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Kvalentine

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I've had complex partial seizures since 2008 on a quite sparadic schedule. Nothing i can put my finger on or any one thing i can think of that triggers them. I've only ever had these complex partial seizures up until January 7th of this year when i was staying the night at my girlfriends house, when i had two full on convulsive seizures without a warning or "aura". I was asleep when the first one happened probably around 3 am and my girlfriend said it lasted for thirty minutes. The second one occured when i woke up from my sleep and stepped out of bed stating i needed to use the bathroom when i hit the floor and had another one that lasted for 15 minutes.
Thats a brief synopsis of my seizure history. I'd love to get some feedback from this community on what y'all think or possible ideas as to what might have cause the convulsive seizures!
 
Hola Kvalentine! Welcome to CWE!

Were you taking any medication for your complex partials? If not, and they were otherwise untreated, it's possible that they progressed to the convulsive variety. Unfortunately, that can be one of the risks of not treating seizures or having them fully controlled.

Another question -- when you say the seizures were 15 and 30 minutes long -- do you mean you were convulsing for that long? If so, then that's very dangerous, and your girlfriend should have called 911. Most tonic-clonic seizures last less than 5 minutes (from the first loss of consciousness to the cessation of convulsions), though the recovery period (coming back to full awareness can take awhile). Anything longer than 5 minutes is considered a risk for status epilepticus, and needs emergency treatment.

As to triggers -- almost anything can be a seizure trigger, and what might have been fine in the past can become a seizure trigger over time. (That was the case for me and aspartame). Fatigue is the #1 trigger. Other ones include dehydration, low blood sugar, food sensitivities (stimulants, caffeine, gluten, aspartame, MSG, etc.), nutritional imbalances or deficiencies, hormonal fluctuations (thyroid, estrogen), stress (emotional/physical/physiological), illness/infection, and environmental triggerslight flashing or fluorescent lights.

Have you seen a neurologist about your recent seizures?

Best,
Nakamova
 
Welcome to our party! I will start blowing up balloons and curling streamers...
 
@Nakamova Thank you for the welcome and all of the info. I kinda feel like I just left my neurologist office!

I was taking dilantin 500mg once daily six months prior to having the two seizures on january 7th. I had been on the dilantin for three months and was hating the way it was making me feel so over the course of a month i completley stopped taking it. I now know from my current neurologist that was a big no no and we should have consulted him prior to making that decision on my own. I kind of took on the mentality that i did't need a substance in my life for me to function and was successful for the six months without seizures up until January 7th when I had the two big ones.

To answerer your second question. Yes, I convulsing for 30 minutes the first time and 15 the second time… I know scary right? I wish my girlfriend would have called 911 instead of taking me to the emergency room because I probly wouldn't have had to wait for literally 7 hours in a lobby full of sick people before finally seeing a doctor.

Yes, I got in to see a new neurologist the day after the seizures on January 7th and he percribed me to the generic Keppra xr 1000mg. He ordered an MRI as well as an EEG (which i hated) and they both came back completely normal. I have a follow up visit On Monday, February 11th to see how the keppra has been treating me.
 
yes, stopping any anti-seizure med too quickly can cause seizures -- particularly if you already have a lowered seizure threshold. I completely understand you're motives though -- I've tried going off meds 3 times, without success. Dilantin was the fisrt med I was on. I was only at 100mg/day, and I didn't like the side effects, so I can't imagine how unpleasant it would have been at 500mg.

Hope the keppra xr works better for you.
 
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