Having More Than 2 Seizures = Epelepsy T/F

[Solicitous]

Hi all.

I went to the doctors yesterday and she threw me a curve.

She told me that my EEG didn't show that I had epilepsy??????

Am I right by saying that an EEG only shows brain activity, and that epilepsy is a "symptom" not a disease?

I was also told by many people and read so many web sites that: if a person has more than 2 seizures than he/she is considered to have epilepsy.

This really irks me, because it took years to convince my family and doctors that there was something definitely wrong with my muscles.
After 25 years they finally listened and diagnosed me with M.D. in which I was happy to finally have a name to my illness.

:woot:

Have a great one.

 

[Endless]

Hi, Norm.

I just posted this in another thread, but maybe it bears repeating here, too.

As I understand it, some of the reasons an eeg might not show epileptic seizures (when they are really happening) are:

- A seizure isn't happening at that moment.

- The seizure is happening in too small a part of the brain to show up. That's why they try to trigger a BIG seizure when in the hospital for monitoring. When the seizure spread from a small part of the brain to more of the brain, it can be picked up.

- The seizure is happening in a very deep part of the brain. The seizure has to be within a certain depth from the skin/skull, or the eeg might not pick it up. (Those of you with fear seizures, those may be coming from the amygdala, which is often too deep to be picked up)

- The abnormal waves are either very low or very high frequency, which traditional eeg's can't pick up.

- The person has recent onset epilepsy, or long standing epilepsy with very few seizures. That means fewer permanent changes to the brain so there are fewer or no abnormal waves that would show up between seizures, and there may not even be sufficient abnormal waves during a partial seizure to show up on the eeg.

In other words, eeg's aren't perfect. far from it.

 

[Endless]

P.S. I'm so sorry about your diagnosis of M.D. Like you don't have enough to deal with already. Is there a treatment plan in place?

 

[flinnigan]

I was told I was having Hot Flashes until I had one in my Ob/Gyn's office she sent me to a Neurologist. I was lucky, sad to put it that way, that I had one in his office right before my EEG. So he was able to record a lot of activity. It can be a hard thing to truly diagnose. Don't give up.

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Norm --

Having a negative EEG doesn't rule out epilepsy! Many of the folks on this site definitely have epilepsy, without ever having had a positive EEG. So the EEG result is NOT definitive one way or the other. An EEG simply measures what brainwaves are present at the time of the test. Certain brainwaves are very characteristic of epilepsy, but not all people with epilepsy show them all the time. And some seizures originate in parts of the brain so deep that the abnormal brainwaves can't be recorded.

As you say, the diagnosis of epilepsy is merely a clinical notation: one seizure could be anything, two seizures = epilepsy. The epilepsy diagnosis is very general. It doesn't address either a primary cause or a secondary cause. Seizures can be a symptom or a result of a wide variety of causes: Fever/infection, scarring from traumatic brain injury or surgery, genetic susceptibility, allergic reaction, nutritional/metabolic/hormonal imbalance...

 

[Solicitous]

Hi Endless.

My M.D. is a piece of cake compared to having E.

It is not really treatable. But do I ever have issues at the way they treated me as a cripple. But that's not an E issue.
The odd thing though, thaat most of what I thought was M.D. symptoms, were actually E symptoms.

Thanks Endless

 

[Endless]

Norm,

Wow, it all sounds so confusing. And I'm ticked off they treated you like an invalid. Even now with a raging migraine I still have a brain. I know that even with all you've got going on, you're thinking pretty clearly, too. It's so hard to advocate for oneself when you don't feel good. It's easy to get tired and give up. But don't. You are getting closer and closer to getting this resolved.

Per the posts, above. Neg eeg does not mean no epilepsy. If your doc doesn't know that, then maybe it's time for a new doc?

 

[RobinN]

Epilepsy is only a label.
Other types of seizures not classified as epilepsy include those caused by an imbalance of body fluids or chemicals.
hypoglycemia
celiac disease
mineral deficiency
etc.

 

[Deb12345]

Endless wrote: As I understand it, some of the reasons an eeg might not show epileptic seizures (when they are really happening) are:............

Hello Endless, I found your information very interesting / useful. Thank you.

 

[WhyMe]

I was diagnosed with " E " about 10 years ago (at age 21)....none of my EEG's have shown anything....it frustrating, but not much you can do.

 

[RobinN]

My daughters seizures tend to be due to blood sugar levels, and possibly food sensitivities. I have no idea if this would show up on an EEG. It isn't important to me to see a positive test enough to put her system into a hypoglycemic state on purpose.

Dr Blaylock (neurosurgeon) says that many seizures go undiagnosed as being caused by hypoglycemia.

 

[j.j.]

Hi Normbeam, My consultant explained that an eeg is only used as part of the things used to diagnose ep, he said its like only using a stethescope to work out why your t v wasn't working properly.I have just been in hosp for 6 days because i was constantly seizing I had an eeg and video and because the eeg didn't show anything one doc said I could have non ep sz.My consultant has reviewed my case and has said I have frontal lobe ep,these type of sz don't always show an eeg.I have other eegs wth abnomalities on them. J.J.

 

[Endless]

Negative EEG

40% of the people diagnosed with Epilepsy have a negative eeg, and there are valid scientific reasons for that. But reading the social security page, it seems a positive EEG is required to collect social security disability. Same for many types of disability insurance, and often to collect benefits like free public transportation passes from the local government. People with other disorders or illnesses aren't required to show a positive test result, like MS. I find this highly discriminatory. Why hasn't there been a huge lawsuit over this in the U.S.? Or has there been one already?

 

[Loopy Lou]

I've only had one eeg, back when i was first diagnosed (2008ish i think?)

Still haven't gone into detail with the neuro about what exactly showed up, but i really should cos it's been bugging me. I go to see him again at the end of this month. Last time he mentioned something about doing another one for a longer period of time, but i hope i don't have to.

Edit - it showed temporal lobe epilepsy in right and left, but more in left than in the right.