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Do seizures cause pain?

Thu, 06/08/2006 - 17:29
Hi I am the mother of a 5 1/2 year old who is progressively getting worse. His name is Danny. He has many types of seizures. He has at least 10 notable seizures a day and probably many more. he often requires interventions such as oxygen, suctioning, extra clonopin or diastat. he is on several medications clonopin, keppra, felbatol, phenobarb, and vigabitrin and several others for gi issues. Danny has tried all the other meds to no avail. We recently were told that there are only options left are to do a surgery that splits the 2 hemispheres or to do nothing. We feel this child is in pain and requires more sedation to be comfortable. The neurologist says that seizures are not painful. Danny is currently functioning at a 0-3 month level. He did progress when he was a baby. He did sit, stand and smile all of that is now gone. I am wondering do seizures cause pain? I think they do.

Comments

Hi all. Following in on the

Submitted by happycat2 on Sun, 2006-06-18 - 12:32
Hi all. Following in on the back of the posts so far on this topic. I know that it is possible to experience pain when having a seizure, and so now does my neuro. I have been telling him long enough I still hate these annoying headaches. Finally he is listening when I say the head pain I experience is real. Once I find out what my neuro thinks after he looks at my latest MRI, I will rest better.  The docs in this small community may know how to run an MRI machine but they sure don't know how to read them. I was right to keep on keeping on telling him. Sometimes the patient does know best, especially when they do their homework between visits. Simple partial seizures. These seizures cause different symptoms depending on the part of the brain involved. A person might make erratic movements, or have sudden, intense emotions -- like anger or fear. A person may also have strange perceptual problems, such as distorted vision or hearing. Other symptoms can include pain or nausea. People with simple partial seizures won't lose consciousness, but they may be confused or unable to speak until the seizure is over. http://www.webmd.com/content/article/77/95373.htm Emotions A sudden feeling of fear or a sense that something terrible is about to happen may be caused by a seizure in the part of the brain that controls those emotions. http://www.trileptal.com/info/understanding/simple-partial-seizures.jsp "Many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1

Re: Hi all. Following in on the

Submitted by angel_lts on Sun, 2006-06-18 - 14:04
Happy Cat, You know this topic reminds of the experience I had when growing up(about 30 years ago) and dealing with seizures around the menstrual cycle. I would tell the doctor that I was having them and they would insist that it had nothing to do with it. Now how is this possible, when your body is changing during this whole cyle. I would get so mad at the doctor about it. If something is going on with a patient and it is not in what they learned, it is going to be hard to convience a doctor that it is happening. Until they keep seeing this happening all the time with patients. I do believe if a patient says it is happening, THEN IT IS HAPPENING AND HELP THEM. I personally dont experience pain with seizures, but I know others that have experiienced it. thanks for sharing that, and I'm glad your doctor is listening to their patient. Big thumbs up to that doc Lisa http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/epilepsyapproach/

Re: Re: Hi all. Following in on the

Submitted by happycat2 on Sat, 2006-06-24 - 20:09
Angel. What can I say? Listening to what is said should be an important part of the relationship, and the doctor you talked to should have listened. Sadly that was not the case. It happens, it happened to you, it might have to other women who have yet to speak. If anything your experience( which I thank you for sharing.) tells us one thing. That is, at times people are to busy to listen, or think they don't have to as they know it all. It has been my own experience, especially were women are concerned, the menstrual cycle has a lot to do with it, I have found...Catamenial epilepsy only seems to have been taken more seriously the past 4 years or so. Before that women were left floundering in the dark looking for answers. Researchers globally are now realising the effects hormones can have on women- and across all age groups it seems. For me, the patient is the one that knows best what is happening to them. No 2 people are alike, that has to remembered also. What 1 person experiences, another might not. There is more than 1 way of looking at things. The sooner that is realized the better. I want to be quite clear on that. As I do, that sometimes it pays to look outside the box, and look at other options. The patient to my way of thinking is the one who is telling their doctor-or whoever what is happening. Just because that person might not have come across that, does not mean it is not real. It can be very real, and documented. By being so a picture is given that clearly gives a proper representation of what has been said. One that no MRI film, or testing in the world can compare with. "Many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1

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