Are your complex partial seizures like this?

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recall92

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Hi. I started meds about 2 and a half months ago. When I had complex partials I would mumble and rotate my left arm. Friends said that it will take me over 5 mins to come back to normal state (Fully aware of what's going on). I would say to them "I'm back now it's fine" but minutes later I'll be like "What the heck happened" Now I'm on meds the seizures last up to 2 mins and I recover fine. Arm rotates sometimes and sometimes I mumble but my eyes are like wide open staring! After the complex partials though I usually feel really tired and have a nap.
 
Hi, Recall,

And WELCOME! :)

My complex partials take some different forms. One of them is sitting and mumbling. That type usually lasts under 30 seconds. While I'm mumbling I might do something like fling a slice of lemon. Did that once right out of my ice tea. It landed less than 6 inches from another diner. I don't remember any of this but my mom told me about it. Kudos to the waiter who seamlessly brought a whole bowl of new lemon slices for me. These quickies - 30 second mumbling, I come out of it not confused or tired.

The longer ones where I get up and do something, like walk around, remove cloths, say something longer, last under 3 minutes (I think), and when I come out of it I don't know anything has happened. I'm just really puzzled if I'm in a different place than what I thought was a second ago. Then I'm confused, tired, sleepy. I usually sleep for at least 2-3 hours after those.

repetitive movements are common during complex partials, which would explain your arm movement.
 
Hey! It's good to be here. I usually have about 4-7 complex partials a week and a few simple partials. Are they going to get better? Meaning are the number of seizures going to decrease by any chance? Hoping they would so I can get back into sports :)
 
I am similar to you. While I am having one I will stare off into space. I will smack my lips together, mumble and sometimes drool. I've also found myself to keep doing the last thing I was doing. It's usually a crossword puzzle, I'll have scribbled all over the page.

After I have one I'll be very tired and usually have a horrible migrain headache. Also I'll be very tired the next day too and mostly will sleep during it.

My sezs at most will last about 5 min, but it takes me a while to realize what is actually going on. After I had come out of one, it was time to take my meds. I couldn't understand why I had to take them and my husband finally got me to take them.
 
My complex partials start out with an aura- or horrible feeling that comes from the bottom of my stomach up into my throat. Almost as if I'm going to get sick. My hearing changes and everything sounds like its condensing into the center of the room- all of the people speaking or all of the noises.
Once this happens, I try to do things to stop it- even though nothing I've ever tried works in stopping it. Last time, I tried to change the channel on my XM radio with the remote- going between two channels back and forth- for some reason I thought that if I could distract my brain from doing what it wants, it would stop the seizure- it didn't work, even though at the time I thought it would work hehehe.
If I'm walking around, I still walk but its slowed down and I'm off balanace, almost like a drunk person. lol
Sometime I don't move much, or remain sitting- but most who are around me tell me that I make a face, just don't look like I'm well or myself.
My interpreters told me of this several times and after a while- they were able to tell my seizures before I could feel them starting up. I get pale color as well but not always.
For me, sometimes I believe that I understand what is going on- but when asked later about it, I have no idea what really happened or I tell them something that never happened at all.

I usually like to take a 20min nap after my longer 3min seizures just to get back to myself and rest. Sometimes if I walk around- my legs feel weird. I sometimes feel like I haven't been breathing at all- even thought I have.
Don't know if others experience this or not with complex partials.

I like to say "I'm back from the land of E." Or my twin and friend will say "Did you go somewhere?" and I know exactly what they mean. Its sort of a way to figure out whats going on without making a comment out loud about a seizure or epilepsy.

Everyone take care
Crystal
 
I want to echo what crystal said about the aura ahead of time. I often get one, but mine's a little different from Crystal's. I get this horrible feeling that something is wrong. Forboding. Plus this really weird indescribable feeling in my head. Almost electrical or sonic-speed vibrating, but that's not it either. There's nothing else like it in my experience, so it defies words.

I've come to with my mom asking what happened and am I okay. And I usually answer that nothing happened. Why? Then I'm tired and want to nap (after the ones where I walk around or say something longer).

After my seizures I usually have a headache, that most often escallates into a migraine. That migraine can last 1 day to my record 3 weeks. NOTHING makes that migraine go away until it wants to go away. Drugs, ice, etc. can help make the pain a little more tolerable, but it won't take the migraine away. Ugh.
 
ENDLESS-
I too get migraines w/aura but also a migraine related to my seizures. It doesn't happen all of the time but when it does- its painful.
I had to go to E.R. because of a migraine that made me real sick. I took Excedrin Migraine and it makes me sick every time but its all I had at the time.
I ate a full meal, after the migraine started- so thinking it was a hunger headache- I went ahead and ate quickly.
After seizures meds, excedrin and pepto for nausea, I ended up crying in the dark in the closet close to the bathroom- just in case I got sick.
We called EMS because I had a seizure earlier in the day and the migraine was lasting a long long time. My last migraine before that was 4 days of living hell..
So E.R. doc gave me a shot of Phenergan and it made me catatonic, sleepy and falling asleep over and over, 100 times or more, could not breath well or swallow water- and was holding my arms up in a weird posture for hours on end. My eyes were tiny and I didn't respond to much- meaning that the shot I had a reaction to.
No more Phenergan shots for me!

I have Butalbital that I can take as needed but don't use it often.
I haven't had a migraine in a while- thank God. Those can be horrible- especially after a seizure when you don't feel well anyway.

Take care,
Crystal
 
Pretty much 100% of my migraines are post-ictal. Sometimes it starts out after a seizure as a regular headache and progresses into a migraine. On a lucky day it's just a regular headache. Laughing... amazing my new definition of "lucky."

My description above was of the aura before the seizure, and the headache after. See several posts up for the description of the seizure.
 
Hello,

I am new to all this too, I don't have seizures but my MR son does and the information you all share help me understand what he can't tell me.

Thanks to all of you folks.
 
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