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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.
 
Hi Bernie,

I don't have much advice, cause this is all new to me as well, but I can definitely relate. The cardiologist is convinced it was vasovagal, the neurologist is convinced they're complex-partials; one diagnosis having much further reaching implications in my life, like not being able to drive. It's been a real struggle getting to work and school so I totally hear you on that. Hope you can get to the bottom of this soon.
 
Yeah...what's funny is I posted here and my doctor called me 30mins later. =) Correlation is not causation, but it's damn funny. =)
So the word is: Clear EEG. Which is great...no underlying problems, but bad from a, "what do we do now" point. So now it's choice time. Medication or not. If I want to drive within the next year I have to be on meds. If I choose no meds, she says I need 2 clear years before I can drive again. Oye. I think it might be time for some Scotch.
Hang in there buddy.
 
Yeah...what's funny is I posted here and my doctor called me 30mins later. =) Correlation is not causation, but it's damn funny. =)
So the word is: Clear EEG. Which is great...no underlying problems, but bad from a, "what do we do now" point. So now it's choice time. Medication or not. If I want to drive within the next year I have to be on meds. If I choose no meds, she says I need 2 clear years before I can drive again. Oye. I think it might be time for some Scotch.
Hang in there buddy.

Thanks. I'm reluctant to start medication without a definitive answer too. I go for an EEG this Friday, and at this point, which is a little sad, I sorta hope something does pop up on it so I can just know what it is and take steps to deal with it. It's the not knowing that's the worst.
 
Yeah I am in the same boat with the EEG. I want to catch that unicorn so my ego can at least feel a sense of control over Epilepsy. I was so frustrated it didn't catch anything...however thinking about that I'm also really happy it didn't find anything. I feel like Ralph from the Simpsons when he was happy and angry at the same time.
Anyway, good luck with the EEG this week. One of my suspected triggers is soy/whey protein drinks. It was around the same time as some episodes, but I have tried downing a whole bunch and nothin. Perhaps if I wrap myself in tin foil, point north, hum the theme to Rocky, sacrifice a chicken, and hop on one leg it might trigger an event.
When you get the results try not to get angry if it doesn't find anything.
 
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