Can Drop Seizures suddenly appear?

RE: RE: Can Drop Seizures suddenly appear?

Submitted by Parker on Tue, 2005-07-05 - 16:39

I've probably had epilepsy mildly all of my life. Severely the last 7 years or so. Sorry, I've lost track of when I was diagnosed. The first sz I personally am aware of was a drop that secondized into a tonic/clonic. From that point forward my epilepsy has been characterized by Atonic Drops, and other sz's I developed after I was diagnosed, and lots of them. If you go to the Main page here. Go to I think it's Epilepsy 101 (I can't check while I'm posting :( ) then look up the definition for Atonic Drops. I personally have not read it but I can tell you what I experience and what was told to me by several neuro's including my epileptologist as characteristic of drop seizures. Also I have read other definitions on this site and for me they seem accurate.--they do not have an aura or warning you can at least recognize--After you've fallen you're totally unconscious. It appears to many in my life as if I've fainted because I lay still, nonconvulsive IOW.--you normally fall forward with a characteristic looking to others as a hard "shove" in your back and often, and with me, an of appearance of tripping on air or tripping on nothing. Taking high "trip" steps. I can feel myself do this but can't control it. Sometimes I do fall backwards if my knees are locked and I've also crumpled, normally when I'm just going from sitting to standing or the opposite. I am conscious halfway to the floor and have heard of others who are also. This does not mean though I'm saying anything medically definitional. It's again only my experiences and those I've read about.--If I'm seated and I drop, my head falls forward, arms fall loosely to my sides, legs fall out to the side IOW my body relaxes totally.--I have nocturnal drops and loose bladder control at least after some when the sz ends and for whatever damned reason, my bladder sphincter releases or maybe it's that the sphincter that keeps my bladder normally closed relaxes and I can't control that relaxation. I've never asked why this is, when the sz ends, with my doctor. I just know it infuriatingly occurs but for some reason in me? Only nocturnally nd not with every sz.--The duration for me is about 50-60 seconds.--The recovery in drops is characteristically rapid and that I have read . Post ictal IOW if you have just one and are not clustering with drops, recovery to normal cognition and body abilities is more rapid than most seizures. I also have tonic seizures which can be confused with drops and the post ictal for me anyway can often times I feel tell me if I had a drop or a tonic seizure. Tonic seizure's post ictal for me lasts much longer than drops. I recover in about 10 minutes after a drop.--Characteristically people do not put their arms or hands forward protectively as one would do when they're about to fall on their face/head or any any type of fall. You just land. Therefore drops are injury producers. I personally call them The Dreaded Drops.Please DO look up on this site or elsewhere though the medical definition and characteristics of an Atonic Drop. All I could give you is my own definition from experiences of myself, other family members and what I've read of others who experience drops.As for sz's developing after diagnosis? Unfortunately I hate to tell you that has been something I've experienced with many sz types. I've always reported new sz types to my epileptologist or neuro when I was experiencing a new one and no doctor ever was shocked, surprised, seem to take it in stride as if - this is normal, although none have told me that as I think about it. I started out with 2 sz types and now have quit counting after I developed 11 and continued developing different sz types. Often too I'll have a group or cluster of one sz type for awhile? Then it'll stop for months and return perhaps again. Many in my family have epilepsy and have experienced developing other sz types as they lengthen time from their diagnosis. I'm sorry to tell you this, but I think that's fairly normal too after reading epilepsy forums for quite a few years. Also I know now I was experiencing nocturnal sz's of some type before I had my first sz awake. Probably if I base it on my present history, they were drops. Still all I've said is not medical fact, only my experiences and observations. Ask your doctor for your type of epilepsy. I have generalized which are what Atonic Drops are, bilateral TLE's and right frontal lobe.Gretchen