How can I find out what type of epilepsy I have?

[rhiz]

I'm really at a loss end.

I had an EEG years ago (I think 2008 maybe?) before I started having tonic clonics and was purely having the myloclonic jerks

Obviously that was a positive and I spiked, had my jerks and was diagnosed with JME from there

I had an MRI a few months later and that was completely normal.

Around a year later I started having tonic clonic seizures and I've had around 7+ now over the past year and a half, and even though last time I saw my consultant around a year ago he stated in his notes (my GP read them to me) that I was "still juvenile myoclonic" I find that very hard to accept seeing as the only time I ever get the jerks now are minutes before are full seizure?

Is it possible to have tonic clonics whilst still being a juv myoclonic or has my epilepsy type changed?

Just to mention, I was diagnosed at around 14, I'm 18 now. Started having full seizures at around 16.

 

[Nakamova]

It is possible to have tonic-clonics with a JME:

For reference (from wikipedia) these are JME signs/symptoms:

JME usually manifests itself between the ages of 12 and 18. Myoclonus tends to occur early in the morning, rarely results in patients falling, but rather dropping objects. Attacks of myoclonia are more common in the arms than the legs. Generalized tonic-clonic and absence seizures can also occur. Myoclonic seizures can also occur in the later part of the day, and are not limited to the arms and hands. They can also occur in the lower legs, causing sufferers to trip over their own feet. Clusters of myoclonics can lead to absence seizures, and clusters of absence seizures can lead to generalized tonic-clonic seizures.

Usually diagnosis is made based on patient history -- so if at the time of your initial diagnosis you were having myoclonic jerks in a way suggestive of JME according to the above description, then that was a reasonable guess. (If the only symptoms that present are myoclonus, then there are two standard diagnoses, JME and PME, with the latter being much more severe and disabling.)

It's also possible you had epilepsy that featured myoclonus but was not precisely JME, and has since progressed to include tonic-clonics. In some ways it doesn't matter -- for the most part, the different epilepsy diagnoses are merely descriptive and often overlapping -- they can describe characteristic symptoms (myoclonus), point of origin (TLE), and/or whether seizures stay focused or generalize across the entire brain (simple partial, complex partial, tonic-clonic). The particular diagnosis matters most in how it affects treatment, as some seizure disorders have a better track record with one or another.

JME usually responds well to relatively low doses of AEDs. Despite it's name, folks don't age out of it, although the seizures can get less severe in adulthood and in old age.

Are you currently on meds to control the seizures? If so, it sounds like dose/med may need to be adjusted to see if you can get better seizure control.

 

[Belinda1961]

Rhiz,
To find out what type of epilepsy you have why don't you ask your doctor?
If not sure.I have Temporal lobe epilepsy and I think I will ask my doctor just in case it has changed?

Belinda