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symptoms

Sat, 08/20/2011 - 07:03
I had late (45) onset tonic-clonic seizures, now controlled for years by Tegretol. Now I get fairly regular (weekly) simple partial seizures, always around the same time (1815 hrs) and always followed by at least 5 hourly visits to the lavatory for a pee. Anybody else share these symptoms?

Comments

Re: symptoms

Submitted by Spike. on Mon, 2012-06-11 - 15:12

Have you ever tried to make any changes with whatever it is you are eating or drinking say within a 12 hour time frame prior when you experience those simple partial seizures (1815 hrs)? Caffeine is a common trigger for people to have seizures because it lowers the person's "seizure threshold". So if you are consuming any liquids or solids that contain caffeine (i.e., teas, sodas, coffees, etc.), maybe you can perform a clinical trial on yourself by avoiding anything that contains caffeine, for several weeks. If not taking any caffeine doesn't seem to be decreasing your frequency of reoccurring simple partial seizures, then perform some more clinical trials on yourself by trying to avoid other various things that you eat or drink. I'm sure you already know that over time, our bodies change. So if you have been eating or drinking something for many, many years, if that whatever "something" never showed any signs of you having simple partial seizures back then, and maybe that whatever "something" might be giving you signs of having simple partial seizures now, today.

Many, many years ago, when I first started learning about seizures and epilepsy, I came across the steps about keeping track of whatever I ate, drank, and when I had to go to the bathroom. Doing this helped me notice signs of a pattern where my seizure activity was nearly always taking place roughly 6 or so hours after I had eaten something. I believe it was somewhere between 2006 and 2009 when I tried to avoid products containing gluten, to see if it would decrease or completely eliminate my seizure activity. With the overall results never giving me a significant decrease in seizure frequency, I eventually stopped trying to avoid products containing gluten. All I know, and until a doctor can prove otherwise, is the activity that takes place in and/or around my intestinal track is definitely doing something to trigger my seizure activity.

Bruce (I'm not a doctor, but instead, an epilepsy support group leader, epilepsy advocate, who has epilepsy.)

Have you ever tried to make any changes with whatever it is you are eating or drinking say within a 12 hour time frame prior when you experience those simple partial seizures (1815 hrs)? Caffeine is a common trigger for people to have seizures because it lowers the person's "seizure threshold". So if you are consuming any liquids or solids that contain caffeine (i.e., teas, sodas, coffees, etc.), maybe you can perform a clinical trial on yourself by avoiding anything that contains caffeine, for several weeks. If not taking any caffeine doesn't seem to be decreasing your frequency of reoccurring simple partial seizures, then perform some more clinical trials on yourself by trying to avoid other various things that you eat or drink. I'm sure you already know that over time, our bodies change. So if you have been eating or drinking something for many, many years, if that whatever "something" never showed any signs of you having simple partial seizures back then, and maybe that whatever "something" might be giving you signs of having simple partial seizures now, today.

Many, many years ago, when I first started learning about seizures and epilepsy, I came across the steps about keeping track of whatever I ate, drank, and when I had to go to the bathroom. Doing this helped me notice signs of a pattern where my seizure activity was nearly always taking place roughly 6 or so hours after I had eaten something. I believe it was somewhere between 2006 and 2009 when I tried to avoid products containing gluten, to see if it would decrease or completely eliminate my seizure activity. With the overall results never giving me a significant decrease in seizure frequency, I eventually stopped trying to avoid products containing gluten. All I know, and until a doctor can prove otherwise, is the activity that takes place in and/or around my intestinal track is definitely doing something to trigger my seizure activity.

Bruce (I'm not a doctor, but instead, an epilepsy support group leader, epilepsy advocate, who has epilepsy.)

Re: symptoms

Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Mon, 2012-06-11 - 21:41
Hi Croesus, My simple partial seizures started in infancy, and when they come in strong clusters about every four weeks, one of the common sensations during a more intense seizure in the cluster, would be the feeling of a need to urinate. As my seizures spread to very intense strength over decades, this "urge" resulted in a majority of my nightime seizure injuries happenning in the bathroom. Keppra now precludes my secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures, but the clusters of, and the individual, partial seizures are still frequent with many manifestations of epileptic sensations. A quick med search returns articles like "Ictal urinary urge indicates seizure onset in the nondominant temporal lobe": http://www.neurology.org/content/55/3/432.abstract , which, for me, matches another part of the many sensations with my partial seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), before the seizures "kindled" into frequent secondarily generalized tonic-clonics. Tadzio P.S.: A more reader friendly and more recent paper mentions the subject around page 31, 32: "AUTONOMIC FUNCTION IN EPILEPSY" by Dr PATRICK ADJEI (2011) Quick View: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:qck-U1bQ6JYJ:discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1121227/1/1121227.pdf+epilepsy+%22urge+to+urinate%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh6IJ6iLXSQkbNfHiFt86gHC6BLFZEQE3G4iNGYCiifRl0P_h3ZHMGkDMM79YLRdsI4htn0vbU51IwN-N1Nv_JAHvlcBASpIb0NmIjENyfvNUjQxLNtCkRSyqMcbeLvKiZkedJT&sig=AHIEtbRFeHUaidZt6blFoKMaUuLThlyeIQ Slow Full View: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1121227/1/1121227.pdf

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