Absence Seizures

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kaelieh

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I work in table games at a casino, one of my floor supervisors has a daughter with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. I was shuffling cards and she saw me have an absence seizure. I was shuffling cards, I stopped, I looked up, didn't move for a few seconds, and when I looked back down I reshuffled the cards. Since there's no post-ictal phase and I'm not aware of them I have no idea how long I've been having them or how many I've having. My boyfriend said I have a tendency to stop talking mid-sentence for a little while before picking back up again but he always thought I was thinking about was I was going to say next. We went through some videos on youtube of the kids having absence seizures and despite my history and experience with epilepsy I thought some of them were hard to spot.

Do those of y'all who have absence seizures ever have experiences that make you question if you may have just had an absence seizure?

Where is a good place to find information about absence seizures occurring in adults? I'm almost 26 so it's not like this is something I'm going to grow out of.
 
When I was diagnosed, I believe I was misdiagnosed with absence seizures. The thing about it was, they were so hard to spot, the doctor used the video and EEG to teach students how to spot an "absence" seizure.
Maybe my neurologist was generalizing it as an absence seizure to make it easier for me to understand...
When I would have the seizures (what I would now call a complex partial), I would not notice the pass of time and just carry on afterwards. Rarely would I even notice a change.
 
Hi kaelieh --

Even though they are more common in children, absence seizures can happen at any age. You're right in thinking that they can be hard to self-diagnose. If you suspect that you are having them, you should get in touch with a neurologist. He may then schedule an EEG and/or have you hyperventilate to see is an absence seizure occurs. (Typical absence seizures are easily provoked by hyperventilation in more than 90% of the patients).

Some small studies have shown the the Modified Atkins Diet can be helpful in treating absence seizures. See http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/728208 You might want to ask your doctor about this option.
 
I have absence seizures at the age of 38. My neurologist once told me that he would find it difficult to spot them unless he had me hooked up to an EEG. As Nak said, mine have been very easy to bring on with hyperventilation. I know I've had an absence seizure when I'm talking to someone one on one, because I will know I was talking but won't know what the conversation was about. When I'm alone, there's no way to tell whether I've had an absence seizure or a partial seizure. I can only judge, if I'm watching TV, more or less how much of the story I've lost. If I've lost entire scenes, I assume I've had a partial of some kind. If I've lost a sentence, I guess it was an absence. Hardly scientific, but there you go.
 
According to my eeg and neurologist, I have these over and over again and just don't know it. I am an adult. She says I've learned to cover for them and that others probably just think I'm very exacting? or deep in thought.

I am not aware I'm having them, but I'm very aware of their fallout. I live in total chaos-- never complete what I was trying to do- nothing ever wher I meant to put it-- and people seem to be irritated by the way I speak (too slow) or when I need complex or long information repeated.

For me the hyperventalation test caused a generalized seizure. I don't have a lot of tonic clonic outside of sleep.
 
Where is a good place to find information about absence seizures occurring in adults? I'm almost 26 so it's not like this is something I'm going to grow out of.

My seizures are CP and TC, so i've not experienced absence seizures, but here is a good website that does explain them:

http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/seizure_absence
Absence seizures are brief episodes of staring. (Although the name looks like a regular English word, your neurologist may pronounce it ab-SAWNTZ.) Another name for them is petit mal (PET-ee mahl). During the seizure, awareness and responsiveness are impaired. People who have them usually don't realize when they've had one. There is no warning before a seizure, and the person is completely alert immediately afterward.

Simple absence seizures are just stares. Many absence seizures are considered complex absence seizures, which means that they include a change in muscle activity. The most common movements are eye blinks. Other movements include slight tasting movements of the mouth, hand movements such as rubbing the fingers together, and contraction or relaxation of the muscles. Complex absence seizures are often more than 10 seconds long.
 
I t would be nice if I'd just start having absence sz's.I'd prefer them over Complex partial,atonic, genarlized,simple partial,tonic clonic sz's I'm having.
 
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No disrespect intended in the least to those who have tonic clonic seizures; I agree these must be exceedingly frightening and disruptive, not to mention dangerous. However, there is no such thing as a "more desirable" seizure type. Adults and chldren can have dozens or even hundreds of absence seizures in a day and therefore they can be exceedingly disruptive to one's life, affecting the ability to drive, work, perform well at school, take part in sports, affect one's independence due to the risk of injury, and the multiple seizures still "lay the path" for more seizures and more severe seizure types to form. Sound familiar?
 
I t would be nice if I'd just start having absence sz's.I'd prefer them over Complex partial,atonic, genarlized,simple partial,tonic clonic sz's I'm having.

No disrespect intended in the least to those who have tonic clonic seizures; I agree these must be exceedingly frightening and disruptive, not to mention dangerous. However, there is no such thing as a "more desirable" seizure type. Adults and chldren can have dozens or even hundreds of absence seizures in a day and therefore they can be exceedingly disruptive to one's life, affecting the ability to drive, work, perform well at school, take part in sports, affect one's independence due to the risk of injury, and the multiple seizures still "lay the path" for more seizures and more severe seizure types to form. Sound familiar?
 
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