RunningGirl85
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Well, today marked my first visit to my new neurologist here in New York, and tomorrow I will have my first EEG (sleep deprived, woohoo) since my diagnosis of epilepsy. That shouldn't be hard as my sleep has been all sorts of screwed up these past couple of weeks. I can't sleep for the life of me most nights (got a prescription for some new medication for that too that is supposed to compliment the Celexa I'm taking, but we'll see if I take it or not - I'm kinda sick of medication, but sleep seems to be my number one predictor of seizures and bad moods, so who knows).
He suspects that I have left temporal lobe epilepsy from what I've told him (guess we'll probably know better after tomorrow's EEG?). He said sometimes EEGs that show frontal lobe abnormalities can be from the temporal lobe, since they're close to each other. Anyway, he said he's probably going to put me on Lamictal with the Keppra to stop the partial seizures that I am still having. He questioned the decision-making of the very first neurologist I saw who just took me off of medication completely because of the normal EEG (after my first seizures).
Now the bad news: despite my Oregon driver's license, and the Oregon state law of three months no driving post-seizure, I'm still not supposed to drive for three more months because I live in New York and NEW YORK state law is six months... even though MY DMV (Oregon state) is three months. It doesn't make sense to me because I'm not a New York state resident, and for example if I drove from Oregon to a state with a six month law, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get into trouble if I got caught, but that is what the neurologist tells me... And, because of the military, even if my STATE DMV says I can drive, I have to get my neurologist's approval, and he said he can't approve it because of New York law. *sigh*... I almost broke down in tears. I am two weeks away from my three month mark, and I look out the window longingly at my nice, shiny, new (well, as of last year) Subaru that is dying to head out to some good trails... Especially because I really am out in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation. To get anywhere I either a) have to take a taxi b) get a ride, or c) ride my bike - which will be okay for local stuff until winter hits here. I'm still getting into good bicycling shape and getting comfortable riding with traffic and whatnot... I'm up to 20 miles now - woohoo.
Anyway, my moods WERE doing better, and I was getting hopeful that I'd get to live my life normally again, but now I'm just getting frustrated again. And my lack of sleep lately is NOT helping. And if I WASN'T in the military, I'd probably just move somewhere else where I'm near PEOPLE who I KNOW, or public transportation, or SOMETHING, but I have to live HERE. ON POST so I can be next to my "job" (that I'm not working), away from the rest of civilization. At least I'm getting free health care, still have a job/am getting paid, and a place to live... Maybe I should stop complaining. But damn. Okay, that wasn't supposed to turn into a rant... Rant complete.
He suspects that I have left temporal lobe epilepsy from what I've told him (guess we'll probably know better after tomorrow's EEG?). He said sometimes EEGs that show frontal lobe abnormalities can be from the temporal lobe, since they're close to each other. Anyway, he said he's probably going to put me on Lamictal with the Keppra to stop the partial seizures that I am still having. He questioned the decision-making of the very first neurologist I saw who just took me off of medication completely because of the normal EEG (after my first seizures).
Now the bad news: despite my Oregon driver's license, and the Oregon state law of three months no driving post-seizure, I'm still not supposed to drive for three more months because I live in New York and NEW YORK state law is six months... even though MY DMV (Oregon state) is three months. It doesn't make sense to me because I'm not a New York state resident, and for example if I drove from Oregon to a state with a six month law, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get into trouble if I got caught, but that is what the neurologist tells me... And, because of the military, even if my STATE DMV says I can drive, I have to get my neurologist's approval, and he said he can't approve it because of New York law. *sigh*... I almost broke down in tears. I am two weeks away from my three month mark, and I look out the window longingly at my nice, shiny, new (well, as of last year) Subaru that is dying to head out to some good trails... Especially because I really am out in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation. To get anywhere I either a) have to take a taxi b) get a ride, or c) ride my bike - which will be okay for local stuff until winter hits here. I'm still getting into good bicycling shape and getting comfortable riding with traffic and whatnot... I'm up to 20 miles now - woohoo.
Anyway, my moods WERE doing better, and I was getting hopeful that I'd get to live my life normally again, but now I'm just getting frustrated again. And my lack of sleep lately is NOT helping. And if I WASN'T in the military, I'd probably just move somewhere else where I'm near PEOPLE who I KNOW, or public transportation, or SOMETHING, but I have to live HERE. ON POST so I can be next to my "job" (that I'm not working), away from the rest of civilization. At least I'm getting free health care, still have a job/am getting paid, and a place to live... Maybe I should stop complaining. But damn. Okay, that wasn't supposed to turn into a rant... Rant complete.