Greetings Everyone!  My name is Aaron.  I am 29 and have been living with epilepsy since I was 16.  I have Grand mal seizures (Tonic Clonic) and Simple Partial seizures. It started about a year before I had my first grand mal seizure, I used to have these episodes where I would my body would kind of jerk and  I'd get confused and/or forget what I was doing.  Sometimes I'd even drop what I was holding/carrying, sometimes completely forgetting that I had been holding/carrying something at all and I'd just leave it lay and remember hours later that I had dropped it and hope it would still be there.  One example of this was going to school and dropping my sack lunch on the school lawn and having to go get it during my second period class.  Anyway, this was before I was diagnosed with epilepsy or had any idea that I had anything wrong with me.  I always just thought it was because I hadn't got enough sleep or something.  This went on for quite a while, about a year or so, then the BIG Grand Mal hit me on my first day of work at my first job.  I would start having the typical body jerk and dropping things, and it would freak me out, but I just tried to deal with it.  I thought I didn't get enough sleep lastnight I need to make sure I get sleep tonight and then I woke up with my Mom and the paramedics standing around me.  Even now it's kind of bothering to tell this story.  But I am giving my history because it may help someone else down the road.  I wasn't diagnosed until I was 16 years old, and I had these episodes of jerking (Simple Partial Seizures) for at least a good year before the grand mal seizure happened.  I want people to know if this is happening to them as well, what it could very well be.  Do NOT keep any information from your Neurologist, and DON'T make the mistakes I did and think that a regular Doctor knows all, there is a reason to go to a Neurologist!  I started taking Dilantin for the Grand mal seizures (tonic clonic seizures) when I was 16 and continued until I was around 24-25 years old.  Actually, I still do take it in the form of Phenytek, but by this time I had my own children and I wanted to be able to teach them about the seizures I had so I requested and recieved some information from the local Epilepsy foundation, and during this research, I found out that I had been having simple partial seizures since I was at least 15 years old,  a good year before I had my first grand mal (tonic clonic) seizure.  Not one of the Neurologist I had been to even considered treating that or mentioned that I might have Simple partials even though I had told them all my symptoms - and experiences before the seizures.  According to my neurologist now, I may have never had a grand mal if I would have been to a doctor for these symptoms - so know what you're experiencing.  Each time I have a grand mal seizure I have these partial seizures.  So when I was about 24-25 I added Keppra to my medicine cabinet for the Simple Partials.  It seems to do the job, I have been predominately seizure free since.  I am now starting to consider other options of treatment such as holistic healing and natural dieting - vitamins etc.  I enourage you all to do so as well. There are many reports of natural ways of healing our bodies by using natural substances versus pharmacueticals and without any of the negative side effects.

 If you've found my story interesting or just read it, let me know by leaving a reply!

 Have A Great Day!

Aaron