uneducated medical personel

I sympathize. My first ever seizure was almost 4 years ago now. I lost consciousness while out shopping and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I seized for probably 2 minutes or so, but didn't return to baseline for probably 30-40 min. The ER doctor at the time said I "fainted", which was complicated by dehydration. My husband and I looked at each other like, "huh?". My husband was are you sure and once again gave him all the symptoms--- and the doctor said not all people faint pretty. Yeah, that's what he pretty much said. Fast forward almost 4 years ahead. Same thing happens again, although this time I also stop breathing. Luckily, this ER doc has it together. He immediately diagnoses it as a seizure. Finds the episodes from 4 years back and sees those symptoms and wants to know why that wasn't diagnosed--- and immediately refers me over to neurology. I've been dealing with it ever since. The one thing I have learned is that no one is going to take better care of you than you. Don't be afraid to question your doctor. I'm not-- not anymore. If I have questions, I'm going to ask. I have a binder of information I have put together. All my correspondence with my doctor, test results, prescription information, seizure information-- anything I can think of I may want to refer to during an appointment. You are just one of many to your doctor. To your family --- you are ONE. Take care of yourself so you can take care of them. They need you. Good Luck and God Bless ~ Believe

I like Believe's idea about keeping a binder with everything in it regarding your condition and medical visits, keeping your own patient record:) I think I'll have to start doing that too. But yes, I've come to realize that just because someone has "doctor" or "nurse" or EMT/paramedic in their title doesn't mean they're knowledgable of all medical conditions. Which I guess stands to reason since there are so many. But I would think they'd be a bit MORE informed about seizures since you'd think they'd see them enough. Or maybe not. My first ER visit when I was 23 the nurse told me I was having a panic attack, even though a friend (who is also a nurse) who witnessed my seizure told them point blank that it was a seizure. In that same visit the doctor told me it was psychosomatic, because it didn't register on the EKG (yes, ekg not eeg), course then they realized it wasn't attached, leads all on, just not hooked up to the machine. Then I have this latest ER doctor telling me that I'd only had an absence seizure because I was alert enough to be talking afterwards. I have no idea what I was saying, but apparently because I was saying anything despite the symptoms it was a mild seizure. Ok. Well then... My neurologist tells me that when it comes to seizures, the only ones with a full clue are really only the doctors whose full time specialty are seizures. It's why when mine show complications I get redirected to the epileptologist. So if even a neurologist says that, then I imagine an ER doctor would be even more...um...clueless. But hey they might not know what they're looking at but at least they can keep us breathing :D and breathing is good.