New to epilepsy and active duty

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Hello, I'm new to this site and epilepsy altogether. I am Overseas in the Navy and as far as I new the healthiest person I knew. I've been in the Navy for a year this month (June) and am going through a medical process to see if I will be discharged or not, But the time inbetween is starting to get to me. I had my first seizure on valentines day. It was right when I got out of the shower, luckily my friend was there. She told me that I said "Oh this isn't good" then I gave her an evil look, reached my hands out to her and then started to fall. She set me down to the ground safely and that's when I started to seize. I went to medical on the ship I was on and they said I might have been dehydrated and sent me on my way. About 9 days later I just finshed working out with my friends and laid my head down to close my eyes and next thing I knew I was in the hospital, all of my memory is a blur. I was told I had two seizures my second one happened once I got to the hospital, they were both grand mal seizures again. I had an EEG done a CT scan and an MRI, the EEG was the only test that showed I had abnormal brain activity. I have not had a seizure since february, It's possible that I have a lot of absense seizures, Instead of day dreaming I actually forget what I was saying and stop talking in the middle of my sentence. I was put on keppra for about 6 weeks but it really messed with my mood and I had really bad headaches, I'm now on depakote and the headaches are mostly gone but the side effects occur just the same, not so moody but I'm constantly nauseous and I have no motivation for anything anymore. Most days I do well living normally but being overseas away from my family and having a lot of weight put on me from this diagnosis gave me a little bit of anxiety and I'm starting to feel really depressed. I am able to talk to my family often and they are so supportive and I have every reason to stay postive, If I am discharged I can still go to school and afford the things I need, but I'm worried I won't do well in school because I feel like I need to say things over and over again before it sticks in my brain now. My eating habits are changing and I don't want to be around people but I hate the feeling of being alone.

If anyone is going through something simular even emotionally, I would appriciate hearing anything you have done to help stay postive. I just want to feel like myself again!

-Thank you very much

Comments

Nikkiwelcome to the clubYou

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2015-06-10 - 17:15

Nikkiwelcome to the clubYou are not alone. Keppra is becomming the go to medication. Oh and it takes About 6-12 wekks to get the theraputic levels the neurologist wants set in your body. SO if you had waited a few more weeks those side effects might have gone away. But mood swings were a biggy. As for depakote I took it too but it did change my wanting this food or that and since I loved cooking I got off it since it didn't control my seizures better then the dilantin and tegratol.There are many diferent medications out there and they all work at controlling seizures. what works for one person may not work for the next. The same with dosages too. A neurologist will generally start a person on a certain medication and dosage because they have a patient on that med with that dosage.When you get back to the states the best thing to do is find a sepcialist and discuss this with him take your medical information with you and listen to him and tell him everything you can. He may or may not change the medication or dosage. But if he does he is trying to help you by putting you on a medication he knows works. You will hear people tell you stress and other things are triggers. Well on this site you can read alot about triggers. But not all triggers will be listed. Not everybody has seizures because of stress. Just like sleeping. I have never been able to sleep longer then 6 hours a night So that trigger didn't apply to me. However getting to hot to fast is a trigger which is not listed. I had a seizure after going 3 years without one. My neurologist wanted to know what I had been doing. He then learned I had been working in kitchens cooking. Wrong thing to tell him. That was when I found out one of my triggers and yes industerial kitchens do get hot. Really Hot.I would also sugest you get the Mt Epilepsy Diary which can be found on any page on this site. Watch the video and use it. Give you neurologist permission to bring it up and he can check out the graphs and other information which might help him come up with different medications, dosages or procedures that could help you get seizure free.If you have any questions by all means come in here and post. We will try and assist you in getting answers I hope this helps Joe

Nikkiwelcome to the clubYou are not alone. Keppra is becomming the go to medication. Oh and it takes About 6-12 wekks to get the theraputic levels the neurologist wants set in your body. SO if you had waited a few more weeks those side effects might have gone away. But mood swings were a biggy. As for depakote I took it too but it did change my wanting this food or that and since I loved cooking I got off it since it didn't control my seizures better then the dilantin and tegratol.There are many diferent medications out there and they all work at controlling seizures. what works for one person may not work for the next. The same with dosages too. A neurologist will generally start a person on a certain medication and dosage because they have a patient on that med with that dosage.When you get back to the states the best thing to do is find a sepcialist and discuss this with him take your medical information with you and listen to him and tell him everything you can. He may or may not change the medication or dosage. But if he does he is trying to help you by putting you on a medication he knows works. You will hear people tell you stress and other things are triggers. Well on this site you can read alot about triggers. But not all triggers will be listed. Not everybody has seizures because of stress. Just like sleeping. I have never been able to sleep longer then 6 hours a night So that trigger didn't apply to me. However getting to hot to fast is a trigger which is not listed. I had a seizure after going 3 years without one. My neurologist wanted to know what I had been doing. He then learned I had been working in kitchens cooking. Wrong thing to tell him. That was when I found out one of my triggers and yes industerial kitchens do get hot. Really Hot.I would also sugest you get the Mt Epilepsy Diary which can be found on any page on this site. Watch the video and use it. Give you neurologist permission to bring it up and he can check out the graphs and other information which might help him come up with different medications, dosages or procedures that could help you get seizure free.If you have any questions by all means come in here and post. We will try and assist you in getting answers I hope this helps Joe

Nikkiwelcome to the clubYou are not alone. Keppra is becomming the go to medication. Oh and it takes About 6-12 wekks to get the theraputic levels the neurologist wants set in your body. SO if you had waited a few more weeks those side effects might have gone away. But mood swings were a biggy. As for depakote I took it too but it did change my wanting this food or that and since I loved cooking I got off it since it didn't control my seizures better then the dilantin and tegratol.There are many diferent medications out there and they all work at controlling seizures. what works for one person may not work for the next. The same with dosages too. A neurologist will generally start a person on a certain medication and dosage because they have a patient on that med with that dosage.When you get back to the states the best thing to do is find a sepcialist and discuss this with him take your medical information with you and listen to him and tell him everything you can. He may or may not change the medication or dosage. But if he does he is trying to help you by putting you on a medication he knows works. You will hear people tell you stress and other things are triggers. Well on this site you can read alot about triggers. But not all triggers will be listed. Not everybody has seizures because of stress. Just like sleeping. I have never been able to sleep longer then 6 hours a night So that trigger didn't apply to me. However getting to hot to fast is a trigger which is not listed. I had a seizure after going 3 years without one. My neurologist wanted to know what I had been doing. He then learned I had been working in kitchens cooking. Wrong thing to tell him. That was when I found out one of my triggers and yes industerial kitchens do get hot. Really Hot.I would also sugest you get the Mt Epilepsy Diary which can be found on any page on this site. Watch the video and use it. Give you neurologist permission to bring it up and he can check out the graphs and other information which might help him come up with different medications, dosages or procedures that could help you get seizure free.If you have any questions by all means come in here and post. We will try and assist you in getting answers I hope this helps Joe

New to epilepsy and active duty

Comments

Nikkiwelcome to the clubYou

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2015-06-10 - 17:15

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