Is this abdominal epilepsy

[Dazzer21]

I recently came across a condition called abdominal epilepsy. It seems to be a gastro-intestinal condition, one of the symptoms being abdominal pain and is described as a type of temporal lobe epilepsy (thank you Wikipedia). If anyone can shed a light as to whether what I'm about to describe is linked in any way to the above, I can bring it up with my specialist when I see him sometime soon...

I haven't had a proper grand-mal seizure now for the best part of 20 years. I am on mediation for it as I suffer lethargy and stunted mental performance when I'm not. I'm currently on 375Mg Lamotrogine/Lamictal a day. I have a rather large temporal lobe cyst on the left side (diagnosed about five years ago), so I'm currently experiencing memory/concentration/logical ability issues which are slowly getting worse - I'm 42.

The reason behind this post is thus and I'll try to keep it tasteful - I regularly have what I can loosely describe as auras (hopefully someone can tell me if I'm correct) but every time it happens, it's when I have an occupied bowel (need a poo - sorry!). But there is never any abdominal pain as described above.

There is no rhyme or reason as to when these happen; when they do, I am usually tired or relaxed, maybe reading a book or the television or even sitting at the table eating my dinner. If I'm mentally or physically active, they've never manifested. I might have two a week, I might have one every two weeks. I'm religiously taking the medication and am not over-doing things in any way. As I say, the common factor in all of this is the bowel thing. So here's what I experience (this may sound strange):

Due to the cyst, one of the concentration issues I have is that I cannot zone in on anything if I hear two people talking at once. For instance, if I'm on the phone and someone in the same room as me is talking, all I get is muffled sounds and white noise. Rarely this can be a trigger, but a more likely scenario is if I'm working in a room with the radio on in the background.

If I'm even subconsciously listening to the radio and I miss something due to a noise interruption, my mind goes into overdrive. It's as though inside my head, an argument starts in the mould of "You didn't hear that","hear what?","I don't know","what do you mean you don't know?","well did you hear it or not?"... and so on; it's like I'm deliberately trying to confuse myself using the 'voice' in my head, with a two way conversation with myself!

With this comes the tiniest of feelings of sickness and a mild hot flush. My eyesight then is affected, with everything seemingly turning 2D and flat - I have no real indication of distance and it scarily seems as though my perception of parallax (the way things move behind each other when you move) is affected. My hearing is affected as certain sounds become amplified and clear as others become dull and muffled. This is accompanied by slight dizziness and a tiny tingling sensation in my limbs and eyes.

The thing is, it's not an unpleasant feeling and I'd probably carry it on for as long as I could but I'm always conscious enough to know that it's a bad thing. They only last for a few seconds, maybe up to half a minute.

Does anyone else experience something like this or am I just completely mad and beyond help? :roflmao:

 

[Fedup]

Dazzer21

No you are not mad. The bowl problem I cannot help you with and think your only hope there is a doctor, but I could be very wrong. There are a few things you mentioned which sound familiar to me me like the eyesight. My sense of hearing seams to have become very acute as I can hear a pin drop, but when I am on the phone and the television going or somebody in the background is talking I can barely hear, if at all the person on the phone. I am on lamictal as well.

 

[cazzy]

both me and my daughter have temporal lobe and we both have bowel problems...a dr once told me it was not uncommon having the poo feeling poo problems with temporal lobe

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Dazzer21, welcome to CWE!

Abdominal Epilepsy usually involves stomach pain, so I think it's more likely that what you are experiencing is a variety of simple partial -- As cazzy and Fedup have noted, your symptoms fit in with their experiences.

The "urge to poo" is a sensation of the autonomic nervous system. Seizure activity can affect the autonomic nervous system in a wide variety of ways, producing unusual, distorted, or phantom sensations. See http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1186872-overview#aw2aab6b3 for a helpful list of some autonomic symptoms and signs.

Best,
Nakamova

 

[cazzy]

that makes sense...epilepsy can effected most body parts

 

[qtowngirl]

Welcome Dazzy, this may help you figure it out:

Simple Partial Seizures
Simple partial seizures are localized to one area on one side of the brain, but may spread from there. Consciousness is not lost during a simple partial seizure. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side – so it can be relatively easy for a doctor to identify which side of the brain is being affected by a simple partial seizure.

Physicians typically break simple partial seizures down into four areas, depending on the location in the brain and parts of the body affected:

Motor – A simple partial seizure with motor symptoms will affect muscle activity, causing jerking movements of the foot, face, arm, or another part of the body. Physicians can diagnose which side of the brain is affected by observing which side of the body experiences symptoms (left brain controls right side, right brain controls left side).

Sensory – A simple partial seizure with sensory symptoms affect the senses: hearing problems, possible hallucinations, and other distortions.

Autonomic – A simple partial seizure with autonomic symptoms affects the part of the brain responsible for involuntary functions: it may cause changes in blood pressure, heart rhythm, bowel function, etc.

Psychic – A simple partial seizure with psychic symptoms affects parts of the brain that trigger emotions or previous experiences: it may cause feelings of fear, anxiety, déjà vu (the feeling that something has been experienced before), etc.

It sounds like an autonomic symptom of a simple partial.
And don't worry you're not alone - especially not on here. I have had s.p's for many years and can say that tho I don't quite experience what you do, my tummy does have a few things to say after a good number of them.

for more info from a very reliable hospital site said to be #1 in the US in Epilepsy: www.hopkinsmedicine.org/epilepsy

 

[MaryK]

I have something somewhat similar. My neurologist still has not seen before. You know when you first lay down to go to sleep your muscles start relaxing and twitching? Well, when I am really exhausted or stressed out and I lay down and I am semi-asleep my lower abdominal muscles have a deep spasm up to my waist and this could repeat several times before falling asleep.. like a fast deep ripple. I have no control over this. Not like a leg cramp or twitch at all, just weird.

 

[julie wishes]

I have to agree with everyone else. Sounds like simples and I experience a number of the same symptoms. To me, it seems like from what I've read about abdominal epilepsy, you would be in a lot more abdominal pain than you have described.

 

[Dazzer21]

Thanks for your answers - so comforting to know that I'm in the company of like-minded and experienced people. Reading back, I don't think I was properly clear with regards to my time and motion studies (sorry!!) 8)

It *seems* to me that the 'need to go' is pretty much the CAUSE of the partials (which is how I'm going to refer to them). I've learned to check, whenever these come on, whether there's 'anything there' and generally there is. So that makes me think that there's quite a significant physical connection. From QTOWNGIRL's post, I'd almost say that there's some aspect of all four categories deeply buried within the symptoms I'm experiencing...