Hey everyone. My friend just went to the hospital last weekend because he had been experiencing seizures. He claims to recall nothing slightly before or after each seizure. He's had other strange effects other than the seizures themselves that he was unaware of until told. He occaisionally had restless nights in bed making strange grunting sounds, once followed by a seizure. The doctors prescribed him Dilantin, and told him that sometimes "nothing" can cause seizures, but that answer seemed very... iffy. He all sorts of tests done, and was kept in the hospital for several days. My question(s) are... If the doctor wasn't being 100% truthful, or truely didn't know.. what are some POSSIBLE reasons for these seizures, and number 2, will his uncomfortable side effects from the dilantin wear off in time? Thank you very much.
2007-11-29 09:25:17 · 3 answers · asked by Caleb P 2 in Health ➔ Mental Health
Several types of seizures (complex partial, temporal lobe, and others) cause memory problems right before and for a while afterwards. Sometimes after I have a seizure I won't know what year it is or who certain people are. Seizures in your sleep aren't too uncommon either. I have had two tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizures that we know of, and they were both while I was asleep. This is often because your brain activity is changing as you go through different stages of sleep.
As far as the doctor's diagnosis, he was probably 100% truthful. I have had epilepsy for almost ten years now. After half a dozen EEGs, six days in a 24 hour EEG monitoring unit, 3 or 4 MRIs, a PET scan and a WADA test there seems to be no physical reason for me to have seizures. All we can figure is that I have them more often when I am stressed and don't have enough sleep. The lack of a cause seems to happen in about 50% of cases. The rest of the time the seizures can be traced to things like head trauma, tumors, cancer, or an illness of some kind.
As far as side effects, most anti-seizure medications have noticeable side effects. These often go away after a couple of weeks and if they don't, the side effects are usually mild enough to not cause problems. My appetite increased with my meds, I just have to be sure I don't let it make me overeat. I sometimes have mild mood swings, but my friends and family are used to it and just gently mention it to me so I can back off or whatever.
2007-11-30 05:29:40 · answer #1 · answered by gedd500 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
he will get used to the medication side effects. It usually takes about 2-3 weeks for the side effects to calm down. The amnesia, before and after seizures, however, are actually a part of the seizure itself. I have epilepsy and sometimes cannot tell when a seizure is coming on, and I do not even know I had a seizure sometimes unless someone tells me. I usually don't even know my own name for at least 15 minutes to a half hour after the seizure has ended. It's common and also normal to not know what is going on during seizure activity. Also, different things can cause convulsions for different people. Mine are caused by stress, no sleep, lack of potassium, or not taking my medications.
2007-11-29 19:23:05 · answer #2 · answered by krista 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hey i had seizures constantly last year and i had an eeg done and they told me I wasnt epeleptic... but I had a seizure during my EEG... Now Im on an anti convusant medicine but I'm not diagnosed with epilepsy... Sometimes medicines can cause seizures or just sometimes "nothing" and the doctors really dont know... The doctors had no idea what caused my seizures and they still dont :(
2007-11-29 17:38:41 · answer #3 · answered by Jackie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