May I please have some advice and support?

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Hi everyone.

Happy Mother's Day.

I'm Phillip here in Georgia.

One day I was playing tennis when I was not feeling well. I suffered heat exhaustion and I passed out, striking the back of my head, and I suffered a seizure.

For years, I suffered from generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy secondary to head trauma, with my seizures only occurring at night while I was asleep.

I tried acupuncture and other things, but never really the medicine except for dilantin at first. The doctors were rude and hateful and I did not like the medicine.

Now I've had some petit mal absence seizures and some generalized while awake.

So now I don't have a job or health insurance.

How do I start getting treatment?

Will depakote probably be what I would be prescribed for my form of epilepsy, since depakote is a broad spectrum AED for petit and grand mals?

I'm so worried about money and the side effects. I saw the PBS story about the woman who was on 14 pills a day and now she only takes cannabutter.

I think about that a lot, but of course I'm in Georgia and medical marijuana is illegal.

I don't want to be mistreated again by doctors. Never again will I be bullied by rude doctors and nurses that fawn over the physician. I have never in my life been so ill treated.

You can enter the phrase:

'Clearing the Smoke': The Benefits, Limits of Medical Marijuana

into a search engine to watch the segment. It's just a PBS dot org site.

So right now, I'm trying to figure out how I can get treated. Either by scraping some funds together and moving to Colorado or Montana or Washington, and trying high CBD strains.

Or by trying to figure out how to get some health insurance or coverage and finding a decent doctor to treat me.

I wasn't scared before when I just had the nocturnal seizures, but I'm scared now that I've had some petit mals and seizures while awake.

Please y'all, I don't want to be fussed at and called names saying how stupid I was to go untreated. The side effects and most importantly the rude and awful medical professionals can make a difference, then when you don't have money and health insurance, you just start feeling so alone and don't know what to do.

I need help and guidance. Thanks. :hugs:
 
Welcome Phillip and that sucks you had to deal with BS from rude Dr.s. Anyone dealing with a chronic health problem is bound to deal with a jerk at some point. Or someone who should probably keep their medical license locked away forever haha.

You make a good point and honestly I see no harm in trying medical marijuana. I don't think it is that far fetched, considering some people have had dramatic changes for the better. I'm not a fan of pills, but have you been able to talk about making changes to your meds now?

If you are having the seizures occur during the day maybe you can take something, even temporarily to stop them. Hope something works very soon and don't get to discouraged. Many of us here have had the fair share of ups and downs with E.
 
Hi and welcome,

I too live in GA. and I have been on Dilantin for over 40 years.
I had many Dr. try all the other meds. I have weird side effects or my seizures get worse.

I hope you find what you needing.
 
Hi Phillip, welcome!

There must be some free clinics and other resources to help you out. One place to start is:
http://euler.gcsu.edu/home/scouillou/gccn/wordpress/

This thread may help too:
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/when-you-cant-afford-medication-1452/

I hope you can find a way to see a neurologist and get back on track. There area lot of different meds out there to try, maybe one of them will suit you better than the dilantin. In the meantime, it can help to identify and avoid any seizure triggers, and take care of your overall health. A good set of tips can be found here: http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f22/proactive-prescription-epilepsy-1254/
 
Welcome Phillip. I occasionally use marijuana as medicine, and I'm torn as to if it's really helped me or not when it comes to seizures. I will say it relaxes me and that's a good thing being as how many folks have stress as a trigger. I haven't had a tc in 3 yrs, knock wood. :).
 
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