Sorting out symptoms

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Bubbles

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I am still trying to figure out what could be considered seizures. I would like to know if anyone has experienced these things, as well as information.

1. Tilting/leaning - I will be sitting down or standing, and will begin to slowly lean. Usually right or left, a few times forward or backward. I will be aware of this, distantly, but unconcerned and unable to snap myself out of it. It lasts only a few seconds (I think) at a time. But I have fallen out of chairs before. I am uncertain if it begins with me aware every time, or if I sometimes become aware in the middle of it.

2. Brain Fog - due to migraines, I am very familiar with this. But can seizures cause it, or make it worse?

3. Full body muscle spasms. Tightening in my muscles. Curling of fingers on own. Twisting of arms/legs. (pulling inward, bending)

4. Body jumps - be sitting doing whatever, and my whole body will jerk upwards at once. It usually happens several times.

5. Stiffness - sometimes parts of my body will become hard to move. Right now the left wrist and fingers are in pain and do not want to type. Usually it is my face. It will go stiff, and I will be expressionless. I might loose the ability to speak for a while, or speak without inflection as it begins to fade.

6. Zoning out - sometimes it is as if I go so deep in thought that I am no longer aware of the world around me. People will speak to me, and I won't realize they are wanting a reply, or that I am supposed to speak out loud. It is a struggle to come out of this, but I think I am usually aware that I am being spoken to.

7. Aura - are seeing floating lights a symptom of an oncoming seizure, or a seizure of their own? Or can it be either?

8. Sudden exhaustion - for years I have dealt with suddenly becoming unable to function to some degree. I start shuffling when I walk. I become weak. It will affect my ability to think clearly and hold conversation. I do not have low blood sugar, but it is similar to this in feeling. I have always been told to eat salt and drink water when I feel like this. But it usually happens in stores or places with florescent lights, or after being in a car at night. Sometimes eating helps, sometimes it does not. And we have often thought my blood pressure was somehow involved??? I bring this one up because of how tired the seizures make me. It is a very similar feeling.
 
You refer to your events and episodes as seizures....did a neurologist tell you that this is what they are? If not it might be more helpful to give your episodes different names based on the most predominant symptom, then list the symptoms correlated with that particular main/predominate symptom. Then below each heading list the symptoms that accompany the predominant symptom. It doesn't matter if some of the sub-symptoms are the same in some or all of your named categories; in fact it would be helpful for you and your future neurologist to identify patterns that will be important in a diagnosis.

The above suggestion may also make it easier to keep track of your episodes from day to day, so you can just write for instance "9am: episode#2, lasted 10 min, hadn't slept well". Might save having to write a lot of detail which gets very onerous after a while :)

Keep pressuring for a referral to a neurologist so you can get some answers.
 
I don't understand what you mean?

I will say what is going on with me is very confusing, and I realized I haven't actually described what my seizures are like. I am seeing a neurologist. He's not helpful, and for reasons of insurance I cannot at the moment switch. Acording to the hospital staff I was having seizures, and have been into the ER for them several times now.

The biggest issue is that most of what I listed here has been going on for a while. However, I did not have an identifiable seizure until june. So that is why I am trying to figure out if I was experiancing smaller seizures before this.

And I cannot think of what to call these 'episodes' as you say. That is my most basic issue. Because I am having a lot of health issues and have no idea what the underlying issue is. The reason I say seizures is becasue i have gone into convulsions many times now, and have been told by differnt doctors that is what they are- and mixed with my own research of similar experiances. But, as I learn more about seizures and about how they are more then just cunvulsions, I realized that it might be possible that some of what i've experianced is connected. This is what the symptoms I listed are. They are the ones that I feel are most likely to be conected to seizures, but which I cannot find solid information on.
 
Has your neurologist given you medication for these episodes and if so what are they? It may help more experienced folk on here understand what your neurologist is treating you for. Have you had MRI & CT scans and also an EEG? If so do you know what the results were?

Sorry you are going through this, it must be terribly confusing for you.
 
Sorry I have just seen your other thread which answers my questions. :)
 
No it's okay! Your questions help me think what I should add. I'm so new at this...I have no idea what I'm doing.
I'm on 50 mg of zonegram. My neurologist to told me he was using it to treat me for my migraines. It's apparently anti seizure medicine, but not one anyone ever has mentioned as far as I have seen, which is what I meant when I said I haven't been put on any of the usual drugs (like keppra.)

I was on topimax before... twice now. Once to treat for migraines months before I was hospitalized. Then after I was hospitalized....but I get severe numbness and tingling with that one.

Also, I tend to section things in my head. So since I was only asking about symptoms, I didn't think about the other things being useful information. In my head it was black and white. My thought process: I'm having seizures, and then these other things too are happening. Could these other things be seizures or related to them?

That's basicaly why I made this a seperate thread. Sorry if people are finding it confusing! ٩( ᐛ )و
 
I'm on 50 mg of zonegran. My neurologist to told me he was using it to treat me for my migraines. It's apparently anti seizure medicine, but not one anyone ever has mentioned as far as I have seen, which is what I meant when I said I haven't been put on any of the usual drugs (like keppra.)
I tried Zonegran for my seizures, but it was a bad fit -- it's also marketed as an appetite suppressant, and it did a number on my stomach. Because I wasn't eating properly I developed a sour stomach and symptoms related to low blood sugar. But other CWE folks have had better luck with it.

Treating migraines is an "off-label" use for Zonegran -- it's sometimes tried when Topomax doesn't work.
 
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