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Seizure or no Seizure?
Wed, 08/29/2018 - 11:01Topic: Share Your Story
My mom's new neurologist started seizure med for my 78-year-old mom in April 2018. All medical tests showed no sign of seizure when she was admitted. Is there any medical test that could confirm seizure to support the personal opinion of a neurologist? Some family member mentioned seizure when she was admitted but I did not notice any of the 6-7 symptoms of the seizure. She was diagnosed for Urinary Track Infection and treated with antibiotics, she was back to normal in two weeks. The neurologist continued one-month monitoring of her heart with some medical device, which showed no seizure issues, all was normal. In August 2018, we noticed an infection in her feet, sudden slow down in her responses, some confusion, and unexpected weight gain after starting KEPPRA. This time also all medical tests showed no sign of seizure. I approached neurologist yesterday to review his decision about KEPPRA med and it's the side-effects. He stayed firm with his decision and continued KEPPRA. We are going to continue with KEPPRA and monitor her because we want to take no chances with her life. I personally feel that neurologist made a wrong decision to diagnose seizure and start KEPPRA.
It is super(super!!!) common
Submitted by Amy Jo on Thu, 2018-08-30 - 00:38
It is super(super!!!) common to have seizures start when people are older, happened to my mom after what docs thought likely microstrokes but tests for diagnosing her would have been more stressful than the treatment (benzos treat anxiety and seizures - floor polish and an ice cream topping as one engineer I knew like to characterize solutions sometimes, but this was because she was on hospice that we didn't expect her to be on any medication long term but long term such drugs introduce other problems). There is no test for epilepsy that would exclude epilepsy, there are tests that can include epilepsy (but not 100%). Epilepsy is excluding pretty much everything else. Keppra is a fabulous drug if it doesn't cause awful side effects (some people love it). It's great because it doesn't interact with any other meds. One of the complications in treating seniors is that they are often on a lot of other medications. Epilepsy meds generally introduce a lot of complexity into possible adverse drug interactions - keppra introduces very few potential problems that way, it's a huge plus. Another common issue is that kidneys and livers don't work as well so drugs are not metabolized well. Your mom can get a second opinion if she wants.