Hi All,

Thank you for your time in reading my thread. My wife (31yrs old) recently had a nocturnal seizure (and prior to this, she had another one exactly a year ago). She had absolutely no seizures her whole life, so its suprising how it came out of the blues.

Of lately, she has these episodes of confusion or at times she starts talking gibberish. These episodes only last about 10 mins, after which shes perfectly normal. She can remember everything up until the episode and everything after but feels like she doesn't know what happened in between.

Example scenario: I was in the kitchen couple weeks back, cutting vegetables, and she starts saying 'its good, its good' and starts to chuckle a little. At once i knew something wasn't right...so i move her to the couch so she can relax. Any questions i asked her, in the first minute she wasn't responding (but continue to say her own stuff), however after that, when i ask her questions like, do you know my name..she says 'i can't remember'...but when i ask the same question 5-6 mintutes later, she slowly is able to answer everything (a little slower than usual). In about 10 mintutes, she's fully normal and we can have a conversation.

I have spoken to the nuero, and she's on Tegretol (because of her second nuturnal seizure she was diagnosed with), and mentioned that the episodes that i described are very much Complex Partial Seizures. Her MRI's, EEG and sleep study all came back normal over the past year, as we have done multiple EEG and MRIs so far.
Whats odd about these seizures, i notice majority of them happen between 6pm - 8 pm (pretty much right after coming home from work), but cannot seem to find a trend what seems to be causing it. I know my wife walks about 30 mins to work or from work, and not sure if cardio aggravates these episodes.

If anyone is an expert on the topic, i would love to hear from you. Its best to hear from fellow friends in the forum about their experience, and how they able to beat it.

Hi rexpac

I have been given diagnosis of mild partial complex seizure disorder, with a single event of grand mal seizure (related to life threatening medical emergency on the grand mal decades ago). It was actually a neuropsychologist who identified it, and neurologists along the way since who confirmed the diagnosis.

All of my EEG's are consistently normal.

I'm not familiar with nocturnal seizures.

What has been most effective for me in terms of managing them has been Keppra-XR. To my knowledge, at my current dose of Keppra, I am not experiencing these events for a few years now. I've not been tried on the med your wife is on.

All I have to go on regarding how my partial seizures exhibit is feedback given to me from those who have directly observed them. Not very helpful to you given I have lived alone for over a decade until the past year.

I have noticed that these below things do seem to contribute to bringing them on for me:

repetitive beats/measures in certain types of music, especially in the bass tones

flashing lights, especially strobe lights which are more "penetrating"

overdoing it, such as in situations that require a lot of focus and concentration to "attend" to the task, that would include extended conversations.

fatigue

feeling unwell, such as coming down with an infection - that sort of thing

pain flares, lots of "brain drain" for me with those (c-spine issues), ties in with fatigue as well

just a few which come to mind at the moment. It's been a while since I had any, so going on swiss cheese memory

Now in terms of my sensation of one coming on, I have about a 30 minute window with mine. Initial things I recognize that a partial seizure event might be coming on is things start getting really loud. Head feels weird. I call those head sensations "fuzzy headaches". They don't hurt so technically aren't headaches, but I've never quite known what else to call them

Within that 30 minute window, I have to step away from the situation into a quiet environment and that helps.

If I miss the mark on my 30 minute window, my hearing becomes so sensitive that while everything is sounding louder and louder at the same time I can hear even someone tapping a pen on their desk far across the room as though it was happening right next to my ear.

I've been told, when I was experiencing these events frequently, that I have said things (which when repeated back to me after the event is completely different from my cognitive memory of what I said - it's happened too many times over 29 years post TBI for it to be less than candid feedback)

I've also had these partial seizure events where I only had memory of the events preceding the event and only awareness after the event that something had happened as had a memory blank of a few minutes unaccounted for. According to those who observed these, I was verbalizing and such and they had not a clue that anything was "off".

I've also encountered during these events a loss in ability to speak for a few minutes. The weird part about my particular partial complex seizures is I have some awareness of it happening at the time, yet am somewhat disconnected from the external environment at the same time.

Now, my personal situation diagnosis is MILD partial complex seizure disorder. From what I gather from your post concerning your wife, it sounds like her neuro is not ascribing "mild" to her diagnosis. So hopefully others with more experience along the lines of what is happening to your wife can add more insight.

I will add this though. I did for a time have a service animal, specifically a cat. Best decision I ever made. Cats are particularly sensitive in picking up signals of an oncoming seizure event, as well as even migraine events. Low maintenance animals too.

