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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 bleedingheart on Fri, 2010-03-12 - 00:16
Hi
I haven't had a seizure for many years. My last seizure was about 6 years ago. And that is when, under a doctor's supervised medication withdrawal, I had a whole bunch of seizures and was unconscious for a whole day. My medications were out of the therapeutic range at the time. I managed to recover well enough in about a week after that.
When I switched from depakene to tegretol about 20 years ago, I had seizures during the transition period. But I recovered within a few hours and sometimes didn't realise I had a seizure. It was my father who told me that I had one. But I was still feeling well enough to go to work.
I believe that some medications can have fewer side-effects and allow one to recover quicker because of that. Also, if a person has endured a several years of frequent seizures, then gone several years without seizures they can recover very quickly given their body has been healing for a long time without seizures. It seems, the less frequent the seizures and the more time in between the seizures, the quicker one may recover from any future seizures.
Hi
I haven't had a seizure for many years. My last seizure was about 6 years ago. And that is when, under a doctor's supervised medication withdrawal, I had a whole bunch of seizures and was unconscious for a whole day. My medications were out of the therapeutic range at the time. I managed to recover well enough in about a week after that.
When I switched from depakene to tegretol about 20 years ago, I had seizures during the transition period. But I recovered within a few hours and sometimes didn't realise I had a seizure. It was my father who told me that I had one. But I was still feeling well enough to go to work.
I believe that some medications can have fewer side-effects and allow one to recover quicker because of that. Also, if a person has endured a several years of frequent seizures, then gone several years without seizures they can recover very quickly given their body has been healing for a long time without seizures. It seems, the less frequent the seizures and the more time in between the seizures, the quicker one may recover from any future seizures.