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Provoked or not

Mon, 10/28/2019 - 11:16
Hello there! Last summer, almost 1.5 year ago I had a Tonic Clonic in my sleep at the age of 28. It is the only one I have had. My gf contacted an ambulance and I had to run CT scans and several other tests with no abnormal findings. A year after my final examination, I looked at my medical journal and fond they had written ¨A typical Unprovoked first time seizure of unknown source¨. It even says I had slept well, which says a lot about how much they rush through things. Even though I told the doctors all about the time that probably led to the seizure. For both legal and personal reasons I would like to gain some insight from you. I Have understand that having an unprovoked seizure in the medical history can lead to some restrictions. In chronological order, what probably lead up to my seizure where some what as follows: (Short version below) I had been long time stressed out about my economical situation, since I had been unemployed for about 8 months, only been working at my families company in a few days a month. For the same time i had been worried about my long distance relationship that I felt was not going to last much longer if nothing happened with my career and knowing what city to live in. (These were just small factors, but could have been affecting me) I had just started to take some allergy pills against hay fever, witch I after looked up can have a bad affect on people with seizure. I had an opportunity for a job, which required me to go a quite intense full day course in a different city and the 3-4 nights before i had gotten around 4-5h sleep per night since the really hot summer and bright light from missing curtains, while worrying about my current situation. The day of the course I had to get up before 6 am when I usually went up at 11 since lack of good sleep and I didnt have time or any hunger for any breakfast. I just bought a NOCCO energy drink on the way. I skipped lunch since it was still before my regular breakfast time. I met up with my GF and her friend when the course was finished at around 8 pm. They had dinner at a fancy restaurant, but since my economy, i just settled with the smallest basket of french fries I have ever seen. I was still to tired to think of food, but probably needed som energy from it. At 11 pm we decided to drive the 2 hour drive back home instead of staying in the city. I was so tired that when less than 30 min left home, I opened the NOCCO, which apparently had more caffeine then 2 red-bulls. I finished it just when parking and within 5 minutes I was in bed. I Remember the caffeine from the energy drink was fighting my tiredness and felt like my brain was att full speed and full break at the same time. Probably trying to process all information from the course. It was still so bright and warm, but to battle the energy drink I put a sweatshirt over my face to cover the bright light from the windows. I woke up after a few minutes, all soaked in sweat, but put the sweatshirt back on and fell asleep. Next I woak up with my girlfriend worried sick and told me I had som kind of seizure and had called an ambulance. So, short version: Long time stress - economical and relationship Allergy pills Lack of sleep- Never had been so tired in my life Low blood sugar - No breakfast, minor dinner and just a small dinner the night before. Mentally strained High caffeine during sleep Overheated, possible lack of oxygen from the sweatshirt It doesn't sound like a great combo, and I know any of these factor doesn't really count for as a provoked factor except from maybe the blood sugar if it was more extreme, but I have never read anything about several factors together would count as a provoked seizure. Would you say all this together would fit under the terms provoked? It would be nice to hear if i should except any seizure in the future or if this was just a bad combo of events that I probably never will be near of again. I have read that really low blood sugar can lead to something called hypoglycemic seizure. Even for people not diagnosed with diabetes. I probably had some blood sugar left since the french fries ¨dinner¨ but together with the caffeine (which can affect the bodys blood sugar regulation) can that have lead up to it? Some interesting read: https://www.livestrong.com/article/402727-hypoglycemia-caffeine/ Hypoglycemia is commonly linked to diabetes. This refers to lower than normal blood sugar levels. However, you can experience hypoglycemia without having diabetes, in which case it's called nondiabetic hypoglycemia. Balancing blood sugar is crucial regardless of whether you have diabetes, since glucose plays a major role in fueling your body. Caffeine, which is commonly consumed in a wide variety of beverages and other forms, can disrupt your natural blood glucose balance. Unfortunately it doesn't show any lack of bloodsugar in my bloodsample since I got glucose from the ambulance so Im just assuming here. Anyone have any experience of something similar? Thanks for your insight in this! /G