I had times when Tigger woke me up in the middle of the night when I was having an apnea event. He knew a couple hours before I did of an oncoming migraine. He "told" me by his behavior.

I first got Tigger before I was put on Keppra for seizures. I can't count how may times Tiggs would get in my face just before one of those was coming on, long before my 30 minute window.

That is one option, if you have no cat allergies in the home, you may want to consider.

Dogs are also wonderful service animals as an option. Most folks, when they hear service animal, tend to relate only to "seeing eye dogs".

Cats and dogs BOTH are excellent service animals for individuals with seizure disorders. They are costly to purchase already trained, or to pay for one to be trained. I trained Tigger myself, after all he was my "assistive device" so he needed to learn me and my needs, only I could teach him that.

sidebar: tigger passed away a couple of years ago, but I hope to be able to have the means soon to have another service animal

rexpac,

It is great to have you come and be with us. You will fine a great number of dear friends to listen when you are in need of ears. Please, just let us know how we can help you out. You will find out we are supportive and relaxing place.

IN the past when I had seizures I could always hear questions a person was asking, but unable to move my mouth to respond back. After I few minutes past I was back to my regular self. Then again at times I would have to lay down for a while.

My advice to you is to have your wife go to an Epilepsy Center which are usually at university hospitals and have her see an Epileptologist. This is a Dr. who specializes in Epilepsy. Keep your wife away from a lot of food with carbs. and starch in them because it can trigger seizures and start giving her vitamin B12 once a day this helps calms the nerves down. Also keep a journal and write down what time she has any seizures along with a description by doing this the Dr. may see a pattern in the seizures. Also when in the theater watching a movie, avoid seeing the flashing lights by turning her head and closing her eyes.

Please keep us up to date on your condition. Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Hi rexpac,

Welcome to the forum! I'm no neuro but I've had absence and complex partial sz. for over 30 yrs. and what you are describing sounds like your wife may be having complex partial sz. Ask your wife the following questions:
Does she see colors flashing back and forth in her eyes?
Does she get a nervous feeling in her stomach or smell odd odour before she blanks out?
Does she hear one word repeated over and over again and during all of this time she's still conscious?
Have you noticed her smacking her lips, or pulling at her clothes and then wandering around? If you or your wife have seen or felt any of these things this is a complex partial sz. and I've found taking vimpat the best thing for my sz. Since I was put on vimpat I've only had 1 complex partial sz. this yr.
In regards to the time of your wifes sz. I often will have either an absence or complex partial sz. early in the morning or later in the afternoon on certain days of the month. This could all be hormone related or if there's a low pressure in the weather that can sometime trigger sz for people.
I wish you and your wife only the best and May God Bless You Both!

Sue

Thanks so much for replying.
I did ask her all the questions you mentioned below, when she got her last complex partial seizure, and she said she felt perfectly normal. What was funny, we were having a full conversation about her colleague at work and how he gave his resignation, and in split second she says 'its sad for the other collegues who work in his team, just as the doctor told me'.
The moment i heard the word doctor in her sentence i knew something just went wrong suddenly. At that point she was a little confused and i believe the complex partial seizure kicked in. She was basically having supper...so i tried to observe her , and if she was doing anything different, but she continued eating normally and in about 5 mins, she was fully concious.
I too didn't see any signs prior to her episode. She does have headaches that start on the right temple, and it happens 2-3 times a week. The night before the latest complex seizure mentioned above, she mentioned of headaches on the right side of the temple. Sometimes i feel its the medication but sometimes i feel like everything is related.
Maybe i will have her take B12 supplements, as Darlene suggested, or even Fish oil, as i heard that too works, and monitor her process.


Just a question on Vimpat, are there any side effects for you? All these meds say people get sucidal thoughts, and it freaks me out.

Hi rexpac,

In regards to the vimpat there have been side effects of depression and suicide but that happens with many seizure meds and within time a person will get over the feeling. So far I haven't had any bad side effects from the vimpat except when my Dr. put me to high of a dosage (400 mg) and that caused me to have more seizures than when I was put on 250 mg. a day.
Your wife may feel tired at first when and if she goes on the drug but after awhile it goes away and you don't feel tired.
When I first started having seizures I would have wicked headaches before any seizures and this was a migraine headache which in turn lead to seizures for me. This could be what's going on with your wife. Also if the Dr. finds she has any problem in the temporal lobe this may put her though her change early in life which can trigger more seizures, headaches, and short term memory loss. Another thing your wife may want to try is magnesium this has been known to help some people with their seizures. I've never tried it but I have a lot of friends that have tried it and it has worked great for them. Here's wishing you and your family only the best and May God Bless All of You!

Sue