When puberty hit seizures hit too. My parents were Christian Scientists and felt we needed to pray and be healed in that manner. As I got older my mother noted I was not recovering and having one sz after another. She decided then it was time to see a doctor. When I was approx. 18 years old, a doctor noted on a test that I needed surgery. My mother decided we would pray about it. The doctor gave me Dilantin. My seizures seemed better once on medication. Had several EEGS and then went off the medication.
As I got in High School I broke 2 windows, had no clue how I did it. I would have seizures at a private Christian Science School and they would call my parents and I would go home. I had seizures maybe once a month around my menstral cycle. I had a lot of headaches then too.
When I was going to college and driving. I went into Status. They sent me into a Hospital. I finally said to my parents I had enough.
The first doctor I saw while I was in college kept asking me is this psychological. When the Neurologist did and EEG and a CT at that time, he sent me to UCLA. I was set up for surgery right away. They noted the abnormally and did not do any depth electrodes. I was working at a Police Dept. while I was in College. When I was in College and they sent me to a hospital during Status my license was revoked. It has been 30 years and I still do not have a driver's license.
My Neurologist or Epileptologist at UCLA told me to go into the field of medicine. I did after my first surgery which was in 1976, it was a left ant. temporal lobectomy. I went back to school and went to University CA, Irvine. I found my recall was not as good as it used to be so my Neuro. said be a nurse or and EEG Tech.. I told my parents I was changing religions and I did, now the guilt of going to a doctor lessened tremendously and I had a lot of nice understanding friends. I started out in nursing school. I had two to 3 status epilepticus attacks and the Nursing Division of the School suggested I better be under better control. My neurologist said try the EEG field. I only had one status attack and I was certified. I worked for 15 years in different hospitals. (UCLA-research, Cedar- Sinai, Santa Monica Hospitals and Medical Centers) I got married. Before I got married my neurologist said you would be a good patient for a partial hippocampectomy and you would have less seizures. I said go for it. He said you would have trouble w/ names and numbers. He was right. I also worked with him at Santa Monica Hospital, prior to UCLA. He knew me because of my hugging and running seizures, along with my visual aura ones. When I got pregnant, I was working at UCLA, I had to have medical leave, I had a short status attack while pregnant in my 5th month , my son is fine. My boss has given me Long Term Disability at this time. My seizures got out of control. Then they were fine for 3 months and whammo 4 years latter I had a second and last child. When we moved to MD, the doctors here initially had no problem then I had a status attack. Once I was over they sent me to University of MD. They said I needed another surgery. I got a second opinion at Johns Hopkins. He told me take it easy on your brain you focus seems to be in you speech center. Lets try a VNS. I said ok. I tried it for 4 years. I acquired Sleep Apnea and Asthma seemed to be evident. They replaced the battery and did not turn it back on. They changed one of the medications around and whammo I have not been the hospital for a whole year. My seizures or clusters are back and my Epileptologist put the VNS on, he said you have been all the meds. I do not think there is anything else we can do at this point in time. Everything is experimental and I will not experiment on you. He is honest. He is also from California and knows the docs I used to work with. He has been pretty honest and I can e-mail him with any questions. This is the longest blog.