Random question about complex partials...

[RunningGirl85]

Okay I just want to know... how do you know you have them if you're not fully aware? I ask because I have been told I have them by my neurologist based on what I've told him. Also before I was actually diagnosed with epilepsy my friend in medical school asked me about my seizures (she knew I had weird "feelings " before I had any diagnosis ) and she said the same thing. Granted she was/is still a student. Is it because I said my speech gets all weird sometimes when I'm having partials? Like, I can't find words/finish sentences /focus (worse than normal I mean). Just curious because based on my knowledge I only get simple partials with secondary generalization... but I'm no neurologist!

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[AngelwithDentedHalo]

Based on something that happened to me before the Grand Mal a few years ago, I was just in a store and suddenly things went out of focus, sounds became muffled & my vision seemed dim. Right before, I felt a little weird, like scared almost & when it happened, I wasn't sure where I was and what was happening. And no one seemed aware of it, from what I recall after it started going away. And I almost felt like I was watching the people around me as an observer rather than a participant

 

[RiffRaffMama]

I know I have them because I come to in a completely different place to where I last recall being. I wander around during my complex partials so I'll wake up from my TC (I have secondary generalization too) in a different room.

 

[Eli]

I usu have simple partials first and manage to call, text, im, grab someones attention first. Other times I just "come to" on the toilet, in a different room or the dog is breathing on or licking my face. He only ever gets near my face when im having seizure activity.

Also my complex partials cause a different pain/pressure in my head.

 

[pretty_liquor]

My usual way of being able to tell is the passage of time - if I realise I've 'missed a bit' then I usually can clock on what's happened, usually in combination with how I feel afterwards. Only really works if I'm with other people/watching TV/something that has a routine where I'd notice things had changed.

 

[RunningGirl85]

Hm.... I don't think I've had any experiences where I've lost passages of time beyond what happened before my last TC seizure. I only remember things intermittently scattered in the few hours that happened between my auras and waking up in an ambulance. But I know they can cause amnesia/loss of memory. I have experienced feeling like I'm only an observer, and not actively participating, and that's when speech got difficult. That's also when I tend to get light headed/dizzy and I don't feel "all there." Maybe those were my simple partials "generalizing" a bit, because the worst experiences I've had with that were prior to my tonic-clonics.

 

[Wobblez]

I can't think of what to say but I'm participating/observing this conversation =)

 

[pretty_liquor]

I have complex partials and TCs.

With CPs I usually have a mild odd feeling very shortly before hand, but it's usually not enough to make me realise it's about to happen. I then don't remember the time whilst I'm having the seizure - I don't have any awareness, though I am conscious.

With TCs I sometimes have an aura, sometimes not. The auras are similar to what you described - light headed, not all there, I usually have an anxious/sick feeling in my stomach too. I frequently have memory loss around my TCs. Typically the only TCs I don't realise I've had are really short/mild ones that happen whilst I'm asleep.

Prime indicators (generally) for me are being in places I have no memory of going, being on the floor for no reason, pain (if a TC, and occasionally from a CP...). Sometimes if I was in the middle of doing something when it happened that clues me in too.

 

[valeriedl]

Most of the time I don't know when the seizure is coming on or when I have it, unless there is someone there to see it happen.

Sometimes before a seizure I won't feel right, I really don't know how to describe it. I usually don't put two and two together until I get the after seizure migraine. Then I realize that I've had the seizure.

Alot of times when I'm feeling weird my cat will jump up on me, stay on me during the seizure and won't let me move, no matter how hard I try to push him off of me, until he thinks it's ok for his Mommy to get up. I don't know how he knows about the seizure but he just does?

 

[momof3boys]

When i was having complex partial seizures, I would get this funny odd feeling before the seizure. I recall being a child and telling my mom that it felt like i was being passed down by people, or I would see certain numbers. Then came the seizure, which I dont recall anything that happened during it. Once I came to, I was really tired and my head hurt really bad.

 

[julie wishes]

How do they diagnose simples and complexes? EEG or patient reports or symptoms?

I experience a lot of the things described above.... but thought they were only simples??? Now I'm not sure. I'm still searching for a doctor so I'm sort if on my own trying to figure this all out. Thank goodness for CWE

 

[Endless]

Complex partials are diagnosed through both eeg's and witness reports, simple partials through eeg's patient reports. Both frontal lobe and temporal lobe partial seizures may never show up on an eeg. They happen too deep in the brain to detect. So doctors rely on the patient history. Some don't, which is a mistake IMHO (and in most doctors' opinions).

I have complex partial seizures. I may or may not have a weird feeling right before them. About 60-70% of the time my dog will jump all over me beforehand. I may have someone tell me one happened. That is, if they know what they are looking at. They may just tell me I quit talking mid sentence and didn't answer, eyes glazed over, etc. I ususually have gaps in time where I know I've come in on the middle of a conversation, part of the TV show has gone by, I'm in a different room, or on the floor (tripped). It's hard to explain to people the difference between being distracted and the feeling of time gaps, but they do feel different. Sometimes I've hurt myself - fallen down, cut myself with the knife I was using, etc. I'm usually very confused afterwards, and tired.

I'm sure I've had some that I don't know about, and some I just suspect. I get very confused sometimes without it being a seizure. My first epi said not to count an event unless there is objective evidence - something broken, I'm clearly in a different room, or there's a witness. So I don't count them. I think most doctors have a different standard.

 

[RunningGirl85]

Julie - I'm the same as you as I always thought I only had simple partials (with generalization), and the only time I think I've experienced complex partials was right before my TC seizures. However, my neuro said I get complex partials based on what I've told him, though other than just prior to my TC seizures, I don't think I've experienced lapses in time like others have experienced.

 

[RunningGirl85]

And I just realized I repeated myself