Comments

I’m a licensed clinical

Submitted by Patriotrehab on Mon, 2019-10-28 - 12:08
I’m a licensed clinical social worker and certified rehabilitation counselor as well as a person with epilepsy. It sounds like you are trying to have the final diagnosis changed from “unprovoked” to “provoked”. Like you said the only thing that is possible within your history that may help you get your records amended is a low blood sugar, but if blood work wasn’t done at the time that may be hard to do because even as I read your story what sounds more likely as a trigger is “sleep deprivation”. Now, sleep deprivation can be a trigger but it doesn’t necessarily count as provoking the way that I understand it in the same way that low blood sugar does. It is not uncommon for someone who has their first seizure to have normal testing when they go to the hospital. You mentioned they did a CT and several other tests but you didn’t mention what they were, so it’s unclear if they did an EEG. Even if the EEG was within normal limits, this is often the case after the seizure has ended. Many people who have epilepsy have normal CT and MRI and blood work etc. My advice is to ask your another question. What is it that you really want to achieve? Why do you want to have this diagnosis changed? How is it affecting your life now? If it’s a job, the epilepsy foundation has some information and resources to help with that and I can also provide you with some advice. You did mention that there were legal issues surrounding your question and while we cannot provide you legal advice or tell you whether your seizure was provoked or unprovoked, it can help us direct you to the informational resources that are available if we understand how you believe this diagnosis is affecting your life. Someone from the epilepsy foundation may be responding to you in the next few days.

Hi, Thank you for posting. We

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2019-10-28 - 16:09
Hi, Thank you for posting. We cannot determine if your seizure was “provoked” or “unprovoked”. It’s best that you follow-up with your healthcare provider to discuss this further and if you experience any changes in seizure types, frequency,behaviors and symptoms. For assistance and information regarding finding a specialist near you, or a second opinion, please visit:https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/diagnosis/you-and-your-healthcare-team/second-opinions https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/find-epilepsy-specialist Seizures can take on many different forms and affect different people in different ways. Learn more about seizures, here: https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/about-epilepsy-basics/what-happens-during-seizure As Gianna mentioned in her comment, for some a metabolic cause such as low blood sugar can caused “provoked” seizures,as well as a reaction to a prescribed or over-the-counter medication. Learn more about provoked seizures, here: https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/diagnosis/seizureAdditionally, for some people living with epilepsy things such a stress, or poor quality or lack of sleep can be a trigger. For additional information regarding triggers, visit: https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/triggers-seizuresYou may want to consider keeping a journal, or diary. My Seizure Diary: https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/epilepsy-foundation-my-seizure-diaryis a great tool for tracking seizures, setting reminders, recording medical history, medications, side effects, moods, behaviors, triggers, and other personal experiences, which can be shared with your healthcare team. Additionally, you may always contact our 24/7 Helpline, where trained information specialists are available to answer your questions, offer help, hope, support, guidance, and access to national and local resources. 1-800-332-1000, contactus@efa.org.  epilepsy.com/helpline

Thank you both for good

Submitted by Gurr on Fri, 2019-11-01 - 07:57
Thank you both for good information and useful links! Since this was just a one time event it does not affect my quality of life in any medical way but as for any legal reasons I understand the wrong ¨diagnos¨ could affect other things like insurances, possibilities for scuba diving, sky diving etcDon't get me wrong. I am very grateful this was only a one time event and it happened 1.5 years ago, but I feel I'm kind of stuck in a greyzone here.What I seek is advice how to approach this and if there would be any chance they would even consider changing my records. I thought before talking to the doctors involved I would reach out to you to get an opinion if I'm actually on to something or every healthy person should manage the situation I exposed myself to.At least for me this all sounds quite self inflicted, lowering the threshold a lot by sleep, stress, mentally strain etc and then kicking in the final with draining the blood sugar together with a sugar free powerful energy drink before sleep. I've also read that you should be careful with the allergy pills if you are epileptic (adding that to the cocktail). But as I mentioned in the first post, I have never seen any information of several factors adding up to something called a provoked seizure, by pushing your body to the limit and way further. In my case at least 5 or 6 factors all greatly linked triggers, combined together.I'm guessing there must be more people with similar situations.As for glucose blood sample, all I have is a value aprox 1 hour after glucose injection and is says 7.1mmol/L where normal values are 4.2 to 10.9 and I have no idea how much was injected after a suspected seizure or how much it normally raises the levels.CT MRI and EEG was made. All normal./G

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