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New and scared for a friend
Thu, 05/07/2015 - 20:57I know this might be a duplicate of many other posts...I have a good friend who has suddenly started to have very violent seizures. They last for 5 minutes or longer and people say she looks like she is "head banging." Her neuro did a CT scan and an MRI and the reports don't note anything of concern. I don't believe her neuro doc looked at the scans, just read the reports.
She is 25 years old, has a 3 year old daughter. She has had 5-6 seizures since the first one about 4 or 5 months ago. She was on Keppra but the side effects were too bad. Now she's on Lamictal, her last seizure was 6 weeks ago and they just increased her dosage. She does not know of any triggers.
Any info would be greatly appreciated!
WelcomeYou posted a CT and
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2015-05-08 - 15:34
WelcomeYou posted a CT and MRI were done. Fine and they reported on them. Which is what the people making them are supposed to do. If there is anything on those tests they will generally be in the report. I know I have had CT's and MRI's. Those are 2 tests done which can help the neurologist. However you didn't mention one of the main tests done which would be a EEG. Yes a brain wave test showing the electrical activity coming from the brain. A person can have a CT and an MRI all come back normal and many do. With the EEG they are seeing where the activity is coming from. If they saw abnormalities then then know where in the brain it came from. and that area would be looked at closer in both the CT and MRI. As for keppra or any other seizure medications. They all have side effects and there are some people that will always have them. It takes the body 4-6 weeks to get used to a new medication. After that time period those side effects go away. The neurologist generally wants another visit to see if the medication has slowed down the number of seizures or if the person is still having side effects. That is when medications and or dosages will be adjusted. It took about a month to get used to my meds back in the 60's. It then took visiting every 2 weeks for 3 months to get those levels adjusted. My seizure count went down with each visit and a couple of times the dosages changed. Did all the seizures stop? NO but the few that did come were not bad and I was able to do what was needed.You can do some checking with all kinds of people and most will say their tests all came back normal. A person can have epilepsy at any age at any time in their lives. Be they rich or poor of any race. Epilepsy does not discriminate I hope the new medication works for her and she gets seizure free. Please come back and let us know how she is doingJoe