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New to this experience

Fri, 06/29/2018 - 09:34
My 18 yr old daughter recently had her first seizure, lasted about 20-30 seconds. She has had morning "shakes" for the past 4 years. Always in the morning and always currently/after dealing with lack of sleep or stress at school. We dealt with them as the dropsies for a while then had our family practice doctor say that the stress and sleep deprivation was the major cause. Didn't think anything but a change in daily routines would correct it or she would just grow out of it. And for the most part, it has helped. The morning of her seizure happened to coincide with college orientation. Little sleep and stress about her first year at college and her schedule setup was a definite factor. We went to the ER and she thought she had a complete recollection of the events so they treated it as a spasm, gave her some fluids and she was able to finish the day, complete her college schedule and continue on through the weekend. All bloodwork and reaction tests were normal. The following Monday we saw a doctor, again tests were normal but they explained that the morning dropsies were in fact mini seizures. We were scheduled to see a neurologist the next day. The neurologist didn't even hesitate when my daughter explained her symptoms; JME. She was put on Lamictal and EEG is scheduled for next week. Needless to say, I am in shock still and feeling guilty about not taking the morning dropsies as serious as I should have. It's been a week and the Lamictal has showed no side effects and she hasn't had any morning shakes or seizure incidents. I'm not confident that the EEG will show anything since the exam and CT scan were also normal. Her only issue now, 7 days later is a very sore upper middle back (on muscle relaxers for that) and an occasional but brief feeling of paranoia? Hard to explain but it passed in around a minute. I guess my whole point to this explanation is to reassure myself that we are doing the right thing and she is on the right track. Never had a tonic clonic seizure before and hopefully we won't see it happen again. She is extremely athletic, teaches martial arts and is in amazing physical condition and I hate to see that part of her life, which she loves, suffer in any way. Is this something that some just grow out of? Is the Lamictal the right way to go? Just from following posts here and elsewhere I almost hate to say she has epilepsy mainly because her case seems to be minor in comparison and I don't want to belittle the term but this site has helped already in understanding that she is not alone.

Comments

Her EEG on meds may be clear.

Submitted by Amy Jo on Fri, 2018-06-29 - 10:35
Her EEG on meds may be clear. I’m not really up on JME wrt EEGs and EEGs can be clear for many people with epilepsy. Still I would think she’s got a good chance of having generalized related activity show up as lamotrigine is increased (or weaned) slowly.JME is a significant diagnosis and not surprising given your story. Many people need to stay on meds decades or lifelong with JME.

have you read about JME in

Submitted by Amy Jo on Fri, 2018-06-29 - 10:48
have you read about JME in the learn section of this site?https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-syndromes/juvenile-myoclonic-epilepsy

Thanks for the reply. You

Submitted by pope0528 on Fri, 2018-06-29 - 13:24
Thanks for the reply. You mean to say that her ‘jerks’ and possible seizures may increase now that she is on meds? Kind of confusing since meds are supposed to stabilize it. 

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