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New Here
Sun, 08/27/2006 - 17:38Topic: New to Epilepsy.com
Hi,
I'm new here ... I am 38 years old and started having temporal lobe seizures after the birth of my daughter almost 3 years ago. When they got to be a daily occurance, I sought medical help thinking I was having strokes. Shortly thereafter, I had my first grand mal and chose not to medicate, since my EEG and MRI were about as clean as could be. The neurologist could not tell my WHY I would suddenly begin having problems with no prior indication in my fairly lenghty life!
Anyway, since then I had just a couple more temporal lobe and two more grand mal in one night. Per my husband, I am now on tegretol-XR and feel completely stoned. We have given up on another child based on my age plus the fact that apparently this is NOT going to go away as suddenly as it showed up. This is probably too much info, but there you have it. This is not something I ever had any experience with, so I feel somewhat out of my depth ... and did I mention completely stoned on these meds? At least they are controlling the seizures. Unless I am just not having any seizure activity and they are taking credit.
Any and all advice appreciated -- especially stories of getting off of meds! :) Thanks, M'al
Re: New Here
Submitted by txrhb1 on Mon, 2006-08-28 - 00:38
Hi Mariel, and welcome to the forum ! I also have temporal lobe seizures, and although I was first diagnosed at age 19, I was 47 when the really hit me "full force". I was unmedicated until age 47, and I had been having seizures all along, but never recognized them. I was writing off all those strange "episodes" to stress. It was quite a shock to learn that the doctors back when I was a teenager were actually right. I understand the feeling of being stoned while on the meds. unfortunately, Tegretol-XR was one of the ones that really made me feel that way. I have been on meds for 3 1/2 years now, and had the VNS implant about a year ago. I'm hoping to gain more control over my seizures over time, just keep hanging tough. There's a good article on temporal lobe epilepsy at http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_temporallobe.html Again, welcome - you'll find lots of support and caring folks here. ((( hugs ))), Barbie *************************************** "We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can fly only by embracing each other." -lucian de crescenzo