CBernieBlack
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Hi all! New to the forum here and I'm searching for some answers.
It all started when I was 4 or 5. I didn't know what was happening, but my mother said I was having seizures for a period of 6 months. Grand Mal full on convulsion types. Doctors said they were stress induced psycho motor seizures. I was then on Dilantin for a year with no activity after that. That was probably circa 1985/84. The trigger was thought to be seeing my biological father during that time since the seizures ended when I stopped seeing him. EEG was clear every time. Very odd.
Fast forward to 2008. I had just recently gotten out of the U.S. Military spending 10 years doing some fun stuff. I'm at work and the room starts to fall in on itself and audio starts going underwater. I see what I think is a dream recall because it feels familiar and I could swear I had see these images before. My temp goes up, I start to lose breathing, and what feels like minutes or hours, I snap out and notice only a dozen or so seconds have gone by. This happened three more times around a month and the doc had no info. He thought it was syncope. Then they stopped.
Fast Forward to 2010 and a divorce later, I was on anti-depressants and with a new doctor. I started having those same episodes again and when I relayed the story to the doc, she asked if I had ever experience a seizure. I then explain the same story from when I was a kid and started laughing. She said, "Well you have epilepsy and anti-depressants will lower your threshold. So I went of anti-depressants and all went back to normal.
Fast Forward again to 2012 when I'm behind the wheel of a car, when out of the blue it happens again, but this time there was loss of consciousness and bladder control. So it was a biggie. Nobody was hurt and it was off highway at slower than 20mph. So thankfully nothing serious came of it, but now everyone has freaked out and pressed the, "You need medication!" button.
The second event in 2012 was two days after a wisdom tooth extraction. The doctors and I feel that was a chemically educed seizure due to the anesthesia.
Since then I have been seizure free and arguing about medication. I'm also currently without driving privileges which is putting a lot of pressure on me at work. I think I might get fired soon because of it.
I just did a two day EEG ambulatory study with clear results. MRI is clear as well. I'm getting very frustrated and feel very alone.
So the million dollar question is: Do I have epilepsy? The doctor says yes and I trust someone who has been to school for this, but the lack of evidence and engagement to do further testing or other possibilities is discouraging and says that I don't. Diagnosis has been: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with no focus. She wants me on drugs to drive, but they make me feel unsafe to drive. My license has been suspended and the longer time goes on with no activity, the more unfair it feels.
Current medication is: Vimpat - not taking it though...just have it in case. I'm totally open to accepting this, but it's just hard.
Past medication: Lamictal - felt like punching puppies...I love puppies so this is not an optimal med. Keppra - like being on constant tilt-a-whirl ride.
It all started when I was 4 or 5. I didn't know what was happening, but my mother said I was having seizures for a period of 6 months. Grand Mal full on convulsion types. Doctors said they were stress induced psycho motor seizures. I was then on Dilantin for a year with no activity after that. That was probably circa 1985/84. The trigger was thought to be seeing my biological father during that time since the seizures ended when I stopped seeing him. EEG was clear every time. Very odd.
Fast forward to 2008. I had just recently gotten out of the U.S. Military spending 10 years doing some fun stuff. I'm at work and the room starts to fall in on itself and audio starts going underwater. I see what I think is a dream recall because it feels familiar and I could swear I had see these images before. My temp goes up, I start to lose breathing, and what feels like minutes or hours, I snap out and notice only a dozen or so seconds have gone by. This happened three more times around a month and the doc had no info. He thought it was syncope. Then they stopped.
Fast Forward to 2010 and a divorce later, I was on anti-depressants and with a new doctor. I started having those same episodes again and when I relayed the story to the doc, she asked if I had ever experience a seizure. I then explain the same story from when I was a kid and started laughing. She said, "Well you have epilepsy and anti-depressants will lower your threshold. So I went of anti-depressants and all went back to normal.
Fast Forward again to 2012 when I'm behind the wheel of a car, when out of the blue it happens again, but this time there was loss of consciousness and bladder control. So it was a biggie. Nobody was hurt and it was off highway at slower than 20mph. So thankfully nothing serious came of it, but now everyone has freaked out and pressed the, "You need medication!" button.
The second event in 2012 was two days after a wisdom tooth extraction. The doctors and I feel that was a chemically educed seizure due to the anesthesia.
Since then I have been seizure free and arguing about medication. I'm also currently without driving privileges which is putting a lot of pressure on me at work. I think I might get fired soon because of it.
I just did a two day EEG ambulatory study with clear results. MRI is clear as well. I'm getting very frustrated and feel very alone.
So the million dollar question is: Do I have epilepsy? The doctor says yes and I trust someone who has been to school for this, but the lack of evidence and engagement to do further testing or other possibilities is discouraging and says that I don't. Diagnosis has been: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with no focus. She wants me on drugs to drive, but they make me feel unsafe to drive. My license has been suspended and the longer time goes on with no activity, the more unfair it feels.
Current medication is: Vimpat - not taking it though...just have it in case. I'm totally open to accepting this, but it's just hard.
Past medication: Lamictal - felt like punching puppies...I love puppies so this is not an optimal med. Keppra - like being on constant tilt-a-whirl ride.