sheilabear17
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I am the daughter of a mother who was recently diagnosed with epilepsy (complex-partial onset) in October 2008 after 2 known seizures and an EEG done my neurologist where they could see the seizures. My mother has been superwoman her whole life and devoted the past 23 years to being and providing for me as much as she can. Her career required a lot out of her as far as time and traveling and since 2006 had increasingly become more stressful for her - begining of last year 2008 she was under the most stress in her life(gradually and noticeably increasing since 2006) - knowing she was going to have to leave her career due to corporation wanting too much from her (move to another state after 20 + yrs and working non-stop-more than 50hrs) also, she decided a separation from her recently retired husband is what she needed as well(my stepfather - great guy - great dad to me the past 20 years!) and she believed that once she got those stresses out of her life then she would be better health wise - her body held off until the latter of last year and she got sick durring a flight for work, then was unconscience and once on the ground immediately taken to hospital - where she had a seizure - we believe it was a seizure on the plane as well - but the hospital did not want to log it as a seizure since witnesses did not see her tremor/ shake / what that doctor thinks of seizing. They did a MRI , catscan and EEG - all came back clean and thought that it was because she had 1 alocoholic drink on the plane? - I don't know why we accepted that answer then besides the fact that my mother does not drink that often and it had been a while since that drink. A month later she resigned from her job on amicable terms and separated from her husband. She had another seizure couple weeks later while in Ohio packing her things. She was hospitalized and a MRI and catscan were done - they both came back clean. When she got back to VA we went to see a neurologist and he prescribed her 200mg of dilantin - said she could take generic if necessary - since then she is now taking 500mg of Dilantin(has to be name-brand now- b/c her body was not absorbing generic well) and finally her level is at 12- after today's consult with neurologist he has prescribed her Keppra as well to be combined with the Dilantin. Today was very bad day for her as most days have been since October - I've spend hours,days, months questioning the medicine and her doctor because I am just not use to seeing her this way and seeing this destroying her physically and emotionally - today she started have the shakes really bad, most of her bad days consist of her feeling nausea (Neuro today said she needed to ensure she was eating properly throughout the day) , dizziness, pin needles in her feet (side effect of dilantin) but she is constantly struggling with her memory and holding a conversation, slurring speech...etc.... he scheduled her to have another EEG tomorrow - prior to today ive seen that a lot of people have these symptoms and are associating them with Dilantin - her neurologist however , is stating that the dilantin should not make her non-functionable so there must be something else going on. That is where we left off today. This site looks like a great site for me and my mother - It is nice not to feel alone! Thank you to whom ever started this site=)