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Looking for answers and encouragement.

Mon, 06/20/2016 - 12:53
The day my drivers license officially is being put on a hold. Thought I would write a post just because I'm frustrated, confused, and a little pissed. Let me start out by saying that I have gone to see my primary, a neurologist, and then a epilepsy specialist. MRI came back good so that ruled out a tumor and did a 3 hour EEG which came back normal. But it was determined that my seizures happened at night and I didn't sleep during the test. And I've been told unless you are having one right there it's really hard for it to show up on the EEG. In the night I wake up out of it with a bitten up tongue, lack of coordination, and vision issues. My bed stuff is all over the place and I am usually on the other side of the bed, I am a person that 99.9% of the time stays pretty stationary when sleeping. Then almost two weeks ago I had an "episode" during the day. I got into the car with the thought that I wanted to ask my dad to go to a restaurant before work. Flash forward the next thing I remember is being dazed and looking up at a stop light. I didn't remember anything past getting in the car and up until getting to this stop light. I estimate that was roughly about 2 minutes or so I lost. I got into work and I was really trying to focus on what had happened and trying to remember anything about that section of time, but I couldn't so I called my dad and asked him what had happened. At this point I was a little relieved because if it was a seizure it was witnessed cause up until this point no one had seen me have one because it was determined they happened while I slept. My dad already knew what I was calling about it seemed after I got in the car I got abnormally quiet which for me is unusual. I seemed to say yep or yeah a lot whether a question was asked or not and I seemed to be fixated on something outside the window and out of it in general up until the stop light when I seemed to resume where I left off at. So I call the epilepsy specialist and he wanted to see me. Currently I am on 3,000mg of Keppra and I have been having far more energy and overall just feeling better in general since being on the medication. My dad drives me to it and I talk with the doctor and then of course my dad comes in and tries to describe what he saw of this "episode." First of all the doctor had seemed rather mad that I referred to this as a, "seizure." When I had talked to his nurse after the event and described it she said it had sounded like a "Complex Partial Seizure." So I was going off what his nurse had said. I go in the doctor is dang near cutting me off every chance he gets not letting me finish then he has my dad come in and describe what had happened. The doctor was doing the same thing with him! Asking questions and getting cut off. My dad kept on saying he was driving and he didn't really get to look at me going through everything, but noted that I was really quiet and out of it. How I responded intermittently to questions he said almost like I was on a loop. The doctor as some more questions that my dad felt he couldn't answer because again he was driving. My dad is getting a little bit ticked because he is trying to say things and gets cut off. The doctor asks him to leave the room not because he was getting impatient more because he felt he heard all that he needed to hear. So he sits down and talks with me. Asks me how my life is? Am I happy? How is work? Stress? All to which I reply it's going great. I've been really happy with the way things in my life are going. I can already tell I'm not liking where this conversation is going. Five years ago I had gone through PTSD and depression I got therapy and went through the trauma that had occurred during my childhood. I am on an antidepressant still but at a very low dose. And haven't had any problems for five years. He explains that I might have had a "dissociative episode," and that its quite common with people that had gone through past trauma. Though he could neither confirm or deny that what had happened that day was a seizure or not. I'm extremely offended it's like saying, "it's all in your head." They had confirmed the night ones were epileptic. At this point I was disheartened and taken back. How can you come to that when I haven't had any issues for five years? I guess I am just sick of the stigma, just because I went through depression and PTSD some time ago, why would that have anything to do with what's happening now? And why would you even say it when you as a doctor are uncertain if it was epileptic or not? If you suspected much why have me come in? Why not tell me over the phone? The doctor wasn't sure adding another medication was the answer and concluded that a 48 hr hospital EEG stay was a bit too aggressive which I agree as well. They told me to report and call them if ever I suspect I might have had one. But right now if anything like that happened again I feel rather reluctant to call. Right now I feel like anything sort of a seizure that resulted in tongue biting and full on convulsion that I might be told that again. And really don't need that in my life. I rarely go to the doctor other than for a sinus infection or my yearly depression check ups which they always seem very pleased. My mom and dad are really upset at the way things were handled since they feel like the doctor is just passing it over because it's easier. My dad already felt that the doctor had made his mind up before either I or my dad stepped into the office since he was always cutting us off. I'm just frustrated that despite the fact that I've faced my fears in terms of the PTSD and Depression the mark on my medical record still follows me. Anybody gone through something like this? I don't know how to feel about this any of this because I feel offended. I understand its possible I might have zoned out I totally understand that, but if its undetermined that it might or might not have been one. I think is unprofessional to speculate based on my past. I don't know I'm trying to understand.

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