Hi Everyone,
I always feel a little awkward making a first post on a forum, especially if the first post I'm making feels a little aimless. First of all a little about me. I'm actually not sure if I'm even posting on the /right/ forum. Although I'm sure I've had some form of undiagnosed seizure activity most of my life the worst of it has been, as far as I can tell, medically induced (as you will see below).
I'm 30 years old living in Western Sydney, Australia. I've got a loving wife who is my absolute rock and an 8 month old son who is my world. I'm a nerd by profession and a Mr Fixit by hobby (The wife hates it actually, I have dozens of projects at home that'll "Get finished soon, I promise!")
Throughout my life I've always had moments where I've been told I'd just "stop" and do nothing for up to a few moments at a time and generally become unresponsive. This was always followed by myself coming to with a severe headache.
I'm not sure why this was never investigated by my parents and by the time I was old enough to worry about it myself it was just something that happened, so I never really bothered myself.
This went on until about 5 years ago when I had some issues that caused a fairly significant mental event and resulted in a major depressive disorder that required psychiatric treatment. At first I was trialled on a series of medications including Lovan, Abilify and a variety of other anti-anxiety and anti-depressants with no real effects. And I was placed on Nardil (Which is a MOAI inhibitor class of anti-depressants) which dramatically helped improve my mood.
My wife also mentioned the Seizure activity to my Psychiatrist who referred me to a Neurologist for EEG tests which showed no abnormal activity. The Neurologist actually made us feel as though we didn't know what we were describing and dismissed it as nothing to worry about. This opened the door for the Psychiatrist to treat my condition with Epilim, which, as things had it, caused the Seizure activity to dramatically worsen to the point that instead of something that would occur perhaps once or twice per month that over the course of the month that I was taking the Epilim the acitivity increased to 10-15 times per day.
I was immediately taken off the Epilim and the seizure activity abated slightly but not entirely. Instead of just 'zoning out' now I would actively have muscle twitching in the hands and feet and despite the brief drop off after the removal of epilim from my drug regime the frequency was slowly increasing.
From that point onward I had lamictal prescribed at a 50mg dosage which did help with both my mood and the rate at which the seizures were occurring. But did not help the fact that they were still worsening in severity and duration.
Earlier this year the Psychiatrist also introduced Topamax into the mix in an attempt to further bring my mood under control, this seemed to have no direct effect on any thing really - except for ruining my taste buds on all of the 'good stuff'
About 3 weeks ago due to side effects relating to the Nardil (Fluid retention mostly) I had to stop taking the Nardil. A surprising effect from that was that the seizure activity virtually stopped in it's tracks. Although, since then, I feel as though I've had a post seizure headache almost endlessly. Any kind of light source is absolute agony to the brain and I awake from sleep feeling like my brain is going to erupt from my skull, so I'm actually not convinced that I'm 'cured' so to say, just that things have changed form in some way.
I do apologize for the big rant but as I said, I'm feeling a little lost and I'm not sure why I'm actually posting this all here, I think I'm just hoping for that magically bullet maybe - perhaps a recommendation for a legendary neurologist in Western Sydney??. I just stumbled on this forum while looking for new lights to replace the ones that are giving me headaches.
I always feel a little awkward making a first post on a forum, especially if the first post I'm making feels a little aimless. First of all a little about me. I'm actually not sure if I'm even posting on the /right/ forum. Although I'm sure I've had some form of undiagnosed seizure activity most of my life the worst of it has been, as far as I can tell, medically induced (as you will see below).
I'm 30 years old living in Western Sydney, Australia. I've got a loving wife who is my absolute rock and an 8 month old son who is my world. I'm a nerd by profession and a Mr Fixit by hobby (The wife hates it actually, I have dozens of projects at home that'll "Get finished soon, I promise!")
Throughout my life I've always had moments where I've been told I'd just "stop" and do nothing for up to a few moments at a time and generally become unresponsive. This was always followed by myself coming to with a severe headache.
I'm not sure why this was never investigated by my parents and by the time I was old enough to worry about it myself it was just something that happened, so I never really bothered myself.
This went on until about 5 years ago when I had some issues that caused a fairly significant mental event and resulted in a major depressive disorder that required psychiatric treatment. At first I was trialled on a series of medications including Lovan, Abilify and a variety of other anti-anxiety and anti-depressants with no real effects. And I was placed on Nardil (Which is a MOAI inhibitor class of anti-depressants) which dramatically helped improve my mood.
My wife also mentioned the Seizure activity to my Psychiatrist who referred me to a Neurologist for EEG tests which showed no abnormal activity. The Neurologist actually made us feel as though we didn't know what we were describing and dismissed it as nothing to worry about. This opened the door for the Psychiatrist to treat my condition with Epilim, which, as things had it, caused the Seizure activity to dramatically worsen to the point that instead of something that would occur perhaps once or twice per month that over the course of the month that I was taking the Epilim the acitivity increased to 10-15 times per day.
I was immediately taken off the Epilim and the seizure activity abated slightly but not entirely. Instead of just 'zoning out' now I would actively have muscle twitching in the hands and feet and despite the brief drop off after the removal of epilim from my drug regime the frequency was slowly increasing.
From that point onward I had lamictal prescribed at a 50mg dosage which did help with both my mood and the rate at which the seizures were occurring. But did not help the fact that they were still worsening in severity and duration.
Earlier this year the Psychiatrist also introduced Topamax into the mix in an attempt to further bring my mood under control, this seemed to have no direct effect on any thing really - except for ruining my taste buds on all of the 'good stuff'
About 3 weeks ago due to side effects relating to the Nardil (Fluid retention mostly) I had to stop taking the Nardil. A surprising effect from that was that the seizure activity virtually stopped in it's tracks. Although, since then, I feel as though I've had a post seizure headache almost endlessly. Any kind of light source is absolute agony to the brain and I awake from sleep feeling like my brain is going to erupt from my skull, so I'm actually not convinced that I'm 'cured' so to say, just that things have changed form in some way.
I do apologize for the big rant but as I said, I'm feeling a little lost and I'm not sure why I'm actually posting this all here, I think I'm just hoping for that magically bullet maybe - perhaps a recommendation for a legendary neurologist in Western Sydney??. I just stumbled on this forum while looking for new lights to replace the ones that are giving me headaches.
It sounds like some or all of the drugs you've been on may have been exacerbating your seizures. Many anti-depressants (including Nardil) can lower seizure threshold, and even some anti-seizure meds can have a paradoxical effect and make seizures worse. All of the brain meds can affect neurochemicals in powerful and sometimes unpredictable ways, and it gets even trickier when you are taking more than one.