Experience AURA or AURAS?

Aura or Auras - What do you experience?

  • Vision / Visual

    Votes: 199 46.4%
  • Smell

    Votes: 121 28.2%
  • Audio / Hearing / Balance

    Votes: 181 42.2%
  • Taste

    Votes: 76 17.7%
  • Special Senses / Psychic Phenomena

    Votes: 220 51.3%
  • Physical Automatisms

    Votes: 138 32.2%
  • Nocturnal / Other

    Votes: 96 22.4%

  • Total voters
    429

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I have never really been one to experiance auras, believe it or not. For the most part when a seizure happens it just happens. That means i just fall, normally flat on my back...theres been few times ( i mean very few times ) that i have had deja vu.

More and more i feel that i get the deja vu feeling and nothing happens. The feeling may only last for the slightest few seconds, but its still so "weird" to me. However for not normally having any aura before having a seizure it throws me off because i never know what to expect...my seizures just "happen"
 
I guess that Ive been really lucky to have the aura all these years. A blessing that you really have to look deep to find. Auras are indicitive of temprol lobe epilepsy.
 
Hey Endless and Ori,

I’ve experienced what you’re talking about with different seizures. My first ever was a simple partial motor, secondarily generalized seizure. But during the simple partial part with my right arm flailing around behind me, I also experienced what I guess now after reading your posts was an aura for the generalized part. I had that telescoping, tunnel vision thing and I knew I was going to pass out. (In fact, I was so freaked out that I thought,”Oh yes, please. I don’t think I can cope!” The following simple partials hit without warning, but didn’t go generalized.

However, after having surgery to remove the brain tumor that caused the seizures, I had much, much milder simple partials (they weren’t able to remove the whole tumor). These new seizures were preceded by that piano chord feeling. That’s an excellent description! It’s actually a worse feeling than the mild seizures themselves.

Also, after months of good control of the simple partials with Keppra, I had stand alone auras in the form of what I called a short circuit-y feeling in my head along with a strong smell of burning tires or acrid cigarettes. After reading the explanations of different aura types, it makes sense. My tumor is in the posterior frontal lobe near the motor cortex, but it runs deep and I guess was growing more in that direction. Thank goodness for these auras. They prompted me to go back to my doc who, after seeing a new MRI, decided it was time to risk surgery.

The brain is a crazy thing! Still learning new stuff all the time:)

P.S.
I used the bold to refer to Endless and Ori's posts. Haven't got the hang of the quoty thing:)
 
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Travelbug,

AT LAST, someone who has the same "bad chord" feelings that I do. My neurologist looked at me like I was a nut when I tried to explain it to him. Thanks for the affirmation.

I agree, the aura is worse than the seizure. And my auras can go on for hours at a low level, then get pretty intense right before the seizure. It stinks big time. If I try to keep on going with life while I'm having an aura, I usually end up making some kind of really big mistake, piss people off, wreck something... just generally make a mess of things.

Yeah, this brain stuff is really weird.
 
Hi Endless,

Bless your heart! I would hate to experience that feeling for hours. I'm not surprised you can't concentrate on other things while you're dealing with it. Fortunately, mine only last a couple of minutes before the seizure and during the seizure which lasts (or lasted, knock wood, it's been a while since my last) less than a minute.

But yes, as soon as I read your discription, I thought, "That's it!!! That's what if feels like!"

I hope you and your neurologist can find a treatment that works for you soon.
 
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it's not constant for hours... it's on off... on off...on off....

the only aura i have that can be constant for hours is extreme exhaustion, the kind that goes down to the bones and is beyond description.
 
"it's not constant for hours... it's on off... on off...on off...."

But still! That's awful!
 
it's not constant for hours... it's on off... on off...on off....

the only aura i have that can be constant for hours is extreme exhaustion, the kind that goes down to the bones and is beyond description.
:agree: I have those sometimes, mostly when I miss a dose of my meds or sometimes, like you said, when I'm exhausted. INDESCRIBABLE MISERY.

I have a lot of different types, though. I've had "Alice in Wonderland" auras (the kind where it feels like you're falling and the kind where everything gets smaller, like a camera zooming out) and I've had visual auras where everything gets yellow with zig-zaggy spots (although those might actually be seizures...). I've had several kinds with automatisms (rubbing my fingers together, mostly, or rubbing my jeans) and if ringing in the ears counts, I have that, too. Most unpleasant.
 
My auras are mostly this electrical feeling, like a bad chord on a piano. Plus a feeling of forboding. Ick.
 
Okay, I take it back. I had an aura that lasted about 3 hours. It was really intense and really icky. How do you get those things to stop?
 
When the auras start take a adavan it will stop any seizure activity.
 
Not necessarily

Ativan does not do that for all people. Talk with your own individual neurologist about what to do in order to attempt to stop the aura. But what's good for the goose, may NOT be good for the gander, so don't assume you can take the same thing someone else does to stop their auras without checking with your neurologist first. Besides, you'll need a prescription!
 
I think that my advice is good,I also believe that my epilogist would give the same advice. Ive got over 30years experince with epilepsy. What would you do if you were having an aura? Adavan stops seizure acitivity! Thats a FACT!!!!!
 
Hi mike,
Its not a fact for all people. They pumped me full of ativan 2 weeks ago to the point of almost overdose but still I kept seizing. I had an almost 14 minutes tonic clonic and the only thing that shut it down was something like mizadem (?) and they had to put me in a medical coma to stop anymore, shoved a tune down my throat to keep me breathing and gave me a catheter. Sounds yucky. Glad I don't remember any of it, but it was because they relied on ativan for so long that I didn't stop seizing.
 
My seizures happen in my sleep period,followed by postical confusion for about 45 minutes. If not for the Ativan that my wife gives me as soon as she can she would have to call 911 every time. I only take it a few times a year. It has been a blessing for us.
 
also as a thought, sometimes peoples seizures are quick. it takes some time for an ativan pill to enter the blood stream and reach the brain by then, the seizure could have started. I agree that for some people the ativan causes the seizure to stop. it is a very powerfu drug, but it seems I am immune to it for the most part.
 
What about some of the older drugs they have used on me to stop statisepileptis like Valium or pheobarbtol? I think that there in the same drug class.
 
Well, saw my epi today, and his response to long auras was to put me on a second drug. All the time. :(

Really. No more drugs. Somebody take my Lamictal. Please.


(Yep, that's the one I got the rash. We're gonna try it again.)
 
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Nerofeedback works for me along with my Keppra and Trileptal.
 
wow, taking Lamictal again! oh my, i'm crossing my fingers for you. its really dangerous to try that again. I am hoping they find something that works for you!
 
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