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Short Term Memory Loss
Tue, 09/21/2004 - 12:42Comments
RE: RE: RE: Short Term Memory Loss
Submitted by Simpson_Jr on Fri, 2004-09-17 - 17:18
Hi everyone,
I'm Bart, new to this forum, 39 years old, epileptic for ~27 years, diagnosed at age 25 and I'm using trileptal(4 x 600mg) which seems to work fine. I live in the Netherlands.
Memory...
At age 12 I noticed that I couldn't read books anymore, for some reason I sometimes forgot the first half of a book when I wanted to read the second half. So, I asked my mum, but she didn't realize something special was happening and... I thought it was normal to forget this much. At age 25 I had my first grandmal and I lost a half year of memory. I once lost 18 months of memory and I didn't even remember my mother inlaw had died. It felt as if I hadn't supported my girlfriend and her.
Anyway... since memory had become something very special I also starting noticing the "smaller" losses (missing first halves of books) without noticable seizure, all my seizures are nocturnal b.t.w. It took me three neurologists before my suspicion of petit-mals was taken serious, but luckily I had a petit mal during the first eeg taken while being asleep. Luckily because I knew something was wrong, I had no proof, the neuro's didn't believe me and I almost started thinking I was going nuts (well... more as I already was ;-).
As others already wrote, it can be hard explaining memoryloss to people without memoryloss. I've also been accused of things which I simply can't remember, maybe it was my fault, maybe it wasn't, I just don't know. Also, sometimes I almost get aplause for changing a lightbulb and likewise I've often seen dumb gazing faces when I explained things based on a little more logic.
To be honest, sometimes I wonder what I would choose if I could, an IQ of 75 and a full year of memory every year or... as now, an IQ of 128 and 2-8 months missing. But.... I don't have the choice.
Anyway, it's weekend, time for some fun :-)
Best wishes,
Bart.
Hi everyone,
I'm Bart, new to this forum, 39 years old, epileptic for ~27 years, diagnosed at age 25 and I'm using trileptal(4 x 600mg) which seems to work fine. I live in the Netherlands.
Memory...
At age 12 I noticed that I couldn't read books anymore, for some reason I sometimes forgot the first half of a book when I wanted to read the second half. So, I asked my mum, but she didn't realize something special was happening and... I thought it was normal to forget this much. At age 25 I had my first grandmal and I lost a half year of memory. I once lost 18 months of memory and I didn't even remember my mother inlaw had died. It felt as if I hadn't supported my girlfriend and her.
Anyway... since memory had become something very special I also starting noticing the "smaller" losses (missing first halves of books) without noticable seizure, all my seizures are nocturnal b.t.w. It took me three neurologists before my suspicion of petit-mals was taken serious, but luckily I had a petit mal during the first eeg taken while being asleep. Luckily because I knew something was wrong, I had no proof, the neuro's didn't believe me and I almost started thinking I was going nuts (well... more as I already was ;-).
As others already wrote, it can be hard explaining memoryloss to people without memoryloss. I've also been accused of things which I simply can't remember, maybe it was my fault, maybe it wasn't, I just don't know. Also, sometimes I almost get aplause for changing a lightbulb and likewise I've often seen dumb gazing faces when I explained things based on a little more logic.
To be honest, sometimes I wonder what I would choose if I could, an IQ of 75 and a full year of memory every year or... as now, an IQ of 128 and 2-8 months missing. But.... I don't have the choice.
Anyway, it's weekend, time for some fun :-)
Best wishes,
Bart.
nocturnal - trileptal - petit-mals - grandmal
Submitted by robbiesmom on Sat, 2007-12-22 - 22:11
New - nocturnal - trileptal - petit-mals - grandmal
One more thing that I forgot to mention, he recently had a problem with dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea ect. days nothing stayed in him. Not even water. They ran a series of hepatic test, and sure enough, they found his kidney function was off a bit. She did notice an issue that needs to be retested. I am not kidney/liver function savvy so I am a bit ignorant concerning this. I have read it true that these meds kill your kidney/liver function? I know his Trileptal is supposed to be one of the less concerning meds, but a little concern is enough for me.
Please keep in mind, he cannot remember to write things down, nor can he write well enough to do this and same with his reading.
Robbies mom
New - nocturnal - trileptal - petit-mals - grandmal
One more thing that I forgot to mention, he recently had a problem with dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea ect. days nothing stayed in him. Not even water. They ran a series of hepatic test, and sure enough, they found his kidney function was off a bit. She did notice an issue that needs to be retested. I am not kidney/liver function savvy so I am a bit ignorant concerning this. I have read it true that these meds kill your kidney/liver function? I know his Trileptal is supposed to be one of the less concerning meds, but a little concern is enough for me.
Please keep in mind, he cannot remember to write things down, nor can he write well enough to do this and same with his reading.
Robbies mom
RE: RE: Short Term Memory Loss
Submitted by LeeMc on Tue, 2004-09-07 - 19:21
Hi everybody, Lee here. I have been diagnosed for over 30 years and controlled for 30 with Dilantin and Mysolin. I am 54 and running in to age related issues so have been seeking re-evaluation of a lot of things. I have learned, through research, that both my memory loss and my disinterest in sex (both of which I have had for many years now) can be side effects of my meds as well as the natural course of menopause. Not thrilled to learn that some of the meds used to treat one issue can (and are) being rendered less effective by the meds for the other issue.....and vise versa! Hopefully we can find a happy medium somewhere here. I can only laugh at myself and my racing thoughts "that keep forgetting to stop on their way through my mind" for so long! Seisures remain under control but quality of life is starting to leave a lot to be desired....It is frustrating - but I'll take "racing thoughts" anyday over the seisures again....but I am going to make sure that isn't the direction this old body is taking me! I do not have a 'giving up' attutude so I'll let you all know if anthing exciting happens............Lee