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Normal EEG but continuing seizures

Thu, 04/23/2009 - 13:55

Hi,

I have been having e for the past 12-13 years. It was rather well-controlled with medication (phenobarbital) till about 6 to 7 months back, when it started again but with different characteristics. The characteristics changed again about a month back, but my EEG which was sleep-deprived with medication came out to be normal.

Is this possible or could it be because of the mugs of coffee that i had to stay awake? Incidentally, the week i had my eeg, i was seizure free.

Would appreciate if anyone could throw some light on this! :-)

 

Comments

Re: Normal EEG but continuing seizures

Submitted by Mali on Fri, 2009-05-08 - 02:23
Well, I really wish that some people would have answered your question because I had a similar issue (sort of). I was taking topamax and it was doing the job, and I had a normal sleep-deprived EEG (which I guess can just mean the medicine is working) but then shortly after have had different manifestations of seizures and a severe blackout that lasted several hours. So, I get to enjoy an ambulatory EEG for 3 days in about a month. I imagine you may have something similar in your future or maybe you could suggest it to your doctor.

Re: Normal EEG but continuing seizures

Submitted by Amazon on Fri, 2009-05-08 - 07:43

Hi,

Thanks for the posting. I will ask my doc about it. I did tell him about the seizures, but he didn't suggest anything like this. Just added Clonazopane in addition to my AED, which is Phenobarbital.

Hope u find something on ur EEG and get allright soon. take care.

Amazon

Hi,

Thanks for the posting. I will ask my doc about it. I did tell him about the seizures, but he didn't suggest anything like this. Just added Clonazopane in addition to my AED, which is Phenobarbital.

Hope u find something on ur EEG and get allright soon. take care.

Amazon

Re: Normal EEG but continuing seizures

Submitted by fireblade on Thu, 2009-08-13 - 16:55

I am new to this game as well.  I have had 2 EEGs at 2 different hospitals for 20 minutes each and both are negative.  My regular Neurologist seems to think my problem is sleep, but I disagree.  The wife agrees with her, but only becuase she is motivated by not having me go on Leave to have a multi-day study done.  Its a money thing.  I do use a CPAP, but just had a sleep study and a Narcolepsy test which were negative. 

The Dr gave me Nuvigil which keeps me from falling over my computer unconscious, but its like a mask.  I have all the visual and brain feelings of a normal episode, I just no longer conk out.  Prior to the Nuvigil, I actually slumped over my laptop in front of her for three hours.  Answered the phone for an emergency call for work, had a 1 minute disussion on the call that normally takes 15 minutes and hung up.  Ignored another call.  Three hours later I was conscious and asked my wife what happened.  She thought I fell asleep.  I couldn't remember anything though about the entire event and the call.  Just lost time! 

Now, I find myself having these masked events where Nuvigil keeps my eyes open and I look awake, but I am stuck staring at the TV or a picture on the wall and can't communicate when I am conscious and can remember but that is just a short burst of time.  The rest of the time I have no idea what happened other than more lost time.  The Dr cracks me up though becuase she thinks she has fixed my problems becuase I no longer slump over my laptop "sleeping!"

Based upon what I have read though I am in plenty company with a normal EEG but still having silent seizures.  Funny thing is the Hospital Chief Neurologist told me that an EEG is only 50% effective and 60% if they are lucky enough to catch you in a seizure.  So when I ask my regular Neurologist about this she kind of blows me off and sticks to her guns as this being a sleep problem.  I think she is stuck on sleep becuase when this started that is how I described it, but now that I know the big thing that indicates a seizure is having a period of time where you cannot explain or remember what happened, I know I described my problem wrong to her initially.  I think had I told her that to begin with we would be going down a completly different route.  Its the classic preconceived notion problem that engineers encounter so often.

I am new to this game as well.  I have had 2 EEGs at 2 different hospitals for 20 minutes each and both are negative.  My regular Neurologist seems to think my problem is sleep, but I disagree.  The wife agrees with her, but only becuase she is motivated by not having me go on Leave to have a multi-day study done.  Its a money thing.  I do use a CPAP, but just had a sleep study and a Narcolepsy test which were negative. 

The Dr gave me Nuvigil which keeps me from falling over my computer unconscious, but its like a mask.  I have all the visual and brain feelings of a normal episode, I just no longer conk out.  Prior to the Nuvigil, I actually slumped over my laptop in front of her for three hours.  Answered the phone for an emergency call for work, had a 1 minute disussion on the call that normally takes 15 minutes and hung up.  Ignored another call.  Three hours later I was conscious and asked my wife what happened.  She thought I fell asleep.  I couldn't remember anything though about the entire event and the call.  Just lost time! 

Now, I find myself having these masked events where Nuvigil keeps my eyes open and I look awake, but I am stuck staring at the TV or a picture on the wall and can't communicate when I am conscious and can remember but that is just a short burst of time.  The rest of the time I have no idea what happened other than more lost time.  The Dr cracks me up though becuase she thinks she has fixed my problems becuase I no longer slump over my laptop "sleeping!"

Based upon what I have read though I am in plenty company with a normal EEG but still having silent seizures.  Funny thing is the Hospital Chief Neurologist told me that an EEG is only 50% effective and 60% if they are lucky enough to catch you in a seizure.  So when I ask my regular Neurologist about this she kind of blows me off and sticks to her guns as this being a sleep problem.  I think she is stuck on sleep becuase when this started that is how I described it, but now that I know the big thing that indicates a seizure is having a period of time where you cannot explain or remember what happened, I know I described my problem wrong to her initially.  I think had I told her that to begin with we would be going down a completly different route.  Its the classic preconceived notion problem that engineers encounter so often.

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