How long have you had Epilepsy?

How long have you had Epilepsy?


  • Total voters
    438

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How Long have you had epilepsy?

I was about to do the poll but didn't really know what to say.

I had a head injury in 1979 and had a few seizures, was on Dilantin for a year or so, then nothing.

I had a seizure in January 2005, they couldn't find a reason - you're not likely to have one again...had one in August 2005. Went on medication, think it's over, go 2 years, nothing....September 2007 have a seizure

I don't really know when the start date is. Is it epilepsy or something else?
 
Hi maureen, this poll isn't scientific, so you can answer it any way you feel most appropriate. :)
 
Thanks Bernard,

I don't feel particularly 'dumb' asking questions here. You've all probably heard them before or have had them yourselves.

Thanks to all for listening.

Maureen
 
I have had E since I was 15 I am now 29,
I started with t/c only while asleep with out any indication whilst i was awake...

At first they assumed i was having seizures due to an accident i had some months before, which has now been ruled out.

I the started having partial and complex partials during the day when I was about 19, and auras at that time started to increase,

about 3 years ago I started having tonic clonics whilst awake but they usually ten to be in the evening or not long before I go to bed, medication and fatigue has been ruled out for causing them at these times.
 
I was born with it. Through time it has grown and developed into a larger case, that has know been under control for a couple years.
 
Well I said 21-30 years because I had my first seizure when I was 14months old. I have had it most of my life but I don't know if i'd say I was born with it. I guess I probably always was susceptible to seizures since birth and who knows if I had smaller seizures that were never identified beforehand.
 
:dontknow:Merry Christmas everyone-I've been sick and off line for awhile but I wanted to chime in. I had my first blackout in '97. I have a doc who is brilliant and an _ss. I did the whole hospital gig and every mri/cat scan till i glowed. He told me I was an enigma and that my mri looked more like classic ms. Then he said he still wasn't convinced that the espisodes (including incontinence durring the blackouts) were seizures, maybe I am stressed. We played the med game and things were worse. Plus I HATE the side effects!!! So I go along for a while and then it hits me like a truck. The last big episode lasted close to 20 minutes and then several more after that. The eeg show abnormal activity in both the rt and lft temporal lobes...he's just not sure. Now I ask the group, am I losing my mind?
 
Well, I'd like to give a specific timeframe and age, but frankly, a generally subjective value seems appropriate:
way, way, way too long!!!!!
 
I wasn't sure how to answer the poll, so I went with my most recent period of epilepsy. I had epilepsy as a child 70-100 petit mal sezures a day, then about 12yrs old they just seemed to stop. Between 12 and 30 I had about 5-6 seizures, but nothing that seemed to concern any one. Then when I was 30 I had a big grand mal that lasted over 5 min., when I came out of it I didn't know who anyone was, including my son who was only 6yrs old. I was so terrified that I punched the cop twice, and theambulance guy once before they got me sedated. Nothing has been the same since, It's been a LONG 5 years!!
 
my epilepsy started when i was in 3rd grade...im 25 now..but nobody knew it was epilepsy yet for a long time..on random days i would go to school feeling sleepy and everyone thought i was on something..it was so bad that it affected my work...it made me really slow....i would talk funny like i was drunk or something lol...and nobody really knew what caused it...and unfortunately i dont think any of my family did anything about it at first...so up until 7th grade id repeat the same problems when i went to school..it was embarrasing..i remember in 5th grade on picture day i had this problem...so in my school picture i loook really sleepy! finally in 7th grade i lived with my grandma and she took me to the doctors in houston..after finally doing catscans and eegs ...they said it was epilepsy that i had...:(
the first medicine i took for my epilepsy was zarontin..one day i came home from school and ran out so my grandma gave me one of her dilantins.....that night i had my first real grand mal seizure...i was 14 years old...shortly after i was put on klonopin...that didnt last very long.sometimes when id be talking to someone i would space out for like 2 seconds without even realizing it..but the other person would notice of course....then after that i was put on depakote...and once again i had another seizure...i was 17 ...actually i had 3 seizures in one day!! how crazy is that!! so i stayed in the hospital for 3 days...they upped my dosage...and ive been ok ever since...except the fact that i dont take my medicine everyday like i should and sometimes i have withdrawals and get really sleepy and i still blank out when im talking to people...so i usually sleep it off...

sorry this was so long...:/
 
I got my epilepsy from the chicken pox when I was 10. I have tonic clonic, myoclonic from an infection in my brain. dejevu, petit mal, lights flashing you name it , I have them. The epi center says you can not beat my case. My son started having myos when he was 6mo. And now my brother is having myos at 40. Epilepsy is so different in everybody. Thats what I have learned. My son has had all the Genetic testing. Nothing showed up. But it is there somewhere.
 
Boy you are on top of it Robin! Yes! He did. There was a little girl living in our apt complex that just got over the chicken pox. She was outside playing when she was still able to spread. You have to be careful. That also goes with shingles. Adults need to get that vaccine. My Dr. said it's like the chicken pox viris. It goes to your brain and it does not go away. And it can worsen your seizures.Thank you Robin.
 
I've had epilepsy since age 10. I'm 26 right now, so I have had it for 16 years. It was a very tough experience for me to go through, especially as a child. Although my faith got me through it all.
 
26 years

First tonic-clonic at the age of 20. That was 26 long years ago. Seems weird writing that. I have had it longer now than I didn't have it. Oh well, if I am lucky I will have it for another 50 years, because right now there is only one absolute alternative.

The last 4+ years have been my longest stretch without a full T/C.

I sometimes wonder if I had issues when I was younger since no source was ever found for mine. Looking back over the years, there were weird things that happened that may have been pre-cursors to the T/Cs.

I did have a head injury at the age of 15. However, no lesions or scar tissue have ever appeared on the tests and that was 5 years before my first T/C.

My mother always wondered if it didn't go all the way back to when I was born. They delayed my birth, waiting on the doctor to arrive. The specialist they took me to before I was one thought I may have had a mild case of cerebral palsy. This might explain my poor coordination (especially on my left side) as a kid. I still have a lot of coordination issues.

I just thank God that I am still as functional as I am.
 
10 years and a bit now. I stopped a man from savagely beating a woman, an hour later he turned up and attacked me with a hammer, nearly split my skull in half. Doctor wa amazed that I didn't die.

Third of the brain gone just like that. It still took 'em two years to diagnose,:pfft:, thought I was going insane.
 
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