I am worried about accepting this new job

[Paranoid]

Hi everyone,

Background:
I had my first JME->GTC when I was 14.
Since then, have had about 25 TCs . I am 42 now.
All are triggered by lack of quality sleep at night.
I have stubbornly refused modern medication (was last prescribed with Epilim Chrono in my 20s ) , and have prevented seizures by strictly managing my sleep instead.

Situation
I have recently received offer for a great job, but it requires frequent travelling to neighbor countries. (1-2 hours time difference).
It may require me to rise early to catch a flight, which I am not used to.
I am intending to resume medication, after decades of avoiding them.

Question
However, before I consult a doctor, I would like to know if it is possible to totally suppress your seizures with drugs ?
Are there anyone else having similar symptoms as me, and have been successful in preventing seizures caused by

• lack of sleep ?
• waking up few hours earlier than usual ?
• other travelling related stress ?

Thankyou and Regards,

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Paranoid, welcome to CWE!

I would like to know if it is possible to totally suppress your seizures with drugs?

About 50% of people with epilepsy are able to fully control their seizures with meds; I'm one of them. But there are a lot of individual factors that can make it difficult to predict whether any given individual will be able to do so. One factor is how well your seizures responded to the first anti-seizure medication you were prescribed. If the medication controlled them completely, that ups the odds for success a second time around.

For each of us, the risk-reward equation for our treatment choices is different. With epilepsy there don't seem to be any absolute guarantees, but I hope you are able to make a decision about the job with confidence.

best,
Nakamova

 

[Jumpwhat]

Like you, mine seem to be triggered by sleep deprivation. It took awhile to get to the correct dose of meds but I can now work a crappy shift and be okay E wise. While none of us can tell you to take or pass up a great job, there are things that you can think about to help manage your sleep! There are some natural sleep aids that you can use to help to get a good night or two of sleep before traveling. You might want to ask your neurologist about "take if needed" medications like klonopin as well. While I was figuring out my correct dose of meds I would take a small dose of klonopin on days I did not get enough sleep. My neurologist said it helps to raise your seizure threshold on the days it was lowered due to lack of sleep. It helped for those 1-2 days a month I was SOL.

Basically what I'm trying to say is you may have some options to discuss with your neurologist before you say yes/no to the job. It definitely sounds like a cool opportunity!

 

[masterjen]

When it comes to avoiding travel-related stress, the best thing to do is to plan ahead.
-ask your company to give you as much advance notice as possible as to when your next travel day will be, so you can start easing into a different sleep schedule (ex. to bed earlier than usual if you will have to get up early for those out of country flights/meetings)
-if available in your area: look into getting one of those enhanced security passports which often will mean you can skip the main security checks and go into a fast-pass security lane
-print out your boarding pass on your home computer, so you don't have to wait in the check-in line ups.
-if the company is in the habit of sending you with little notice of an upcoming trip get in the habit of keeping a suitcase always prepacked with toiletries, underwear and casual clothing. This might entail the expensive but stress-reducing process of purchasing a second set of make-up if you're a woman or second electric razor if you're a man (nothing worse than getting to your destination having forgotten some of these basics)
-keep a one week supply of medications in your carry-on bag (or whatever amount will safely cover a work-trip)

Good luck with the job, and I hope you enjoy it!

 

[Paranoid]

i met a neurologist but he seemed not sure what med to try on me.. instead he asked me to resume my epilim and see how it works...

i am going to conduct my own experiment tomorrow , will take an epilim 500 tonight and wake up at 5 am tomorrow and try to feel the brainwaves .. normally i can feel if my brain is going crazy.

Anyway, i am most likely gonna decline the new job offer and stick with current safe job. Thankyou everyone.

 

[valeriedl]

Lack of sleep and waking up a few hours earlier (which usually causes lack of sleep) are seizure triggers for me. I don't travel much and if I do it's to the same time zone so I really can't give you an answer on that one. I can also just have seizures out of the blue with no trigger. I've never been able to control my seizures with any meds I've been on.

The only thing I would try to do is keep taking your meds at the same actual time that you take them each day in your own time zone. For instance if you take your meds at 5pm in your time zone and travel to a time zone that there is hours difference then I'd take them at 4pm which is what would be 5pm in your time zone. Switching times that you take your meds can cause seizures.

 

[masterjen]

Paranoid: I feel badly for you that you feel it may be necessary to turn down what might be a very enjoyable job. Is there any way you can take the job on a probationary basis, in which you try it out for a certain period of time (whatever is reasonable to give you a sense of how you would do with the traveling)? Would your present job still be available if you were not able to handle things during this probationary period? I know you don't want the seizures to start up again, but we can't always go through life with the "safe job". We would miss out on so many interesting and valuable opportunities. Just food for thought, my friend.

 

[Paranoid]

Like you, mine seem to be triggered by sleep deprivation. It took awhile to get to the correct dose of meds but I can now work a crappy shift and be okay E wise. While none of us can tell you to take or pass up a great job, there are things that you can think about to help manage your sleep! There are some natural sleep aids that you can use to help to get a good night or two of sleep before traveling. You might want to ask your neurologist about "take if needed" medications like klonopin as well. While I was figuring out my correct dose of meds I would take a small dose of klonopin on days I did not get enough sleep. My neurologist said it helps to raise your seizure threshold on the days it was lowered due to lack of sleep. It helped for those 1-2 days a month I was SOL.

Basically what I'm trying to say is you may have some options to discuss with your neurologist before you say yes/no to the job. It definitely sounds like a cool opportunity!

Previously, I believed, going to bed early will compensate for waking up early the next day and prevent seizures. I was wrong. Likewise, even if I sleep late say 2am, and rise at 7am, I don't have seizures. Over 27 years suffering, it appears that my seizures are triggered harder by 'rising time' , instead of sleeping hours, though I cant make a logic sense of it. Therefore my current predicament, I fear being awake from 3am - 7 am.

How was your experience with Clonopin?

We're you seizure-free on the days you took it, especially on days where you expect seizures while going through the triggerred zone?

Does it make you feel drowsy, or noticeable impact on thinking/speech ability/speed?

Sorry...what is SOL?

Thank you friend for sharing your experience..

 

[Jumpwhat]

Ahh yea that makes sense. Thankfully I seem to be okay with changed when I wake up as long as I've had enough sleep. I am also adjusted to a sleep schedule that changes a few hours in either direction based on my work schedule. If I haven't had a full 7-8 hours I feel a little more "aura-y" if that makes any sense, but nothing really happens per say. However I have simple and complex partials that are primarily while sleeping, so my experience may be different. I typically only have them during the day if I have dozed off and very rarely have them out of the blue.

As for the klonopin, I only take a very very low dose so it does not bother me. I don't feel sedated of drowsy, but I lose some of that "aura-y" feeling. I take it maybe once every other month or so. My seizures are also triggered with illness and a fever so I will typically take a dose before going to bed if I'm fighting something.

Sorry, SOL means s*** outta luck. I'm terrible with abbreviations and that's one of the only ones I know!

I am very sorry you are in this predicament there are plenty of us who definitely understand. Fingers crossed going back on meds will be uneventful, you will have few side effects, and gain control! Even better would be if the job opportunity (or an even better one!) circled back around in a few years!

Edited to add: missed this question! As for being seizure free/not seizure free on the klonopin, it's hard to say. My seizures come in clusters of several during one day or just one. The klonopin seems to tip me towards the just one end of things. It also helps me break a cycle. After having a bad day, I seem to continue having a seizure or two a night for several days or even weeks until the cycle is broken. If I take the klonopin before bed, I can almost always break the cycle alongside a good night of sleep.