Seizure types changing through the years

[valeriedl]

Since I was first diagnosed with epilepsy 14 years ago almost all of my seizures have been simple partials with a few grand mals thrown in here and there. Now I'll do different things during my seizures and seem to stay consistent until I move on to the next style.

When I first began having seizures the simple partials were mostly ones that I would just sit and stare during, smacking my lips, drooling 'talking' (if you even want to describe it that way) and things like that.

Then after a few years during my seizures I would pick things up and play with them, tired to put a pillow in a pillowcase over my foot like a sock once.

Next I began walking, sometimes just wandering around and others sort of knowing what I was doing. Once once I got violent with my husband because I thought my dad was somewhere in the house. I kept trying to go down into the basement yelling at him and shoving him away when he was blocking the door.

Now it seems that during my seizures my body will seem to freeze up and I'll shake. My husband's description of it, I'm not sure if it's the best, is that I look like I want to just sit there and stare but then I can't hold the seizure in anymore to do that and I'll explode and start to shake. I'm not sure if the shaking is bad enough to be considered a grand mal or not.

It seems that the 'sit and stare' seizures stopped after I got my VNS and then I went on to the other types. I don't know if the changes to the settings in my VNS effect it because he'll higher them or lower them each visit but the seizure changes have stayed the same. I don't think there have been any major changes with my meds since about a year after I got my VNS so I don't think my meds have anything to do with it.

Has anyone else had this happen with them?

 

[cadsgj]

I sit and stare, slip away from this world as I know it, yet I see everything, just not knowing what anything is. I am pretty sure though I do not totally physically freeze, just mentally. One main change in my seizures over the years is that I used to curl up on my knees and hide my head in the peak of my seizure and stay that until reality slipped back into this world... in my seizures I feel like I slip slightly out of this world, yet continue to see all that is there... wired to myself

 

[Porkette]

Hi valeried,
When I first starting having seizures I would just have the absence seizures and stare then 2 yrs. later the complex partial seizures started where I would see colors in my eyes, smack my lips and wander around not realizing what was going on. Years later I had surgery to reduce my seizures and I still have absence and complex partial but now I have simple partial seizures often before the complex partial starts. My Dr. told me that the seizures changed do to the amount of seizures I had over the yrs. and it caused more damage on my brain, then after the surgery a lot of the damage was reduced which made my seizures a lot easier to handle and a lot less frequent. Here's wishing you only the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue

 

[Fedup]

valeriedl

Yes I have found that the seizures tend to change with time and age and yes the shaking is bad enough to be considered a grand mal, I think.