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Short-term memory loss post- seizure

Sat, 06/04/2005 - 14:56
Please, does anyone identify with this problem?My son, 21yo now, has always found that after a seizure he has no memory of the past 2-6 hours preceding the seizure.e.g. went out to tea with his friend to celebrate their anniversary and had a seizure later that night. The following day he could not remember anything of that evening from when I had dropped him at her place at 6.30pm. Still doesn't till this day 2yrs later. (by all accounts they had a lovely time..)He finds this aspect of his condition the most upsetting. This is just one of many examples. My heart aches seeing the sad look on his face as we piece together his movements on a particular day.This doesn't help when trying to identify auras etc. either as he doesn't remember.Does anyone find this happens to you?I have read many posts about memory in general and see this in him too, but not seen much about this other aspect.Thanks for your time,Maryanne.

Comments

RE: Short-term memory loss post- seizure

Submitted by grez-monkey on Sat, 2005-06-04 - 07:23

Yes Maryaanne,

I went through the same problems several years ago. What I found and read over the past year or so is that your son is in the post-ictal phase, which is the medical term for what you typed in the subjet of post seizure.

Having a loss of memory is on of the main parts of it, but it also includes regaining muscle strength by relaxing and sleeping for a good while. But there's something you might check over and that has to do with the side effects from the madication he's taking. I was actually on lamictal and dilantin for over 3 years. This increased my seizures [complex partials to be exact] and due to these situations, having more seizures made me increase the amount of memory loss.

Whatever the medication(s) he is taking, if any to begin with, search around for details pertaining to their side effects. Also, for the next upcoming follow-up visit to his doctor, had your son to mention this very situation to the doctor.

Your son is no way alone on this matter. I was too, and there are thousands, maybe millions more, people with epilepsy going through similiar situations.

Good luck and take care.

Bruce J

 

Yes Maryaanne,

I went through the same problems several years ago. What I found and read over the past year or so is that your son is in the post-ictal phase, which is the medical term for what you typed in the subjet of post seizure.

Having a loss of memory is on of the main parts of it, but it also includes regaining muscle strength by relaxing and sleeping for a good while. But there's something you might check over and that has to do with the side effects from the madication he's taking. I was actually on lamictal and dilantin for over 3 years. This increased my seizures [complex partials to be exact] and due to these situations, having more seizures made me increase the amount of memory loss.

Whatever the medication(s) he is taking, if any to begin with, search around for details pertaining to their side effects. Also, for the next upcoming follow-up visit to his doctor, had your son to mention this very situation to the doctor.

Your son is no way alone on this matter. I was too, and there are thousands, maybe millions more, people with epilepsy going through similiar situations.

Good luck and take care.

Bruce J

 

RE: RE: Short-term memory loss post- seizure

Submitted by yannie44 on Sat, 2005-06-04 - 08:08
Thank-you Bruce,your answers are always caring and enlightening.So other people do lose that much time from their day?Not just from the time of the seizure and the time taken sleeping after (hours) until they feel 'normal' ?Most neuros have seemed a bit puzzled when I mention how much time he loses and it made me wonder what was strange about it.I thought it was probably the norm for a seizure but they make you doubt yourself.I have had docs and nurses query at different times why he had a massive headache after 'an episode' and seemed to think that was quite strange, yet I gather that is usual also.He has not been on any meds for over a year as they only seemed to make him worse - epilim, tegretol, dilantin.Maryanne

RE: RE: RE: Short-term memory loss post- seizure

Submitted by grez-monkey on Sat, 2005-06-04 - 14:56

You're very welcome Maryanne,

I thank you [and everyone else] for your complements. I need to repeat my life story about what I've gone through due to having epilepsy myself. But will start it in a new posting thread.

Please don't take what I'm going to say next as a put-down, but as an example. Picture in your mind what someone looks like and how they act the person is drunk. They're walking around kind of lopsided, talking funny, etc. etc. Then, if and when they get somewhere and colapse downward, crash out and fall asleep, it is going to take a good amount of time for the person's body to rest, relax and recover so they'll have just enough strength to stand up themselves [i.e. become sober]. Then start wondering, "what the heck did I do while I was drunk?"

