Seizures on Awakening

Re: Re: Hi Jo Jo I have learned from

Submitted by quirky on Thu, 2007-07-26 - 08:53

Hi Jo Jo, The answer to your first question of being free of seizures is I'm not free of seizures unfortunately. I used to suffer from grand mal and CPS for years, but since I started taking topamax, a dramatic change happened to me :-) I now suffer from CPS only (touch wood), my last grand mal was last year in Oct/Nov. I have CPS weekly, every week varies on how many I could possibly have, ranging from 1 to possibly 20 in worst case senario. But on average I would have up to about 10 a week. 1 or 2 if I'm lucky! I used to take 4 types of meds, one of them was lamictal what your taking. But this med did not agree with me unfortunetly. I am now taking only 2 meds, 1200mg of tegretol retard and 200 mg of topamax. I've been taking tegretol since I was 14 years old, done me no harm, just has not controlled my seizures fully. I have always needed extra meds as an add on to my tegretol. Wasn't until May last year I came across Topamax with my neuro, and boy has that done me wonders! It's the only one that has been most effective for me so far. My neuro says it will be very difficult to find a drug that will control my seizures fully, when I have already tried a few and were unsuccessful. I'm now a candidate for surgery. But have to do some tests yet before I make up my mind whether to go ahead with the surgery or not. your question regarding confusion after the grand mal, this is perfectly normal. How long it takes for one to come around after the grand mal and feel so called "normal" again varies from person to person. If you are walking around aimlessly after the grand mal, I can only think that you are not giving yourself enough time to recover from the seizure yet. When I was a child and had a grand mal, and if I ever tried to get up off the floor after a seizure thinking I was fine again, I sometimes found myself still totally confused, I'd walk into the wall or window rather than through the door that was open and would be staggering as if I was drunk. I'll be honest, I hard a time as a child with my epilepsy. I started having seizures at 10 years old and was not given any meds until I was 14 years old. I was not diagnosed til 17 years. Between 10 and 12 years ol especially, I had no idea what was wrong with me and neither did my family. I would be so upset after a seizure, I just wanted to get up and go to my room whenever I had one in the house. we had stairs too. And whenevr I was in this state after a seizure and trying to go to my room upstairs, I struggled up the stairs becaue i was confused. I wasn't sure which foot was to go where on the stairs etc. I could easily fall down. I cant remember if I ever did fall down the stairs because of this regarding your question to be honest, I have fallen down the stairs a few times as a child because of a seizure but for your question, I'm not sure. It is definitely possible though. Any time one has a grand mal, that preson has to give themselves time to recover before getting up and moving about again. For your own safety :-)