What first triggered your epilepsy, if known? (i.e. first seizure)

[wichitarick]

Hi
My first gmal (s) came the night a man threw a 1/2 brick at me in fight over change from the liquor store .
After many yrs. of reading I "feel" I have had auras all my life .
I was always just a LITTLE trippier than my friends. I did not understand what a partial seizure was either until the last few years and do not have pinned down how many of them I have .
I was hit by a car at 6 and it may be a factor in a lot of things?
But boxing and fighting probably did not help either.
Over all though I "feel" concussions have had the most effect. Rick

[RobinN]

I view it like a sand bar with my daughter. The water wore away a few grains for whatever reason, and the finally BAM!
We are making the attempt to put the grains of sands back in place to keep the monster hidden.

[400ex]

Turned 16, was late, woke up with cops and paramedics surrounding my bed. Dont know how or why I have epilepsy.

I do know my Grandfather and my Aunt have it. So it may have been genetically passed down but I heard that you aren't born with epilepsy you have to do something to get it.

My grandfather suffers from Simple/Complex partials as well as my aunt, but she gets GrandMals time to time. All very rarely like 1 or 2 every 5 years.

[epileric]

I heard that you aren't born with epilepsy you have to do something to get it.

I've heard that too but don't believe it since my seizures are thought to be caused by a lesion on the hypothalamus of my brain which I've had since birth.

[Blackout]

I was born with Tuberous Sclerosis but didn't have my first seizure, complex partial, until I was 12. I had seizures for two years before the gig was up and I left the shower running and passed out in my bed. My sister found me and was distrought asking me what happened. I went to the Dr had tests done and they put me on Dilantin and Tegratol.

I had seizures for two years without anyone noticing them prior to this. I pretty much self-diagnosed myself in health class when we studied grad mal and petit mal seizures and I thought to myself, wow, petit mal sounds like what I have but still said nothing. I played hockey and I would have seizures on the ice often and would make my way to the bench, wait for my next shift and go out and keep playing.

I told no one because my mom had died of cancer when I was 12 when my seizures started and I was afraid I had a brain tumor or something.

I wasn't diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis until I was 27 so I answered "other" in this poll.

[Shelley]

I was born with a lack of oxygen. (I tell people that someone farted in the O.R., you'd hold your breathe too!) My mom never told me much, except that it was a secret, and I should never tell anybody. She blames the doctor btw, and I blame her.
I was also in a couple of car wrecks (one when I was a child) and that may have had an effect as well.
My seizures were originally absence, but the meds during childhood made me high. Now, I am having simple partials when tired. (Although they are becoming more frequent.)

[Inaara]

Drunk driver going northbound in the southbound lanes. Narrowly missed the drunk driver, but didn't miss the concrete wall after a lovely spin during which I remember thinking calmly, "this is the kind of wreck people usually die in. Oh look, there's the wall. We're going to hit the wall." And we did. The doctors, after looking at the X-Rays, just stared at me with their jaws open asking me why I was sitting there talking to them when I should be dead - or, at the very least, in a wheelchair. I laughed and told them that apparently God wasn't finished with me yet....and then asked where the nearest 7-11 was, because apparently it was my lucky day so I should buy a lottery ticket before the luck wore off.

[CleptaK]

I love your joke about the lack of oxygen, Shelley, it's awesome! I'll keep that in mind next time someone asks me about my cerebral palsy :-)

[rhiz]

not sure! i'd had the jerks for a while
could be PMT related, as they always got worse around that time before i went on birth control

[crazychick10793]

i was told i probably suffered absence seizures throughout childhood, and a lot of children like that start having grand mals at the height of puberty, right where mine started

[srab]

At 24 y/o, 4mths after the birth of my daughter, my husband and I were watching tv . The next thing I knew, I "woke up" lying on the floor by the front door (how did I get there?)with my husband calling my name. A trip to the E.R. and I was diagnosed with dizziness (didn't know that was a diagnoses). After several more "dizzy spells"and "blackouts" I went to a new Dr.
Have many health issues that have nothing to do w/ seizures but would like to note that my son has Tourette's, which is also a neurological illness.
Short story long, I went from partial complex to grandmal seizures over the past 15 years with no known cause.