Now change both of those words I underlined, drunk, and replace it with,...having a seizure. Same symptoms, but become drunk is due to excess alcohol, and having a seizure is because the neurotransmitters in the person's brain are 'back-firing' or acting like a 'thunderstorm'.

Heck, with me typing all of that up, I just thought up an idea to explain to people about seizures and the purpose of taking antiepileptic drugs or anticonvulsants.

For anyone who has a computer, if you don't have any 'pop-up' blockers what do you think is going to happen? The computer is going to go 'hay-wire' with gobs of 'pop-ups', and the person operating the computer is going to go wild and crazy because they themselves cannot get it to stop. But if you install a 'pop-up' blocker, it should either stop the 'pop-ups' completly, or bring them under enough control, either way to maintain the ability to operate the coumpter.

Now replace the underlined word of computer,...with seizure, and the words 'pop-up' blockers,...with antiepileptic drugs/anticonvulsants. The individual having the seizures continues having seizures because they're not taking any antiepileptic drugs/anticonvulsants. But if and when the person having the seizures 'installs' antiepileptic drugs/anticonvulsants, then the medications should either stop the seizures completly, or bring them under enough control, either way to maintain the ability to their own body functions.

Please, if anyone has any other ideas, or suggestions of changing some of the explination I just created, let me know. I want to be able to explain seizures & epilepsy so easily that a child, or teenager can understand it, then if they can, adults should understand it just as well, if not easier. I really enjoy doing this type of thing.

Maryanne, if there is anything else you'd like to ask, discuss, or even share with this support group, please do so because that is what support groups are all about [unless or until someone wants to play a stupid game of taking it to court so laws can be pasted stating that 'support groups' are not politically correct words. lol]

Take care.

Bruce J

You're very welcome Maryanne,

I thank you [and everyone else] for your complements. I need to repeat my life story about what I've gone through due to having epilepsy myself. But will start it in a new posting thread.

Please don't take what I'm going to say next as a put-down, but as an example. Picture in your mind what someone looks like and how they act the person is drunk. They're walking around kind of lopsided, talking funny, etc. etc. Then, if and when they get somewhere and colapse downward, crash out and fall asleep, it is going to take a good amount of time for the person's body to rest, relax and recover so they'll have just enough strength to stand up themselves [i.e. become sober]. Then start wondering, "what the heck did I do while I was drunk?"

Now change both of those words I underlined, drunk, and replace it with,...having a seizure. Same symptoms, but become drunk is due to excess alcohol, and having a seizure is because the neurotransmitters in the person's brain are 'back-firing' or acting like a 'thunderstorm'.

Heck, with me typing all of that up, I just thought up an idea to explain to people about seizures and the purpose of taking antiepileptic drugs or anticonvulsants.

For anyone who has a computer, if you don't have any 'pop-up' blockers what do you think is going to happen? The computer is going to go 'hay-wire' with gobs of 'pop-ups', and the person operating the computer is going to go wild and crazy because they themselves cannot get it to stop. But if you install a 'pop-up' blocker, it should either stop the 'pop-ups' completly, or bring them under enough control, either way to maintain the ability to operate the coumpter.

Now replace the underlined word of computer,...with seizure, and the words 'pop-up' blockers,...with antiepileptic drugs/anticonvulsants. The individual having the seizures continues having seizures because they're not taking any antiepileptic drugs/anticonvulsants. But if and when the person having the seizures 'installs' antiepileptic drugs/anticonvulsants, then the medications should either stop the seizures completly, or bring them under enough control, either way to maintain the ability to their own body functions.

Please, if anyone has any other ideas, or suggestions of changing some of the explination I just created, let me know. I want to be able to explain seizures & epilepsy so easily that a child, or teenager can understand it, then if they can, adults should understand it just as well, if not easier. I really enjoy doing this type of thing.

Maryanne, if there is anything else you'd like to ask, discuss, or even share with this support group, please do so because that is what support groups are all about [unless or until someone wants to play a stupid game of taking it to court so laws can be pasted stating that 'support groups' are not politically correct words. lol]

Take care.

Bruce J

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