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New to Seizures
Wed, 04/21/2004 - 23:34Hi, I am 52 years old and just had my first two seizures on the same day, out of the blue. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else in my age bracket, how you are coping with it, or if there is any advice from anyone that can help me understand this. Thanks
Comments
RE: New to Seizures
Submitted by hdenbec on Tue, 2004-04-20 - 19:34
Hi, Thank you for your response. I didn't go into enough detail. When the first two seizures occured on Easter, I was taken to the hospital and they did an EEG, MRI, and a CT scan. Everything came back normal. They couldn't find a cause. I have no history of head injury, etc. They diagnosed the particular seizure as a generalized complex partial seizure and I was put on medication (carbamezapine). My family, who was very shaken up about the whole episode, thought it resembled a grand mal seizure. I am trying the best I can to learn more about epilepsy since I am so new to this. Thanks
RE: New to Seizures
Submitted by tibet2 on Tue, 2004-04-20 - 21:21
hi, i was hoping someone who was new to epilepsy as an adult would pick up on your question. though i'm about your age, i have had epilepsy since i was a kid. a generalized complex partial seizure means that you started out by having a complex partial seizure. which means that you had a seizure that started in one part of your brain. then, unfortunately the seizure spread to include your entire brain..... producing a generalized seizure - a tonic clonic (in all likelihood) and that's the part of the seizure that looked like a grand mal to your family. generalized tonic clonic (GTC) or tonic clonic seizure (TCS) is what used to be called a grand mal. the sort of seizure you had is said to be a "complex partial seizure that secondarily generalizes". at least that's what you will see in much of the literature. you should read the seizure descriptions on this site and that will be useful. you were put on a medication that is effective for controling this sort of seizure. it is also called tegretol - which is easier to spell. what happened before the seizure? or - what was the first part of the seizure like? something happened or the docs would not be saying you had a complex partial seizure that generalized. the entire family would be upset by this i can well imagine! that would be the normal response! 52 is a somewhat random age to begin having seizures unless you are a woman. menopause can cause hormonal changes that induce seizures for the first time. since the doc said this was a complex partial seiuzre there is also the possibility that you have been having simple partial seizures and not been aware of what they were. simple partial seizures can manifest in many ways - but some of the common things that happen during a simple partial seizure are deja vu, odd sensations, visual distortions, feeling big or small, smelling something unpleasant, feeling numbness.... you might want to look at the seizure description for simple partial seizure.... i assume the doctor asked questions along those lines... you might have been having simple or complex partial seizures in your sleep and been unaware of them. teeth grinding, vivid dreams or feeling exhausted are things that would indicate nocturnal seizure activity. normal test results are not uncommon with epilepsy. did you have a complete physical? there are things aside from epilepsy that can cause seizures. the normal scans are very good news indeed. you might want to check with your family doctor and ask if syncope has been ruled out. syncope is a heart problem that can mimic epilepsy and can seizures... so that's something to be ruled out. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4749
RE: New to Seizures
Submitted by e_nuffofthis on Mon, 2004-04-19 - 21:03
I just wanted to say Hi. My son has seizures. To help you understand better you really need to know what the doc sees ... you did have an EEG & MRI? Did he put you on medication? Certain things can spark seizures, like if you had hit your head, could have been years ago. You have to ask your doc what he thinks, like maybe there is some type of lesion or scar? Which lobe (temporal/occipital/frontal) does he suspect or does he know? There are more things but first you need to understand what type of seizures you are having and where they originate and go from there. You can go to www.efa.org forums under adults with epilepsy to try to find more people in your age group. :-)