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Seizure recovery time
Sun, 08/24/2008 - 06:12How long do you take to recover from a seizure?
I have suffered from epilepsy (grand mal) for 40 years - about 1 seizure a year (lucky me!) But over the last 3 years my wonderful work colleagues have expressed increasing anxiety that I'm coming back to work too early following a seizure. When I was young and sprightly (Ha!), I'd have a 3-minute tonic-clonic seizure, regain full consciousness after half an hour, get taken home, sleep it off, and back to work after 1 day's absence. Again - lucky me.
My work is extremely complex, considerative and quasi-judicial. I work for my government trying to justify to tribunals and criminal courts why a particular decision is justified. The legislation involved is extremely complicated, but although I practice law in a specialised field I am not a qualified lawyer. Without blowing my own trumpet I'm very good at my job - or so I'm told. [I don't like saying so, but I think it may be relevant to the question.]
Two years ago my wife finally convinced me that at least one day off was a must. Nevertheless, my colleagues tell me that "when you have had a fit, for several days after, your sharp brain seems slow in response."
I'd be very grateful to hear the views of fellow sufferers (or those close to them). I know that epilepsy varies from individual to individual, but when do you go back to work? When do you feel fully recovered? Does the recovery period increase with age?
Thanks for reading this.
Iain (aged 53 and a bit - <GRIN>)
Re: Seizure recovery time
Submitted by Crystal11 on Tue, 2008-12-09 - 03:25
Hello- I have had seizures since i was 6- I am now 25. Whenever i had absence seizures (When i was younger) I would just zone out and come right back and get back to work or whatever. But now that they are complex partials they tend to last longer and take more out of me. Even thought they are not as rough as a grand-mal/TC seizure it takes a lot out of me. Most people say my voice changes some and i just don't "seem" myself for as long as an hour after it. Sometimes when i'd have a seizure in school/college i would ask to rest for 15min and try to get back to working or classwork etc. But i would end up just kinda being half "there" and it wouldn't really help me much to stay in classes. I would go back to the dorm and sleep for more than an hour and then continue my day but still would be off a little bit the whole day sometimes. Now that meds are helping it's easier to get back to myself. I do remember that whenever i would have a seizure at school or i had to leave school cause of it, everyone would ask me the next day and sometime the next two days if i was okay. I would tell them that I am okay and that its only going to effect me that actual day, not the day after- But i guess people hear "seizure" and think you will be all messed up for a few days. Hehe.
I think that it all depends on each of us. Each of us has different kinds of seizures and need or require differenct lengths of time to recover. I think if you notice that your need more time to recover fom a seizure, i'm sure those around you would understand.
Take care of yourself, be safe.
-Crystal
Hello- I have had seizures since i was 6- I am now 25. Whenever i had absence seizures (When i was younger) I would just zone out and come right back and get back to work or whatever. But now that they are complex partials they tend to last longer and take more out of me. Even thought they are not as rough as a grand-mal/TC seizure it takes a lot out of me. Most people say my voice changes some and i just don't "seem" myself for as long as an hour after it. Sometimes when i'd have a seizure in school/college i would ask to rest for 15min and try to get back to working or classwork etc. But i would end up just kinda being half "there" and it wouldn't really help me much to stay in classes. I would go back to the dorm and sleep for more than an hour and then continue my day but still would be off a little bit the whole day sometimes. Now that meds are helping it's easier to get back to myself. I do remember that whenever i would have a seizure at school or i had to leave school cause of it, everyone would ask me the next day and sometime the next two days if i was okay. I would tell them that I am okay and that its only going to effect me that actual day, not the day after- But i guess people hear "seizure" and think you will be all messed up for a few days. Hehe.
I think that it all depends on each of us. Each of us has different kinds of seizures and need or require differenct lengths of time to recover. I think if you notice that your need more time to recover fom a seizure, i'm sure those around you would understand.
Take care of yourself, be safe.
-Crystal