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False abnormal EEG?.

Wed, 01/13/2016 - 11:35

hi everyone, I'm 20 years old and about 4 weeks ago, I had a grand mal seizure. I woke up at 2am to get on a flight to Florida with my mom and sister. About 15 minutes after waking up, I collapsed and had a seizure. My mom called an ambulance and I went to the ER, as this was my first seizure ever. There I had blood work and a CAT scan which all came back normal. I luckily managed to get an appt with a neurologist that same morning and he prescribed me with carbamazepine to take twice daily. We went to Florida later that night (against dr's advice who said it wasn't the best idea to fly) but I was fine  aside from the medication which made me severally groggy to the point where I slept through half of the vacation, gave me serious mood swings, and at one point I was hysterically crying for almost an entire day for no reason (I hardly ever cry so this was unusual for me). My mom told me to cut the pills in half and after doing that, I felt great. my family and I were convinced this was a freak one time incident due to lack of sleep, stress( from college finals and shopping for the holidays while getting ready for a vacation), and excitement for the trip.                                                       I went to my EEG last Friday and the neuro said it came back showing seizure activity in the left and a little in the right parts of my brain, which meant I had a seizure disorder. I panicked (I do not do well in medical settings) and he told my mom different options for medicine. Even though I felt great on the smaller dose of carbamazepine (100mg, two times a day for a 100lb person), he switched me to Aptiom which I started yesterday. But I want to know if I should get a second opinion for the EEG. The doctor didn't tell me how to properly prepare for the test, I've heard you shouldn't take the anti seizure meds for the test because they can give a false abnormal reading, I had caffeine before the test, and I was basically having a full on panic attack during the test. He wouldn't answer any of my questions after the test about if it was possible for it to be caused by something other than a seizure disorder. He just wanted to give me medication and send me on my way. I'm panicked because I hate taking medication for anything so to find out I have to stay on this for years is terrifying

 

 

Comments

Welcome

Submitted by just_joe on Wed, 2016-01-13 - 13:19
Welcome To start with an EEG is a brain wave test. It shows the electrical output coming from your brain. The medications are designed to stop seizures. If the neurologist seizure activity he saw waves or spikes. OK here goes.. All a seizure is is an electrical impulse hitting wrong in your brain. That hit causes a chain reaction. Seizure activity is spikes or waves hitting wrong. So your meds did not affect the EEG neither did your panic attack. As for the meds.... They are not like aspirin where once taken they go away after a few hours. It takes time for them to build up in your body so the therapeutic levels will get to the level the neurologist wants. To build to those levels it takes 2-4 weeks depending on the medication. I hated taking medications and still do but I also know that if I don't take them I will have seizures. I stopped taking them and was fine for about a month. Then I went into status epilepticus. Which is one seizure after another until they are stopped. That was years before 911 was around. I was having 40 convulsive seizures an hour. They started about 10pm and we didn't get a vehicle they could load me in the back of till 5am. Add the time to the hospital and it was about another hour. I came to 3 days later. I got out of the hospital about a month later. As for caffeine it doesn't affect the EEG. Preparing for it is not needed. Also know that a person can have an EEG come back normal but they still have epilepsy. I know I had 20-25 different EEG's and all came back normal. It was a EEG in which I fell asleep in that showed seizure activity. By seeing where in my brain it came from they looked closer at the MRI of the 1960's and they saw scared brain tissue. If you want more seizures becoming more frequent and stronger then don't take the medications. But then it is your choice. Did you do any research about the people who go tears without a seizure and are taken off meds?? Did you do any research at all? Before you start complaining about the neurologist putting you on meds and dismissing you you need to understand he is doing what he thinks is best to get your seizures under control. Have you gone to college and worked to obtain the knowledge needed to treat others or yourself and stop your seizures? As for me my questions weren't answered either. My mothers questions were partially answered. Back then the parent got the information. I did research on epilepsy to find out what I had and looked at the diagnosis to find out the types of seizures I could have. I wrote an essay about it. So research some and do find out more about your diagnosis. Oh and yes do ask questions. I have been asking questions at every visit I have with my neurologists since 1970. By asking questions I learned more about the different medications. I learned that if taken 2 times a day those times needed to be 12 hours apart to keep the therapeutic levels where they can stop breakthrough seizures. I learned each persons seizures is different. They may have the same type of seizure and many of the same symptoms but they are different. I learned a medication and dosage that works for one person may not for the next because each person is different. I learned that changes in the body does affect a persons medication. Weight gain, hormonal imbalance and other things affect the medication. I hope this helps and you get the assistance you need. Joe

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