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ambulatory EEG
Thu, 10/26/2006 - 15:02I am a little confused. From what I've been reading on here you are supposed to be off meds when you have an ambulatory EEG or a VEEG. When I had my first routine EEG done and a sleep deprived EEG I was not on meds yet. Everything came back normal. I started seeing a new doctor who put me on meds. The meds worked good. No more seizures. After I had been on the meds a couple of months he ordered a 48 hour ambulatory EEG but didn't take me off meds. Everything came back normal. He said he was surprised but he guessed the meds were working good. My question is why didn't he do the EEG before putting me on meds. I feel like I wasted my time doing the EEG. I'm sick of having normal EEG's. I just want something to show up so I will know what the problem is. Apparently its not stress related since the meds are working. I haven't had anything since I have been on meds. Should my doctor have taken me off meds? I started to not take them during the EEG but I figured it wouldn't matter and since he didn't say anything about it I would continue to take them. Has anyone else had this problem?
Comments
Re: Re: ambulatory EEG
Submitted by Peaches78 on Fri, 2006-10-27 - 13:30
Thanks for replying. The EEG I had done was a 48 hour EEG which is why I don't understand why something didn't show up. I feel like I wasted my time. Not to mention it took forever to get that glue out of my hair.:) My doctor is an hour away so I don't know about getting there when I have seizures, plus I don't have them now that I'm on meds. Sometimes I get a weird sensation like I'm going to but its never happened. I guess I should just be glad it stopped but I can't help but think about it all the time, wondering if its going to come back not to mention what the meds could be doing to my body besides helping the seizures. I have a history of kidney stones and I know some seizure meds make you more prone to have that. Kidney stones are extremely painful so I'm not looking to make that happen.
Re: ambulatory EEG
Submitted by Winston on Fri, 2006-10-27 - 08:55
Hi Peaches - I think that I wrote you before about the EEGs????? My 24 hour EEG was finally what confirmed it for me and I can't remember if I had been put on meds at that point or not. If I was on meds, I do not remember my doctor stopping them. And as I said before, my doctor said it's not uncommon at all for nothing to show up on the EEG - that doesn't necessarrily mean anything. But I understand about wanting something to. It's very validating and when it finally did for me, I finally felt a confirmation that I was not "crazy" and I really wasn't imagining things. I wouldn't stop taking your meds without talking to your doctor about it first though as that seems a little dangerous. I think that it may take some time for the meds to work their way out of your system anyway so I don't know that your goal would be getting met if you just stopped taking them for the EEG. If your meds seem to be working, great. If you know that there was a problem before you started taking the meds, then there was a problem and you know that. I wouldn't stress out too much about making it show up on the EEG (although it would be nice). However, I have heard about people having 48 hour EEGs done to have a longer time frame to try to catch something. Would this be a possibility? Also, the next time that I have any kind of seizure activity (I have partials) my doctor wants me to try to get to his office so they could do an EEG right then and there to see what's going on. Is this something that could be done? That would be most effective. Good luck!