Hi guys,
I'm new here, but glad I found this place. I have three tyypes of seizures and one follows the other. I always start off with an absence seizure, then comes the myclonic, followed by (most often than not) a grand mal. I've even found myself having unrinated on myself.
Now, I kept wondering what my triggers were. I knew stress was one. It's not work related stress; it's more anger triggered stress.
1. a) anger related stress
For instance, I have to get something done (work related), I depend on someone to complete the task. They don't do it in time, it pisses me off, I have an attack.
There was a deadline to have something done for incoming students. Mind you, I gave the woman all the information she would need last MONDAY. I'm already getting annoyed again. Our deadlne was March 10th, last Friday. She tells me on Tuesday she probably will do it on Thursday or Friday. I told her, please do it, if she can before Friday 4pm. I'm texting her like crazy on Thursday (I was ill on Friday---drug dose was too high for my seizures). This was her response, "I'm at happy hour". I felt like my brain was about to explode. This is our responsibility and your telling me "happy hour". I called the secretary and walked her through it, since I knew this girl wasn't going to complete the task. Texted her again, nothing. That's the anger level stress I was talking about. Stuttering started, absence began, hands trembling...had to sit in the dark.
b) overstimulation stress
I didn't notice overstimulation until it was mentioned here and I remember I went to my student's class to cheer them on. I started getting hot, the dizziness hit, moments of absence and then came the myclonic. I made it back in time to sit down and just calm myself.
2. Lack of Sleep: Biggest culprit of them all. This is hell on Earth. I had a GM at work, yeah in front of the kids, at work this past Monday. I didn't sleep well at all and was out of it I walked into work and told them that I wasn't feelinig well, but I'll handle it. Well, I was hospitalized until today, or Wednesday.
By the way it was one of the worst episodes ever. I had 1 grand mal at school in front of the kids and then 4 more at the hospital. I was going to leave against glad I didn't. The neurologist there put me on Topomax + the Lamictal & Onfi my doctor already gave me. I saw my normal Neurologist and she was liked the suggestions for the meds but said, ugh, no...you'll be going back to work on Monday.
Guys, all I've been doing is sleeping. It's like my body is trying to get back all the sleep it's been missing.
3. Lack of food: Yup, definitely a trigger. I didn't realize how much it was. It looks like I may need about 5 small meals a day or so.
4. Light: I don't like the yellowish lighting. I can take the white light for short periods. But the yellowish....makes me woozy. Not so much a trigger as a migraine trigger. Migraines are an "aura"