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A Few Questions for an Epileptic Noob
Thu, 12/24/2015 - 17:03Hey there, I'm 19 years old and I only got diagnosed with epilepsy in October 2015. Since then it's been a hell of a shock to my life but it's all been a bit vague on the doctor's behalf. I've only ever had two seizures (one in January - unwitnessed, one in September - witnessed) and after the one in September I was taken to the hospital as my seizure lasted for about 15 minutes and then I went again a few weeks later to talk to a neurologist and he prescribed me with Lamictal and I'm currently on 150mg a day. After that, I had an MRI scan later that month and it revealed nothing at all; my brain was apparently completely normal. Also, with only having (up to) two seizures, does this really look like epilepsy at all? My neurologist isn't even sure if it is himself, he just diagnosed me as a precaution. It's confusing as hell and I know there are people out there who have several seizures a month. Will this get worse? Was it just a one off thing?
Definitely get a second
Submitted by ashertruitt on Wed, 2016-01-27 - 16:19
Definitely get a second opinion. I've been on Lamictal for about 6 years. The first 5 years I was having seizures once every three months, so obviously the medicine wasn't working 100%. After seeing 4 neurologists, someone finally prescribed me with Keppra, but told me to stay on Lamictal. Since then I've only had 2 seizures. My new neuro is in Philadelphia at Jefferson University (great place, great people), and he called my medical treatment up to this point a complete failure. Basically if you continue to seize, especially in an organized amount of time (every two months, or every three months, etc) you should talk to someone else because your medicine is not working the way it should be. They're actually weening me off Lamictal right now to see if I'm fine with Keppra by itself.