getting worried by the day.

Hi! Sometimes it takes a while for the doctors to find the right meds to work. For me, it was a combo of meds. Its just a game of trial and error...

The seizures you are describing where she blacks outs with no convulsions are probably absence seizures. They are a pretty common type. Especially with children.

[Bernard]

... The Grand Mal Seizures have become more frequent, the partial mouth seizures have increased to two or three times a day and she now has blackouts, where she doesnot shake just looses conscienceness. Is this normal?

My wife's seizure patterns - both frequency and type - have changed over the years in accordance with changes in her treatments (and pregnancies).

Sometimes, instead of improving seizure control, meds can make things worse. If the meds have titrated to the therapeutic dose in her bloodstream and her seizure activity is worse, you need to explore a different treatment option IMO.

[Melanielindsay]

Thanks for that, I was thinking it might be the meds which were changing the pattern. She is on a very low dosage as she reacted badly to the one prescribed before this. Will wait and see what happens.

[RobinN]

My daughters seizures have increased with each increase in medication. After we increased it this month she had a seizure so I dropped it back down to the previous dose and she hasn't had any more. This is where a calendar of events is really helpful. I believe I would have just been guessing if I didn't have my records. When I look back at the previous increases, about a week later we see an increase in seizures. That with dietary infractions has made for some eventful months.
Other than the one seizure brought on my meds we have not experience any others this month
...now to go find some wood to knock on.