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Possible seizure? Please help

Wed, 11/23/2005 - 23:30
GENERAL BACKGROUND: I was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy a little more than a year ago. I was skeptical of the diagnosis, so I went to a neurologist a few months ago to get a second opinion. She says I described some things that may be temporal lobe seizures and she put me on Keppra (I'm on 1500mg a day), but she doesn't sound like she's saying it with any real certainty, so I'm still skeptical about the diagnosis. I have had three EEGs done during the year I've been trying to figure this out, the first two for about an hour and the last for about seven hours. All three EEGs came out normal, but a "complex EEG" that was run along with the first EEG said there was physiologic dysfunction in my temporal regions. QUESTION BACKGROUND: I was in the hospital elevator (orthodontist appointment) yesterday with my dad and another woman. The woman asked my dad if he knew where the "I.G. Critical Care" unit was. I am somewhat familiar with medical terms and their abbreviations, because I want to get into the medical field (infectious diseases), so I tried to figure out what she was referring to. Somehow, I concluded she was referring to "gastrointestinal," even though that's "G.I." Then I realized that couldn't be right and I never heard of any medical term with "I.G" as the abbreviation, so I asked my dad if he remembered what the woman said. And he said she said "G.I." When I got home, I saw some stuff about "trouble understanding speech and written language" in temporal lobe seizures. However, when I went to see my neurologist today, I described yesterday's experience (although, admittedly, I may not have explained it adequately because I'm generally afraid to talk about medical disorders—or anything personal) and she said she didn't think it was a seizure. At first, she said she thought it might have been a symptom caused by Keppra, but she decided against that after I told her I took my last dose around 7:00 AM and the experience happened around 2-3:00 PM. I thought that was a pretty weird experience, so the neurologist saying that wasn't a seizure makes me even more skeptical that I have a seizure disorder. My friend, on the other hand, still firmly believes that was a seizure despite what my neurologist said. QUESTION: Could this have been a seizure? The neurologist said she didn't think so. My friend said she was sure of it. Epilepsy websites said it could be one (provided we're not misinterpreting them). I said I don't know. There has been evidence that neurologists don't quite understand some aspects of temporal lobe seizures. So I ask you. Your help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Comments

Re: Possible seizure? Please help

Submitted by guitarmomma on Thu, 2005-11-24 - 10:14
I know it is frustrating when the tests are not conclusive on what is going on. What you describe does not sound like a seizure from what you said because it lacks some key elements from the ones I know....but I am not a doctor. Maybe you did not give all the details. Sounds like you just misinterpreted what the lady was saying> How did you feel after this time> anything else going on? Temporal lobe seizures can have some oddities to them. Usually there are some other signs that make it significant for seizures in addition to the odd things.....sudden fatigue, confusion, perceptual changes, audible or visual changes in perception, autonomic changes.....to name a few. I hope you can figure out what is going on. G

Re: Re: Possible seizure? Please help

Submitted by chuui on Thu, 2005-11-24 - 16:35
Thank you for your reply! I have a little bit more information on the incident itself that I didn't tell my neurologist about. When the woman said she was looking for the "I.G. Critical Care," I thought about it and came up with the idea "I.G." meant "gastrointestial" when "G.I." really meant "gastrointestinal." Then I stopped thinking about it, and when I started thinking about it again, I thought, "How did I come up with gastrointestinal with I.G.?" I know confusion is common with seizures, and this incident really left me quite confused, as I distinctly heard her say "I.G". I even looked under the "I" column in the hospital directory. I'm not sure if this means anything or puts the incident in a different persepctive or anything...I wonder what you all think; any additional information would be wonderful.. Thanks again!

Re: Re: Re: Possible seizure? Please help

Submitted by Joyce on Sun, 2006-02-12 - 00:24
Hi Chuui, My name is Joyce and it took the doctors here nearly two years to finally diagnose me correctly. I have what is referred to now as PNES, Physcogenic non-epileptic seizure along with maybe two or three epileptic seizures a year. I have had up to 23 in one night and have had my share of bad experiences in emergency rooms and seeing Doctors and specialists that have little to no idea as to what they are looking for or even how too treat it right. I have had to educate myself in regards to what PNES was and what the causes maybe and have found several sites to be very helpfull. You can be sitting with a total blank look or stare for a few minutes without any recognition of it and that is considered a type of seizure. Another example is smelling or hearing something no oneelse does, and one side of your face drooping. My suggestion to you is this: If you feel uncomfertable about what is or is not being said when you ask questions, educate yourself, you will learn more on your own verses relying on any Doctor or specialist. Good luck to you and let me know how things are going. I will be more then happy to help out if you have any questions. Joyce

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