[RobinN]

After almost 4 yrs of research and treatment, I believe it was inadequate nutrition and a sugar imbalance that contributed to my daughters seizure threshold to be lowered.

[SeizetheNight]

I think that mine were mostly caused by stress and lack of sleep. I had my first seizure after working a month of 14 hour night shifts, 2 days on 2 days off, and staying up during the day on my 'off' days. I got home from work one day, went to bed, and woke up in an ambulance with no clue who I was... We hoped that it was just a one time thing, so I didn't go on any meds, but had another t/c four months later.... I know I have had my fair share of head knocks while growing up, but I don't think I can really attribute them to my E now. Oh, I also took hydroxycut a few months before my first seizure, and I heard (after I stopped taking it) that it could cause seizures.

SeizeTheNight

[stilldancing_98]

I recieved my blessing when I was 10 from the chicken pox. But my mom tells me that the Dr.s think I must of been spacing out "petit mals" before anyone even knew about it. Myoclonic seizures run in our family.

[Ori]

My current neurologist believes that an accident 20 years ago may have caused my seizures, which surfaced as grand mal late last year. I was hit by a car, landed on my head, and in a coma for three days. They might also have been caused by meningitis which put me in hospital for a year when I was a child.

After reading up on seizures, I see that I have had some seizure activity for as long as my memory reaches, which isn't all that far these days.

Why the grand mal seizures surfaced so much later in my life, I haven't a clue.
Even with medication I get them four or five times a month, on average, some months many more. Last month I had one about every other day.

[valeriedl]

About 7 years ago I had gone to a Dave Matthews concert with my ex-boyfriend. The that night while we were in bed sleeping I woke him up having a grand mal seizure. He took me to the hospital where I had to be put into a medicaly induced coma inorder to have the seizures stop.

I don't remember anything that happened at the concert. I don't know if we were with other people in the parking lot drinking or doing anything else. I never did drugs and really don't drink.

My husband thinks that I could have been slipped extacy. I don't know what I may have been drinking in the concert or in the parking lot. I would have probably been drinking soda because any of the alchol drinks in concert cost a fortune and I really don't drink as it is.

At another concert around the same time there was a teenage girl who took bad extacy had died from having seizures.

I don't know if this could have happened to me also.

[becks]

Hi,

I was first diagnosed when i was 19 yrs old the doctors told me it was alcohol related i only had 6 units of alcohol the day before my first seizure and couldn't understand this i was on various anti-epileptic drug's and went on topiramate and was told i was not allowed to drink alcohol whilst on this drug low and behold i still suffered from seizures so the doctors are not always right.

i would like to try diet but i am 31 yrs old and suffer from polycystic ovaries so it is very hard to lose weight if any one has any suggestions i would love to here them as polycystic ovaries makes you gain weight so i currently weigh 20st and 9lb sorry dont know what that is in other forms. help please i cant have kids and have been told by the adoption companys that i need to have a bmi of less than 40 mine is currently 46. I'm begging for help if any one can tell me of a known diet that would work with my epilepsy i would be internally grateful for life.

Love to all
Becks

[RainbowBrite]

I put not sure because I had meningitis (viral) when I was 9 and had to be taken to Johns Hopkins and had a concussion that knocked me out on a carnival ride when I was in 9th grade. Also, I have been on anti-psychotic meds before which some say can cause seizures, although I don't know if those seizures can continue after being off those medications..

[Shelley]

According to wikipedia, one stone = 14 lbs. so that would be approx 280lbs. American.
Kilograms would be approx 6.4, so that would be a good reason to lose weight.
Try drinking water instead of sodas, and fruit snacks instead of cookies in between meals.
Also try eating 6-8 very small meals everyday. No alchohol.

[Meetz1064]

considered looking at some of the diets that might help you control the seizures, too? By changing your diet, adding in some exercise, and working on gaining control of the seizures, things should start to fall into place........