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scared about the future

Mon, 10/26/2015 - 11:24
I'm a 43 year old premenopausal woman. I stated having crazy panic attack like symptoms back in April. It was like a dark cloud suddenly swallowed my body, my ears ring, my right eye flashes, everything familiar seems unfamiliar, I get weak in the knees and my right arm, neck, and chest tense uncontrollably. Suddenly I get stuck in a circle doing the same thing over and over. I want to speak, but forget how to talk, I can't read either, I can, but not in order..... the first time it happened my work sent me to the ER in an ambulance and I don't remember it. It happened 3 times that week. Then stopped. Then I had my tests that all came back normal, I thought I was going crazy. Then two weeks later another cluster of events. Luckily one actually happened during my neurologist appointment and I was diagnosed with seizures and prescribed keppra. The med weakened the episodes, but the came like clockwork in cycles around my period. My periods recently this year started happening twice a month strangely at the same time as the seizures. I'm a special ed teacher for preschool children, 4 episodes happened at work. I'm currently on 2000mg keppra and just had 7 auras with 2 partial seizures in the last 5 days. I'm so afraid that every little thing I feel is part of an aura and it is so difficult to function as I have very little ability to concentrate for long periods. I have so much difficulty remembering stuff after auras or seizures that it takes me hours to prepare my classroom for the next day. My dr. Does not want to discuss the correlation between my premenopausal periods and the seizures, he recommended a ob/gyn who knows very little about seizures, but did determine a major hormonal imbalance, and said I could be put in a temporary menopause to see if the seizures stop for 6 months. I don't know what other options I have. Are there specialists that deal with hormone related seizures? I feel like I'm 6 months into this and hit a big road block or I'm just going crazy.

Comments

Women with epilepsy face

Submitted by irembaykir@gmail.com on Wed, 2015-10-28 - 09:26
Women with epilepsy face different issues than men with epilepsy.For me, the pattern of epileptic seizures is directly affected by the normal hormonal cycles and my neuro agrees about it. The hormones aren't actually causing the seizures, but they can influence when they happen..The exact cause of these seizures is unknown. However, some women have most of their seizures when there is a lot of estrogen in their body, such as during ovulation. Other women have seizures when progesterone levels tend to drop, such as right before or during their period. I am using a multi vitamin &mineral drug called "Feminex" 3 days ago my preiod starts. This is a little bit helpful about seizure frequency. Good luck!

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