weird taste buds and other post-ictal clues

[CarpeDiem13]

Hi everyone, just a quick question.
After every seizure I have, I lose my taste buds. Every single time!!! I've been meaning to ask this for ages too!! Sometimes, this is the only way that I can tell if I've had a seizure or not. As many of you know, when nobody is around to tell you that you've just had one, sometimes it's hard to know if you've just imagined it. (Lots of times I'll just have an aura that doesn't lead into a complex partial.) But this weird taste buds thing happens every time. Very dissapointing too as I looooove my food!!! I've told this to my neuro's but none have come up with any explanation as to why?
I like to think that this has something to do with where my seizure originates, at the same place where my taste buds are controlled!?!? Maybe I would be a good guinea pig onder:
Also, some people with temporal lobe epilepsy experience a weird taste as an aura but mine comes after. Strange. My taste buds usually come back after about 2 to 3 days.
So, my question is...... does anyone else experience this or something similar?
Do you think my idea of it having something to do with where my seizure focus is, is worth further investigation?
AND..... What post-ictal effects do others have????
Thanks

 

[epileric]

I don't lose my taste but it's definitely dulled and not as sharp.

However the same can be said about all my other senses as well.

 

[Nakamova]

Interesting question!

It might indicate that your seizures originate with with one or more of the facial nerves, including the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that plays a major role in many seizure disorders, and is one of the nerves involved in taste.

If you have a dry mouth post-seizure that might be a cause as well -- the mouth and taste buds need saliva in order to taste things.

Since smell plays a huge role in taste, your lost taste buds might actually be related to post-seizure swelling of nasal tissues (which can impair the olfactory nerve).

 

[Endless]

I have a seizure type where I smell something that isn't there.

Then there's something altogether different - I smell things wrong. Like auto exhause smells like chlorine. Or that clean smell in the air after a rain smells like dust. Or my dog smells like eggs. You get the idea. This can last for minutes to days. My doc says it could be migraine. Doubts it's seizure-related. But now that I read your post, I'm wondering.

 

[mel239]

I have a problem with food tasting rotten in between seizures and they diagnosed me with interictal psychosis which happens sometimes in temporal lobe epilepsy.Its basically just another hallucination along with the feeling of bugs on me.However, i also have a smell aura,where I smell sewer or excrement before a seizure or sometimes strong rotten canned tunafish.I also go through spells where things dont smell like they should,but I havent figured this out yet its not very common.In the summer,when theres excessive heat,I get alot of auras that dont progress to complex partials,but I smell cat pee EVERYWHERE.After 2 bad complex partials this weekend from missed meds and 95 degree weather,I turned stove and oven on for no reason and fell asleep for 16 hours-my boyfriend was here thank goodness-but now my sense of smell has been nearly gone.

 

[CarpeDiem13]

Interesting question!

It might indicate that your seizures originate with with one or more of the facial nerves, including the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that plays a major role in many seizure disorders, and is one of the nerves involved in taste.

Since smell plays a huge role in taste, your lost taste buds might actually be related to post-seizure swelling of nasal tissues (which can impair the olfactory nerve).

Thanks Naka, great info, the weird thing is that my sense of smell is fine after a seizure which is funny because smell and taste are so closely related onder:onder:onder:

 

[elizzza811]

I know yesterday evening I felt what I'd often feel right before a seizure (extreme and sudden pain and tension through my spine up into the base of my skull, coupled with sudden jaw-breaking teeth clenching), right at the moment of an X-class solar flare and a bunch of solar radio events...

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/warnings_timeline.html

...though I don't believe I actually seizured yesterday per say. But I'm one who experiences a funny metallic taste in my mouth just prior to a seizure. I didn't have that metallic taste thing with yesterday's event.

What I do have quite frequently is a 'salty' taste along my gumline. No seizures that I'm aware of accompany this salty taste thing, but this salty taste thing often accompanies episodes of moderate teeth-clenching, so now I'm wondering if I'm about to have another seizure here down the road?

 

[petero]

Hi everyone, just a quick question.
After every seizure I have, I lose my taste buds. Every single time!!! I've been meaning to ask this for ages too!! ...
So, my question is...... does anyone else experience this or something similar?
Do you think my idea of it having something to do with where my seizure focus is, is worth further investigation?
AND..... What post-ictal effects do others have????
Thanks

I have a metallic taste/sensation thing that happens to me, not sure if it's post-, aura, or what, if it's related to seizures - because I don't have an EEG iphone app :banana: YET! (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-xwave-iphone-mind.html)

but I have come to attribute things like this to likely seizure periods since trying to pay attention to things like that

 

[sandinmyears]

Everything I eat tastes like crap after I have a complex partial. (Left temporal lobe/hippocampus). Takes a day til things taste fine again.


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[Nakamova]

No fun that. Sounds like your simple partials may involve the olfactory parts of the brain.

 

[Themightyoak86]

Well for one, every seizure you have will increase your likelihood of occurring another. You can damage other brain areas thanks to the electric discharges. I have had this strong sour apple taste rocking all day; I had at a minimum 3 seizures yesterday. I have been seeking reasonable reasoning on why and this now makes sense. I dunno why afterwards this has occurred. It's like doing strong LSD in my opinion! Trippy as all can be, for sure. It's as if we're recreating this taste or smell outta nothing, our brains do create waaaay more electricity than the lesser, "normal", brain. I'm drinking soda (orange vanilla Coke) and it's tasting like sour green applesauce.

 

[Jeanbean]

Good question-I have no aura or warning at all prior to the seizure. After the seizures, postictal, I have a severe headache, and I ache all over and want to sleep. When I have a grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure it can take a week to recover. I lose my memory and have very little energy and feel depressed and just out of it. I haven't had a seizure like that for 2 years so grateful for that. Jeanne

 

[kategraym]

I have this too. I smell things that don't exist or things taste just really really weird.

 

[suebear]

I go through absence seizures which there is a particular scent taking place and the interesting thing that scent is not always the same. The information I was given from the neurologist whom I am working with now has said to me that it is all based upon where in the brain the seizure begins will have something to do with the aura and/or the scent that is being smelled. I never looked into it too much but that is the information I was given

-sue bear