What factors help you with seizure control?

What factors have helped you attain (at least some) seizure control?


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I try to get enough sleep. If I don't, lately I am having what appear to be simple partials when I first start going to sleep when really fatigued or stressed. My PCP also wants me to have a sleep apnea test.
 
2 drugs help me ive been fine for a year now! ... i dont believe in food diets sleep or whatever to help, it will happen when it happens! I dont really believe in brain surgery neither.... doesnt scar tissue cause sezures?
 
I had surgery last year & so far it has helped me control my seizures.
I tried 5 different AEDs before my neurologist suggested the surgery & none of the AEDs helped me completely control my auras & complex partials.

I also try not to get too stressed about things, make sure I get plenty of sleep, try to watch what I eat & get plenty of exercise (walk everywhere & go to gym).
 
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If I'm really hungry I will start to get a lot of auras. Lack of sleep and stress don't help either. I should probably quit my job, and become a beach bum. I'd imagine that would be pretty stress free..... until I ran out of money. :twocents:
 
The 2 treatments that worked best for us were:
1) Topomax, mono-therapy. Jon was on this from age 2 to age 6 3/4. It controlled his seizures well -- he only had 1 seizure for the first 3 1/2 years he was on it. And, then, sadly, it stopped working. No side effects for first several years (fairly low dose), but when dosage was increased, due to lack of efficacy, he lost a lot of spoken language.

2) Ketogenic diet, first combined with Depakote, and then by itself -- this gave us 11 months of no seizures. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of lowering the ratio, and the sudden increase in carbs threw him for a loop, and we're still trying to get control back.

We really hope the keto diet will kick in again, because all the other meds were absolutely horrible -- and the last one -- Depakote, caused liver damage -- so that limits what drugs we can use now?
 
Attitude. I have to be careful because of my memory. Time now for me to get vns,I have to stop from losing some of my memory and stop these headaches and keep every bit of memory I can.
 
Keppra, trying to sleep better, less stress/lifestyle management, dietary/nutritional adjustments and seclusion from all the triggers. Which may as well be seclusion!
 
Nutrition that targeted blood sugar regulation, healing the gut, and vitamin supplements, which helped to balance hormones.
 
A mirena helped me. Because my seizures were going crazy. Also having brain surgery was very scary. But I had a good team with me including my family. And that is so important. Now I am making another important decesion that if any of you who have children with epilepsy your advise could really help. A friend of mine living in a wheel chair has epilepsy, now put yourself in my position. I have epilepsy. She has her own care taker. I have my 14 year old son, who just started high school.He is happy there and he will stay there. The manager said she would give me a 6 mo lease for a 3 bedroom. In case I want out of it. Then i could just move to a 2 bedroom there. They have washers and dryers in the units which I don't have now.I know its going to be hard.She has epilepsy to. not bad. Her brain is fused together.I know I have to make my own decision in the long run, but some quick advice could help Help!!!!!
 
I would like to suggest dosage of generic lyrica will be different for different patients. Follow your doctors prescription or the directions on the label. As no of tablets that you take depends on the strength of the medicine and the lengths of time depend on the medical problem. Take medicine exactly as genericlyrica.net it was prescribed for you.
 
For meds, I am on an AED. For other, I use a door frame. I push against both sides of the door frame, with my feet n' hands, thereby keeping the seizure from getting control of my body.:woot:
 
I selected "Other" because what really helped me was my boyfriend who was always there keeping an eye on me in hard times and who took great care of me.

Also, staying away from any stress factors helps a lot. Even if means you have to call in sick for work and just stay at home for a couple of days, or to take a break and just not talk to people who are important to you but still can stress you out. I had to take a 2-week break from my parents because the timing was awful and it was driving me insane.
 
My seizure control relies on a few things. AED, Stress free environment, Heat free environment, Diet easy on my digestive system.

Without any AED I will have CPS often. Which will eventually lead to a tonic-clonic. Stress is a major problem for me in two ways. One it upsets my stomach, causing stomach pain. That usually leads to bouts of constipation or diarrhea. Two it causes me to have bad headaches, which bring on my CPS.

Heat is also a big problem. I've always had cold feet and hands. Since I was little I always like colder temperatures. My ideal temperatures are from 30-40 degrees F to 70 degrees F. You keep the snow, I'll take the cold. I've had heat stroke at least three times. Twice a few months ago. While my first occurred when I was 12 or 13 years old. IMHO it was that heat stroke which triggered my seizures to start.

I've been on at least thirteen different AEDs over the years. Many had minor side effects.
But a few of them really messed my body up. Headaches, diarrhea, constipation, rashes,
kidney stones, gall stones, dry skin, etc. Because of some AEDs I needed to have my gall bladder removed. The doctor told me it was perforated. I also suffer from IBS & Colitis.
I need to avoid greasy foods, pasta sauces, some dairy, etc. Eating has become a funhouse maze of mirrors. I think I have a clear path, but I end up hitting a wall.
 
Updating (now that we're almost a year seizure free again)

1) Monotherapy - Zonegran this time. Works well, but harsh on system (acidosis and cognitive dulling). Neurologist is going to be weaning slowly over next year.

2) Ketogenic Diet - back on track with that again. Had to do some tweaking, add in MCT oil, and cure gut issues to get seizure control back. Almost 3 years on diet now, but it does work well, and isn't as harsh on the body as the meds.

3) Gut health. Not only does this seem to have a direct effect on the brain and seizures, if bowels are inflamed, then meds and the fats and nutrients in the diet aren't being absorbed. Followed a special diet for about 6 months designed for people with gut issues (selective carb diet) --that was blended with Ketogenic diet. Now gradually adding in new foods, one at a time. Used pancreatic enzymes for about a year, and probiotics (the refrigerated kind)when he has a flare-up of diarrhea.

4) Supplements
-a good multi-vitamin, heavy on anti-oxidants (esp. B vitamins) and seleneum, etc. We use Nutrivene D
-Magnesium at bedtime - helps with sleep, and calming, which ultimately helps with seizures
-Fish oil - a small study indicated helpful with seizures in adults with mental retardation. Also good for brain healing from seizures. And maybe helpful for gut.
 
I'm trying the probiotic route too.
I also use ginger (the spice in little jars) when my stomach gets bad.
My current problem is that my pulmonologist has increased my Advair, so now I have the constant jitters.
Benadryl also adds to the jitters and Absence (minimum) seizures.
 
Shelly, when Jonathan took his first dose of probiotics, he had several seizures that day. But we waited a couple days, until he'd been seizure free for 24 hours, then tried the probiotics again, and he had no problem that time. I'm guessing maybe that first dose of probiotics killed off a lot of bacteria and/or yeast, and maybe toxins from the die-off triggered the seizures. But after that, the probiotics didn't trigger seizures.

Our neurologist doesn't allow Benadryl -- says it lowers seizure threshhold too much. We use Claritin if an antihistamine is needed, but that isn't much.
 
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