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Could it be TLE after 15+ years?

Thu, 08/04/2016 - 11:24
Hi everyone I'm 26 years old and had a historical diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. I was diagnosed aged about 8-9 after having absence seizures. I think they did a few EEG scans and came to that diagnosis. I was on meds for some time (don't remember much about all that). When I was 18 I suffered what I thought was a major panic attack. I felt dissociated and had ataxia, it felt like I was moving through water and I couldn't coordinate myself. My sense of touch felt like it was stuttering like all surfaces were rough, and my lips went numb. I had episodes like this really frequently for about a year. I was seeing a nurse on a weekly basis for depression at the time, and I described these feelings to her thinking they were brought in by anxiety. She suggested it might be my epilepsy (at this time I had been free of absences and off medication for over 8 years). I had a 24 hour EEG done and the result came back negative for epilepsy. I had these panic attack style episodes less and less until I was having maybe 2 a year. They were getting worse though and now I would completely lose coordination in one limb (usually right arm or leg). This happened once when I was driving and I had to let my boyfriend take the wheel while i clutched at my seatbelt in panic because that's all my hand could do, grasp at something. I noticed this was happening mostly when my blood sugar was low or I had a hangover. I've managed to avoid getting to that state for about a year now, except today. So the reason I came across this site is because over the past month I've been having these intense deja vu feelings. I've never had them before and I would never have thought they were linked to epilepsy until today. I can describe it like feeling this ridiculous longing/nostalgia for something in the past, even having smell hallucinations sometimes. My boyfriend was singing a song earlier and I was convinced id just heard the same song in the shop I went in (I hadn't). So I googled deja vu wanting be to find out more, and epilepsy forums came up. Obviously I started panicking and soon I was having one of those episodes. I couldn't even pick up a pen, my hand was that uncoordinated. What I'm wondering is... Was the event brought on by thinking my epilepsy is back (I.e a panic attack)? Or was the deja vu an aura to a partial seizure (the event) and coincidentally I came across these forums as I was experiencing dens vu? I should also point out last week I crashed at a friends house. I woke up at 5am on the floor with the covers everywhere in an intense sweat and both legs in the worst cramp I'd ever felt. I doubt anyone would have woke up if that was me having an actual seizure as I was downstairs alone and people were drunk. Anyway I'm not really feeling myself right now :( I should probably see a doctor or something.

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