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Little jerks
Wed, 04/11/2007 - 11:12I was diagnosed with epilepsy about 3 years ago after having a tonic-clonic seizure, 2 abnormal EEGs, and then a short time later another seizure. I've always understood that I have temporal lobe seizures, and fairly frequently I have simple partials. For a long time now I have been doing pretty well on 800mg of Tegretol XR.
But lately I've been having something weird happen. Just over the past couple months, I've been getting these random twitches and jerks. I've always had the kind that happen when you are really tired or going to sleep, but these are different. They are almost always in my shoulders or upper body, and they aren't really a problem because they arent' that severe - just very weird and unusual for me.
My question is - what can be causing this? Is this a new kind of seizure activity for me? Or is this maybe just related to the Tegretol? I thought this sort of thing didn't really fit in with TLE, so maybe its just the meds.
I'm actually about to start switching from Tegretol to Lamictal also, maybe this will change it?
Comments
Re: Re: Little jerks
Submitted by Emeria on Wed, 2007-04-11 - 15:12
Thanks for the reply. I guess it just seems weird to me that I've only ever had temporal lobe seizure activity, and now I'm having this. So your doc didn't think the meds could be causing it?
Curious because it seems we are on the same med and dosage.
Ok, firstly the temporal
Submitted by solis on Wed, 2007-04-11 - 17:56
Ok, firstly the temporal lobe is specifically where, in the brain, the problem that causes the seizures is arising. Seizures in the temporal lobe begin on one side of the brain, so are defined as 'partial seizures'.
http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_temporallobe.html
There are 3 types of partial seizures.. simple, complex, and secondary generalized.
http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/types_seizures.html
There are also varying types of simple partials:
http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/seizure_simplepartial.html
(Look under 'Motor Seizures'.. you'll find your twitches and jerks there.)
So, you have not varied from the typical seizure type in a person with TLE.
hope that helps & best wishes,
~sol
Re: Little jerks
Submitted by inmannicki on Wed, 2007-04-11 - 12:09
i was diagnosed with grand mal seizures since i was 11yrs old ive been jerking for the past 4yrs and mine is mainly my arms and legs and head my neuroloigst told me that it is a mild form of seizures i also take tegretol 2 in morning and 2 at nite 200mg per pill