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doclotus

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Nickname is Doclotus, but no I'm not a doctor (I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express recently, though).

I was formally diagnosed with epilepsy in Jan 2008 after I had my 2nd seizure in 2 years. I was fortunate to have a top notch neurologist who ran me thru all the diagnostics. The good news, they don't know what's causing my seizures, obviously that's the bad news as well. While my neuro can't officially say its the reason, I did suffer some head trauma 20+ years ago in a truck accident and he thinks that is the source for the seizures. Nothing shows up at all on any of the tests, though. I believe him, I just know we can't prove it.

So I've been on Keppra for a little over a year and seem to be tolerating it pretty well. My fuse seems a little shorter than it used to be, but otherwise things are fairly normal. I've been cleared to drive and I'm very thankful for that.

I live just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina and have a fairly active lifestyle that includes 3 dogs, 2 horses, and a lot of hiking and camping. I've been happily married for almost 3 years and have the distinction of having proposed to my wife following my first seizure. No, the seizure didn't scare me into proposing :), but it did tell me not to take moments for granted so I abandoned my plan to propose two months later.

Occupationally, I'm an IT professional of over 16 years, but currently unemployed.

I happened to this site doing some research on another topic that I'll post elsewhere so as not to derail this one, but decided to step out of the shadows and say hello to what seems to be a very warm and welcoming community.

Thanks.

edited to add: just realized I didn't mention the type of seizures. One was witnessed, the other was not. The first was initially grand mal, but the neurology whittled that down to partial-complex with secondary generalization. No auras at all or any warning and I do lose consciousness.
 
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Welcome, this is a great place. I started having seizures (simple and partial complex) in Jan 2008 and have been on Keppra for several months. My neuro told me that 70-80% of seizures can not be traced back to the cause. So best we can do is figure out the triggers and work forward!
 
Hi Doclotus :hello: Welcome to CWE! Knowing the exact cause may be tricky, but as JGB suggested, learning the triggers can be one of the first steps towards moving forward.

We were fortunate to learn my son's triggers early on and through nutrition and alternative therapy we can control them without the meds. He's happy that we avoided Keppra (which was what was suggested to us first). It's really great to have you here.

Make yourself at home. Feel free to look around. There's so much information lurking in these forums just waiting to be discovered :)
 
The only thing we've been able to isolate as far as triggers between the two episodes was sleep, lack of, and more specifically disrupted sleep patterns. So that has been an area of focus for me. And, of course, I know sleep (or lack of) is a common trigger.

Interestingly, the sleep deprived eeg didn't show abnormal activity, but I was also on the Keppra full load already.

Thanks for the warm welcome :)
 
Hi Doclotus - welcome to CWE
I am glad that you did step out of the shadows. I hope you find more interesting ideas here to give you something new to chew on. Occasionally neurologists have been wrong and we learn of new directions to follow.

Glad you joined us here
 
Hi doclotus! Welcome to CWE. :) As you have seen, we're a very warm and welcoming group. :) Feel free to ask questions, chime in , and vent in the padded room as needed. :) You mentioned you're a bit shorter fused now that your on Keppra...have you tried taking a vitamin B-6 supplement? It's been known to mellow some keppra users. :) Anyway, welcome to the group.
 
Hi Doclotus, welcome to the forum. :hello:

Since your seizure activity is very infrequent, I'd think the chances are very good that you could raise the seizure threshold permanently with drugs or CAM methods.

If the "Kepprage" gets to be too much, try supplementing with vitamin B6.
 
As the

others have mentioned, B6 is a good way to deal with Kepprage. Also, you might ask the neuro about reducing the dosage, and/or adding another AED with the Keppra to try to control the Kepprage....
 
I guess I should be clearer about my "Kepprage". From what I've read, I know some people have a much harder time with this side effect. While my fuse is shorter, I had a very long fuse to begin with. Its not really disruptive to my life, it is just something I've noticed different since I've been on the keppra. I may give the B6 a try regardless, thanks for the tip!
 
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