dear gubs: 

my little girl is almost 17 now, and has had seizures for more yrs than i care to remember.   over the past six months, she has been having 2-3-4 grand mal seizures (with breathing arrest) per week.  we went to see her neurosurgeon over the easter break, and after having her shunt pumped manually twice, she has now gone two full wks without a seizure.  this feels like a miracle to us!  although i am not an expert on the topic of seizures, i do have some hard won knowledge gained thru experience.  one of the biggest triggers of seizures is indisputably STRESS.  so my advice to you is to drink your special coffees and pamper yourself and do these little things to feel happier and consequently...... less stressed.

Hi Gubs,

"Triggered Seizures" are best defined to be limited to the realm of "Reflex Epilepsies." Using the phrase "triggered
seizures" for "nonspecific precipitating factors" causes much confusion.

Reflex seizures have a prevalence of 4-7% among patients with epilepsies. One of the best known forms of reflex
epilepsy has the trigger of flashing lights as the precipitating stimulus.

Nonspecific precipitating factors include sleeplessness, hyperventilation, alcohol, drug withdrawal, etc. The
notion of "stress" being a nonspecific precipitating factor is most controversial, mainly because "stress" being
associated with possible epileptic events, is often taken as an indication of "Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Attacks"
(PNEAs), even with the "Gold Standard" of a revealing EEG.

I prefer to try to use the notion of "lowered thresholds" for epileptic events, just to shy away from the moderate
confusion caused by the phrase "nonspecific precipitating factors," and the major confusion caused by the phrase
"triggered seizures."

I stopped taking "over the counter" flu/cold medications back in the mid-1990's. Many of the products included
alcohol as a major ingredient, so I avoided them immediately. Most of the other products included ingredients
that were various combinations of chemicals that are closely related to the chemical families involved with
the methamphetamines (many states have now restricted, or limited, sales of over the countercold/flu medicines
because they are easily converted to methamphetamines in make-shift labs).

I have very frequent partial seizures, and I have clusters of stronger partial seizures about once a month. The
clusters started to result in very strong partial seizures leading to frequent secondary tonic-clonic (t/c) seizures in
the late 1980's, and growing in intensity of t/c's till late 2006. During the mid-1990's, I had many severe colds
and flu's, often enough that they coincided with my clusters of seizures quite a few times. A strong "coincidence"
of near fatal t/c's happened whenever I took over the counter medicines to relieve my cold/flu symptoms over the night.

Two of the worst t/c's involved total amnesia around the events. With one, I woke up in bed in the morning with a
swollen, bloody tongue, major concentrated bruises in many places, fractured teeth, "speckled" blackened-eyes, and
a trail of blood from my bathroom. My bathroom was a mess, with things knocked over, and pools of blood on the
floor, with my fiberglass bathtub looking like I tried to chew the edge off. The other one was worse, as I
regained consciousness on the floor of my bathroom in the morning, with major injuries again, but this time also
with "pooled" blood bruises up-and-down an entire side/back of my body (in addition to new major concentrated
bruises). With many other more moderate events coincident with cold/flu medicines, I decided to take it as a
causal connection, and to avoid such medicines. I didn't have another closely life-threatening t/c until late
2006, when a t/c resulted in injuries giving me a frontal subdural hematoma that gave me the moniker "3 Hours
2 Live."

I later found out that the "speckled" or "freckled" spots/rash was probably a version of "petechiae hemorrage."

On another forum I posted links to info sites about such hemorrage:

I think a pinprick rash might be seizure petechiae, or petechial, hemorrhage.

My worst experience with a pair of "bespeckled" semi-blackened-eyes and "pinpricked" face happened after I took
over-the-counter cold/flu medication and had a major seizure a couple hours later in my sleep. I looked
like a strangulation victim on a forensics crime show for a couple days afterwards.

A very minor case of seizure petechiae is at:

http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fullte...

A more severe case is at: (Valsalva retinopathy)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2170239/pdf/v065...

A chemical/seizure induced version is at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1294829/pdf/jrso...

Short Forensics of Petechial Hemorrage is at:

http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/petechial-hemorrhage

An Abstract of Petechial haemorrhage following a partial seizure with secondary generalization: atypical
presentation and differential diagnosis, is at:

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S105913110580166...

Tadzio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver

A pathologic syndrome associated with the Valsalva maneuver is Valsalva retinopathy.[13] It presents as
preretinal hemorrhage (bleeding in front of the retina) in people with a history of transient increase in the
intrathoracic pressure. The bleeding may be associated with a history of heavy lifting, a forceful coughing,
straining on the toilet, or vomiting. The bleeding may cause a reduction of vision if it obstructs the visual
axis. Patients may also note floaters in their vision. Usually a full recovery of vision is made.