Ana Hadassa
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HI, I've had absence seizures since I can recall, somewhere around 11 and today I'm 26 years old. I'm from Mexico. Because my parents didn't know much about epilepsy and about my condition, I went undiagnosed until I was 21. This affected me tremendously in my self esteem while becoming a teenager and I received plenty of bullying and rejection from my friends, I was labeled as "freak", this took me to the point where I didn't want to live anymore. My parents always loved me and accepted me as I was and they said to tell me that I was just "different". Time later, I came back home after having lived in Israel for 2 years and my condition worsened, I understood it was the change in altitude and jetlagged. I decided to go to the doctor. While in Israel, my friends told me that my condition had a name and suggested me to go and get diagnosed. I got the encephalogram test and I got diagnosed with absence seizures. The doctor gave me a very strong treatment that made me fall asleep all day and night, and I decided I didn't want to live my life as an old lady who all the things she wanted to do was to sleep. I stop the treatment after 2 months. The medicine that I used was called "carbamacepina". Then I turned to natural treatments and I got homeopathic drops that were phosphorus. But then I moved to Thailand and I finished my treatment and I wasn't able to get more so I stopped completely, and it's been already 1 year and a half since I stopped having any treatments. I still have the absence seizures. I've become very acquainted with them, and I know when I am about to get one. Usually what triggers the absence seizures in me is the lack off sleep and headaches in the back of my head. If I sleep 8 hours, the next day I'll be perfectly fine with 1 or none at all absence seizures. But if I go to sleep late, the next day I know for sure I will get plenty of my episodes. Another strange thing that happens to me is that if I sleep more than 8 hours, the next day, I feel my head "so heavy" and this also trigger the absence seizures. When I wear anything on my head -headbands, hats, ponytails, etc- I get strong headaches and they trigger my absence seizures. I've noticed that when I have strong headaches is because I also have neck pain and my nape is really stiff, it helps to give massage and also head massage for the back of my head. Every time I'm tired I will get plenty of the seizures. I've also noticed that whoever I'm tired or with a very strong headache, I from my free will, can stare at something and I can go into a "relaxing" period that takes away the stress and pain just like when having a seizure. I wonder if this is self inducing absence seizures. I feel that my absence seizures are a desperate tool my brain uses to relax. Does anyone have a simliar story to mine? Are there Amy adults with absence seizures? How can I treat these absence seizures. This summer I'm planning to travel back to Mexico to visit my family just for one month, how can I avoid to get plenty of absence seizures since I know I will be jetlagged and overtired?
