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Is this a simple partial seizure?
Thu, 10/17/2013 - 00:49Hi! Since I was a little kid I had these odd spells that i called déjà vu. I never told anyone because if see hear and smell things not there...I thought I was crazy! By the time I was a teen mom caught on though, because if these spells happened and I was talking I'd just go on talking, except not really making a whole lot of sense. Long story short I ended up at the neurologist who ran an EEG and EKG ? (I think, I can't remember but I do know one was a cat scan and one was just the leads to my head). They found nothing but the doctor said what I was describing was temporal lobe simple partial seizure. However he wanted to do a test running leads up my nose after sleep deprivation and I had no (and still do not have) insurance. (The other two tests he did free because he was a family friend). Anyway, I saw him 3-4 times and each time he thought this is what I have but couldn't really put a final diagnosis on it without that test.
Then on a visit I had to see his assistant and she made me feel like I was making the whole thing up. The thing was that I can still speak, text, and remember that I'm having this and due to that I'm not having a seizure I just want attention, according to her. I'm a very shy, mild, easy going NON attention seeking person and I was appalled and have never been back since.
What I experience is a strong déjà vu feeling, I sometimes see and hear things, and get a loud ringing in my ear. It last maybe a min or two. If I'm talking I start talking nonsense. I can text but again nonsense. It's hard to concentrate when it's happening and afterward my heart rate is up, and I have a headache and really wish I could sleep. It happens randomly it seems. Sometimes it goes away even for years. I'm 29 now but this has happened as long as I remember. Here is a sample text that I sent my husband when it happened, each...represents a new text: Lying shhhh don't die....Hart....Heart deeper freezer...Social...----he said "What the crap are you saying?" To which I replied --- If don't know...The s*** in my head...Seizure"
Now because I was able to do that the Dr's assistant told me I was making this all up. Has anyone experience this? CAN you text during a seizure if that is what it' is?
Thank you I just want to try to get to the bottom of this without being made to feel like an idiot at the doctors office
-laura
Comments
Re: Is this a simple partial seizure?
Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Fri, 2013-10-18 - 01:51
Hi Loupy,
Many of my epileptic partial seizures allow me to text/type during the seizure:
"At university while typing research papers, a seizure could stop my ability to read, speak, write, and listen, but I could still quickly type sensible, grammatically correct paragraphs, with perfect spelling, that coherently followed the gist of preceding paragraphs in the paper." epilepsy.com/node/983983
("I'm not going to be able to talk or only able to speak-in-tongues( Glossolalia ? )")
An EEG without brain-surface implanted electrodes can more easily fail to detect many partial seizures.
The book "Language & Epilepsy" by Lebrun & Fabbro (2002, 2005), has been anecdotal cases of many different verbal phenomena with epilepsy. Sometimes, it's like I learned English twice, once as a severely impaired native version, and again, as a much less impaired academic/foreign English language version, while a seizure may transfer me back to the first version, much like it does to some polyglots:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Sometimes+during+fits%2C+epileptic+polyglots+suddenly+change+languages%22&oq=%22Sometimes+during+fits%2C+epileptic+polyglots+suddenly+change+languages%22&aqs=chrome..69i57.31472j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC485055/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21732943
( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC485055/pdf/jnnpsyc00031-0135a.pdf )
Many of my epileptic aura are deja vu and ecstatic and unstuck from the orderly flow of time.
Tadzio
http://my.epilepsy.com/node/983983
Re: Is this a simple partial seizure?
Submitted by just_joe on Thu, 2013-10-17 - 12:04
Morning Loupy
I read you post and had to think for a few minutes. An EEG is a brain wave test which is electrical impulses in the brain are checked for abnormalities. An EKG is a test run on your heart and it to is checked for electrical impulses in your heart. So the one with the wires to your head is the one used in epielepsy. Now you mentions a Kat scan which are used to find different things and those are generally used to take pictures in different areas of the body. Those can and are used to find breaks in bones or even the appendix to see id it is something that needs surgery.
Understand that all a seizure is is an electrical impulse going off causing a chain reaction. The chain reaction is the seizure itself. The doctor could have been right simple partial seizures are short and many people can and have worked thru them. Deja Vu is also a seizure in itself. Absense seizures are like simple partial seizures and I was written up for day dreaming in class which was wierd considering I heard everything. I was asked questions in class but becaause of the seizure I might have been late with the answer. SO I am aware of many different types of seizures. Some people I am one of them can have a seizure and stoll understand what is being said and handle a customer service call.
The assistant may look at the tests and because there was no abnormality she/he could think differently. Been there done that but then I was also 12. I had over 10 EEG's before they found any abnormality (seizure activity)
During the last EEG I fel asleep which is when the found it. They took the area the activity was in and checked closer on one of the other tests and found scared brain tissue. That was done when I was 13. My current neurologist also did tests to check that inforation. The tests were done in 1963 and 2004. As for texting I don't but I did have to type customer information into the system during calls so I screwed up one file and I had to correct the information which requireda chit load of information and noting changes and why they were made. I then changed how I put information in the systems and did not enter the information until I was completely focused. In other words I handled the call and answered the customers question by I entered the information once the seizure was over and I was completely back to norman.
You might do yourself a favor and your doctors by getting the My Epilepsy Diary located near the top of this page. Note the deja vu and everything else. Along with times and dates. Look at the video of how to use it. It also has an app that can be used with other devices like smart phones and the like.
I hope this helps and you get this straight
Joe
Morning Loupy
I read you post and had to think for a few minutes. An EEG is a brain wave test which is electrical impulses in the brain are checked for abnormalities. An EKG is a test run on your heart and it to is checked for electrical impulses in your heart. So the one with the wires to your head is the one used in epielepsy. Now you mentions a Kat scan which are used to find different things and those are generally used to take pictures in different areas of the body. Those can and are used to find breaks in bones or even the appendix to see id it is something that needs surgery.
Understand that all a seizure is is an electrical impulse going off causing a chain reaction. The chain reaction is the seizure itself. The doctor could have been right simple partial seizures are short and many people can and have worked thru them. Deja Vu is also a seizure in itself. Absense seizures are like simple partial seizures and I was written up for day dreaming in class which was wierd considering I heard everything. I was asked questions in class but becaause of the seizure I might have been late with the answer. SO I am aware of many different types of seizures. Some people I am one of them can have a seizure and stoll understand what is being said and handle a customer service call.
The assistant may look at the tests and because there was no abnormality she/he could think differently. Been there done that but then I was also 12. I had over 10 EEG's before they found any abnormality (seizure activity)
During the last EEG I fel asleep which is when the found it. They took the area the activity was in and checked closer on one of the other tests and found scared brain tissue. That was done when I was 13. My current neurologist also did tests to check that inforation. The tests were done in 1963 and 2004. As for texting I don't but I did have to type customer information into the system during calls so I screwed up one file and I had to correct the information which requireda chit load of information and noting changes and why they were made. I then changed how I put information in the systems and did not enter the information until I was completely focused. In other words I handled the call and answered the customers question by I entered the information once the seizure was over and I was completely back to norman.
You might do yourself a favor and your doctors by getting the My Epilepsy Diary located near the top of this page. Note the deja vu and everything else. Along with times and dates. Look at the video of how to use it. It also has an app that can be used with other devices like smart phones and the like.
I hope this helps and you get this straight
Joe