Hi Sue and everyone here. I started having seizures when I was 12 about 6 months before my first period. Well, that is when grand mal seizures started. i wonder if I had petit mal or absence seizures before that as there were times in school where everyone had already learned something and knew what to do and I had no idea what they were talking about. i was too afraid at that time to tell anyone about this because I thought they would think I was crazy(even at the age of 8 I thought this). lucky for me I was able to pick up things in school relatively easily so no one knew I was having problems. Not until I had one and was unconscious for at least several minutes when I was 12. At first i don't think i convulsed and then put me in the hospital and did all the tests that they did back then to discover what was wrong and found nothing but I continued to have these "spells" They mostly happened at school where I was usually stressed out. I was a very serious kid and worried all the time about everything.

These "spells" started to become grand mal seizures and they put me on dilantin. The only time anything ever showed up on an EEG was when I was 13 and they showed abnormal spikes and told me I definitely had epilepsy and I continued on this med. i was also on phenobarbital at the time as I had a headached for four years that never went away and it was determined to be a tension headache so my regular doc had me on the phenobarb for that. I also went to biofeedback for the headaches and saw Psychiatrists etc. the headache finally left me when I was near the end of the 10th grade but the seizures continued, usually at school. They especially happened in stressful classes like Frech class when I would have an oral exam in front of the class. boom I would have a seizure. i was so terrified of dong that in front of everyone it caused the seizures. My French teacher finally started taking me out in the hall to do the oral exams alone with her so I wasn't so scared.

Over the years I did notice that the seizures usually would happen the week before my period or just after it. sometimes the first day into it. I had long periods lasting at least ten days and heavy ones too. I also started getting migraines at this time.

One thing i wanted to say though is that I have gone through pretty much every test including several VEEGS and of course they never see anything wrong to the point where Mayo Clinic says I have seizures of undetermined cause. Of course I had problems with the neurologists there as some only listened to parts of my story or what my boyfriend said would happen as I lose consciousness. and the residents wrote things down that I never said etc. It got to be quite a mess there and I have to say that there was one good neurologist there but i ended up seeing other ones for seizures and they were all too busy to listen.

but Sue you said something about asking for a WADA test to determine where tor what was causing the seizures? I had thought that this test was only done for surgical candidates to determine where their speech and language areas where in their brain as everyone's isn't the same. Is this a test that most people have even if surgery hasn't ever been talked about?

sorry for the long intro i just wanted to explain where I was coming from.

thanks,
Sara