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New Adult Onset Seizures

Thu, 01/21/2016 - 12:47

I am a 47 year old adult female and I have only had two seizures, and the first one was only an "aura".  My aura was almost purely visual.  It felt like I was standing still and everything was moving past me, like a tunnel.  I couldn't focus on anything, and I wasn't seeing things right.  If I blinked really hard, everything would come into focus, but then it would go away again.  It seems like everything was blurry and moving around in grays and blacks.  Hard to describe!  This lasted for what seemed like 5+ minutes, then went away and everything was normal.  Two months later, the same thing happened.  It lasted for 3 - 5 minutes or so, then got progressively worse until I eventually lost consciousness and seized.  My body didn't totally flop around, but my face contorted, my shoulders shrugged, and I wouldn't stay alert (by this point, some doctors and nurses were on scene).  I was unconscious for about 30 minutes total and was very confused and tired afterward.  So far, those have been my only two incidents.  I'm wondering if anyone else's seizures begin with a long-lasting aura like that, but then progress to a LOC seizure?

I have quite a family history of seizures... I have two half brothers and a brother (we all have the same father) who have a history of seizures.  My two half-brothers were having uncontrollable sieuzres, and my oldest one actually died in a car accident having a seizure.  My other half-brother is currently having about 7 - 10 a week, sometimes 3 in a day.  He has been on a whole host of medications, and so far nothing works.  My youngest brother (same mother, same father), had "a few" until he was finally put on Dilantin, which seems to have helped.  His seem to start with an aura where he just feels odd, then seized with LOC.  Surprisingly, all of our seizures started in our 40s.  

My first Aura/Seizure was in Sept. 2015, my second which began with an aura then seized was Nov. 20, 2015, and I started on Keppra (generic) on Dec. 5.  So far, so good (with the usual Keppra side effects) but I feel since my only two seizures were two months apart, it may be too soon to tell.  But I'm hopeful!

 

Comments

Interesting that you only had

Submitted by tinmaine on Wed, 2016-01-27 - 16:52
Interesting that you only had 4 in 10 years.  Do you think you have other seizures besides the grand mal?  I've heard of people who get the aura (which I was told WAS a seizure, in and of itself) that progresses sometimes into a grand mal/tonic clonic.  I also consider myself lucky that so far, (knock on wood) mine were both prefaced with a long enough aura, that I'd at least be able to get to a safe place.  Were you ever able to tie your seizures to a certain "thing" (stress, sleep deprivation, etc.)?  

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