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New to Seizures

Wed, 04/21/2004 - 23:34
Hi, I am 52 years old and just had my first two seizures on the same day, out of the blue. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else in my age bracket, how you are coping with it, or if there is any advice from anyone that can help me understand this. Thanks

Comments

RE: New to Seizures

Submitted by limeridge on Wed, 2004-04-21 - 10:48
Hi there I went threw brain surgery with a 54 year old woman and we both had it done. She never had seizures her whole life. All of a sudden she said it just happened just like that. But she had brain surgery to and we keep in touch and she never has it any more. So never worry you can get that happen to you at any age. I had epilepsy all my life but surgery helps for many people. I get the odd seizure but it's better than getting 6-7 a day it's better to get 1-2 a month. Hope you do good in life Limeridge.

RE: New to Seizures

Submitted by hdenbec on Wed, 2004-04-21 - 18:38
Hi, thanks for your response, Yes, before the seizure I had a total of three auras in the morning and afternoon before the actual seizure occured. I was outside working in the yard and I stopped and it felt like a strange feeling of deja vu. I got lightheaded and it definitely a very strange feeling. It happened two more times. I thought that I was just coming down with something. I wish I would have taken these feelings a bit more seriously, but I have never had seizures before and it never crossed my mind. Then, when the seizure actually happened I was sitting in the chair watching TV and I guess I got stiff and I turned my head to the right and started having convulsions. My wife got me on the floor on the back and she said that it looked like I couldn't breathe becasue I was making sounds when exhaling. My family said that my teeth were clenched and I bit my tongue (I knew that the following days). They called 911 and I was taken to the hospital. Then, apparently during the CAT scan, I had another seizure, but they didn't tell my family that (I'm still fuzzy with the details of this time). We didn't find out about the other seizure until I was transported to another hospital in which had a neurology department. I was wondering if the second seizure was just a continuation of the first. I was in the hospital for three days because they ran all of the tests, and it was a 24 hour EEG where I had to try to stay up all night and they did the test the next morning. And, that is when I got the diagnosis of epilepsy. It still seems strange to me because I have never had any history of this happening. From what I have been reading, it can just come out of the blue.

RE: New to Seizures

Submitted by seeker2 on Wed, 2004-04-21 - 20:00
Wow.. you're so lucky to have had such a complete workup right away! MRI's and CT's can rule out some of the nasty causes of adult onset sz's, but eeg's are really unreliable unless they do 24 hour monitoring. The one thing NO one has mentioned before was toxins. Exposure to certain things cause sudden onset seizures in animals all the time; they can range from insecticides, formaldehydes in carpeting, cleaning agents and things like that. I'm suprised they started you on meds right away though. The other thing worth mentioning is progesterone. I didn't notice if you were male of female, but my sz's were aggrivate when I was put on hormone replacement. Estrogen really caused a problem.. progesterone cream REALLY helped! I'm now on a compounded form of estrogen that stops the symptoms without aggrivating the sz's. Hope all this helps.. Good luck! This should have been posted to you and was to me by mistake.From what you describe, it sounds like the diagnosis remained unknown until after the 24 hour EEG monitoring,through the confusion from being transferred to a hospital with a neurology dept?That to ensure as a safety measure to prevent further seizures you were prescribed Tegretol?And the question that you need answering is did anything else happen during that confusion to give the diagnosis.Questions to ask your neuro possibly are why did they not explain all this and just leave you to find all this information on your own.Especially after your family witnessing all that happened so clearly.Check these links out and see if any help can be found there that can answer your questions,but the best person really to answer them is a good neuro.One that will listen and offer advice as to were and how you procede next.Who has a full workup of that time,and the time to listen to you.Could you take a member of your family who witnessed what happened along with you on your visit to the neuro to fill in the missing blanks,that way you will gain insight into what puzzles you. As this first article says sometimes no cause can be found.Not what you want to hear I know but true all the same.Approximately 70% of seizures have unknown causes. One in 10 people will have a seizure during their lifetime-so all the reading says-for triggers can be many and varied.Tiredness,stress,watching tv,to low sugar thresholds,fluctuating hormone levels.One persons trigger may not be anothers.Good luck with this,and I hope that further talking to your neuro might help understanding better for you as to what happened during a confusing and distressing time.http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/forum.asp?articlekey=24742http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE/PE-Seizure.HTMhttp://www.epilepsy.com/

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