Posted by Elizabeth on October 28, 2001, at 10:13:51
In reply to Re: stuff » Elizabeth, posted by judy1 on October 26, 2001, at 22:54:59
Hi Judy.
> I've had 2 fairly serious car accidents in the last 3 years, both resulting in gran mal seizures, the last 30 minutes LOC.
(You mean "resulting *from* grand mal seizures," right?)
If the seizure lasted 30 minutes, that would be considered generalized status epilepticus -- very serious. It's a good thing that you survived. Maybe the loss of consciousness could be a postictal phenomenon, I don't know. I did have a pretty long-lasting lapse in memory this most recent time.
The episodes I've had are very infrequent and would be considered complex partial seizures (if they were, indeed, seizures at all). "Partial" means that seizure activity is confined to one part of the brain, and "complex" means that there is a disturbance of consciousness (memory loss).
> My cycling (bipolar) has considerably worsened since the first accident, and my shrink feels there is a connection between bipolar, panic and epilepsy which is why he wants a thorough work-up in the hospital.
Are you only having generalized (grand mal) seizures? A lot of people with epilepsy have psychiatric problems too, especially mood disorders (sometimes called "interictal dysphoria"), and sometimes limbic seizures can present as panic attacks.
> I have had normal CTs, EEGs and MRIs- except for herniated discs that 2 neurosurgeons will not touch because of my mood disorder, apparently they have had very little luck in surgery on people with depression and often a very rocky post-op course.
That's curious. Perhaps they want people to discontinue their medications before surgery. That could certainly make the recovery "rocky."
> Does trileptal work for you?
I can't tell if it works. I haven't had another episode since I've been taking it, but then, the interval between the last one and the one before that had been around 6 months.
> I have memory and dissociation problems- probably attributable to my dissociative disorder but I happen to have a very thorough pdoc.
Seizures, even partial seizures, often cause memory lapses and dissociative symptoms. Don't rule it out.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:81137
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011025/msgs/82481.html