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Complex Partial/Night Terrors

Thu, 02/19/2004 - 15:47
I am new to this forum so please forgive any mistakes I may make. I am looking for different information on How Epilepsy is actually diagnosed. I was told by the Epilepsy foundation that recurring seizures is termed Epilepsy. I had been in a car accident 12 years ago. 9 months after that my problems began. At first it only happened while I was sleeping. I would scream, jump out of bed and run until I hit a door or a wall. The only way I could tell that something had occured was by the injuries, my bitten tounge (lip) or my family telling me. I have tried to jump off of the balcony, taken off my clothes, gone outside or walked around afterward talking nonsense. At times my memory is affected. I have seen many doctors. They said I suffer from Night Terrors. About 8 years ago they started to happen while I was awake. Many times I had gone grocery shopping and woke up in an ambulance. It got to where I could feel it coming. I would run and bite something. One doctor witnessed this and said "it looked like a complex partial seizure." After 10 years I was finally put on dilantin. # years ago. Now one of my main concerns is that I have NEVER been diagnosed. The last doctor I saw said that I have a mental problem. This is based on Normal EEGs. I had only seen this doctor twice. Has anyone else had similar problems in getting help??If someone else can relate to my story or give me feedback I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Comments

RE: Complex Partial/Night Terrors

Submitted by tibet2 on Tue, 2004-02-10 - 02:39
hi, two of my children had night terrors... they screamed bloody murder and were terrified.... they did not walk around or do things like you have done when they had them..... they just cried and screamed forever it seemed and there wasn't anything we could do to help.... they went back to sleep and had no memory of the night terror the next morning. thank goodness. normal EEGs are common with partial seizures - as you probably know. is there a possibility that you could change doctors? if your primary care doc will authorize it you can interview a new doc. i talked to my GP about the kind of doc i wanted. i recently interviewed a new doc. i didn't take any medical records with me except a copy of an fMRI that i had. it wasn't that i wanted to hide anything.... i just wanted to be able to go back to my old doc without feeling weird in case i didn't like the new doc. i like the new doc, so i'm going to stick with him. dilantin is not exactly a first line med these days.... does it stop your seizures?

RE: Complex Partial/Night Terrors

Submitted by momof1 on Tue, 2004-02-10 - 10:24
Thanks for your reply. Dilantin has helped. I have only had 2 seizures while awake since starting it. I was fighting CPS 3 years ago. They were saying that I was mentally ill and hurt myself on purpose. I went into multiple grand mal seizures in court. They gave back my child. That is when dilantil was fist prescribed. 6 weeks ago I had a seizure while driving. I am being charged with being intoxicated and disorderly conduct. All tests were negative. It is now up to me to prove that I have a seizure disorder. I do not have a gp or neurologist. They both closed their practices. This is why I have started searching the internet for resources. If someone can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

normal EEG's and epilepsy diagnosis

Submitted by Wendy07 on Tue, 2007-12-04 - 15:06
Not all types of epilepsy or even seizures show up on an EEG. I have/had Frontal lobe epilepsy and was in the hospital 3 different times in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit so they could capture a seizure on EEG. Between the 3 different stays, I must have had around 25 seizures and not one showed up on the EEG, that is because my seizures started in the frontal lobe and the skull covers that area very well and makes it difficult for the electrodes to pick up the reading through all of that. I was finally deemed a candidate for surgery and in order to determine exactly where the seizures came from they placed the electrodes directly on my brain in order to pick up abnormal brain wave activity. You can have epilepsy without it showing up on an EEG. I hope you can find the help you need in proving your case. Good luck to you. You may want to find an epileptologist rather than a neurologist or GP. They specialize in epilepsy. Seizure freedom is the only acceptable outcome, Wendy

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