Hi! Just joined!

[zephyrsnana]

I'm finally getting around to reaching out to others with epilepsy. Better late than never! In May 2013 my daughter gave birth to my first grandson, hence the username "Zephyrs Nana". Since I live in Florida and she in NY, I went immediately there and stayed for 3 weeks. I became sick with a UTI that spread to my kidneys. I KNEW I was sick, but not that sickly, when I arrived back in Florida I immediately went to care for my father who had ECOLI . Which I contracted, still unaware that I was THAT SICK, within a week I spiked a fever of over 103 and my speech became slurred and the left side of my face looked as if I had a stroke. I was hospitalized , by this time my blood was septic, and thank GOD for the infectious disease Doctor he noticed my face and I began seizing. There not 100% sure if it was the high fever that has caused the epilepsy, Because earlier in the year I had fallen off a 6 ft ladder and was unconscious for GOD knows how long ( I was home alone at the time) it really doesn't matter now, the end result is is I have epilepsy. It's been a struggle like everyone knows. The worst part for me is the continuous headache. I can almost deal with the seizures, but having a headache that never goes away, is taking its toll on me. I have left frontal lobe epilepsy. The last seizure was 3 days ago and 2 days ago I finally gave in to going to the ER for something stronger to give me some peace from this headache. Does it get better?

 

[Cint]

Welcome to our forum, Zephyrsnana. Sorry you had to suffer such extreme measures, just to see your grandchild.

Unfortunately, it sounds like you're having migraines now. Epilepsy and migraines are related, they are cousins. Some of the meds used for seizures are also used for migraines, too. I've had migraines off and on, but my neuro prescribed a medication for migraines, Imitrex inhalant when I really needed it. I also use OTC Excedrin for migraines. If the headache doesn't subside in a day or two, call your neuro. The AED could also be causing the headache, some do.

Wishing you the best.

 

[zephyrsnana]

Thanks for welcoming me and responding. I've been taking Imitrex on and off for years , well before my diagnosis of epilepsy. It helps, but like all medicine the longer you take it the less effective it has become. Plus my insurance will only provide me with 8 pills a month, my neurologist gives me a few samples per month and has prescribed fiorciet. After the initial diagnosis the headaches were so severe and I was prescribed morphine. I weaned myself off the morphine a few months ago because I didn't like being so drugged. So now the migraines have increased and they have me taking tegretal 300 mg EX 3 times a day and blood pressure medicine though I don't have high blood pressure. They said it should help relieve the migraines eventuality. I'm starting to feel hopeless, the seizures I can handle this continuous migraine is I can't handle. Any advice on different meds? -Sharyn

 

[valeriedl]

After most of my seizures I'll have a horrible headache. I usually put a bag of ice on my head where the pain is mostly coming from, put something over my eyes to block out any light and put my headphones in and listen to soft music (this blocks out any other sort of noise). Most of the time I'll fall asleep when I do all this. My headaches will last for hours, so I may wake up in the middle of the night and it will still be there.

Unfortunately pain meds don't work for me in general I don't know if it could be due to one of the epilepsy meds that I take or having epilepsy in general that cause them not to. I've taken all sorts of pain meds for different things. I had severe back pain for years and no matter what I took didn't help at all. I finally had surgery about a year ago and the pain stopped.

I've taken several meds for headaches but they didn't help. My neuro did prescribe me Sumatriptan Succinate Injection 6mg/ 0.5ml kit. He said it was stronger and generally used for heads. It's a shot that you give yourself when you have the headache. It didn't do any thing for me but it may help for you.

How often are you having seizures? If you are having them fairly close together then you may be having a headache after each seizure. It may not be giving the headache to stop from the first seizure before you have the next seizure to start one up again.

Also as Cint said it could be a side effect from one of the meds that you are taking that could be causing the headaches. Talk to the dr about this and see if he suggests changing it to another one.