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Walking, anti-epileptics and nighttime seizures?

Sat, 04/14/2007 - 16:37
Over the last year, I have lost consciousness many times. Everybody thought it was syncope but a cardiologist failed to find a cardiac cause. My family doctor now thinks it is epilepsy and has started me on an anti-epileptic (Epilim Chrono). Over this last year, I have also had a lot of stiffness and pain in my legs that has made walking difficult. Losing consciousness made the leg problems worse. But sometimes I would just wake up in the morning and my legs would be bad. The medication has helped the losing consciousness. It is not totally under control yet but the meds have made a big difference. So it looks like it is epilepsy. It's also made a huge difference to my legs. I've been able to walk much further, more quickly and comfortably. I'm also waking up feeling more refreshed in the mornings. My question is: Could the leg problems have been just a postictal thing? Could I have been having seizures in the night that I didn't even know about and that's why sometimes my legs would be bad when I woke? Or could the medication be having some other affect on my legs making them better and this be nothing to do with the seizures? I plan to talk to my doctor about this but would be interested to know if anyone here has any experience with this sort of thing.

Comments

Re: Walking, anti-epileptics and nighttime seizures?

Submitted by urpo on Sun, 2008-02-03 - 06:46
I get pain in my legs, as I was in hospital when I first had epilepsy I was lucky. Thay got a chair and some pillows and so my leg was still on the same level as my bed. Over the course of 20 mins I was told to rub the tops of my legs vigourously and point my toes and bring them as far towards my body as I could. And gradually remove one pillow at a time. The first day without the excuciating pain. Now I am at home and have to work I'm too lazy to spend twenty mins getting out of bed. I never wear socks in bed as having cold feet helps. I will get up and walk on the kitchen lino while making my sandwiches and breakfast. The pain is 'something else' but it goes off the more you walk. I will just force myself to walk through it as every second of my life is too valuable to be spent at home just because my legs hurt.

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