Yah, I hear the same. The general dr I have says most eegs wont show stuff deep in the brain but this neuro (whos really old) seems to think if an eeg doesnt show it then its a convergance disorder or something. I dont want to be tagged with that, as I know its not. Its wc so they arent going to pay for multiple eegs or more in depth ones. Its hard getting proper treatment being on this.

Also ,I was really tired last night and didnt sleep well the night before. As I was falling asleep (like you know your asleeep but your not, only half asleep, know what I mean?) all I kept seeing was lighting and flashing lights in my eyelids and getting a weird feeling in my head and some slight twitching. Happens a lot when im overtired. I did end up sleeping fairly good, but I noticed when I woke up the bed was a mess, pillows everywhere and on the ground and blankets all thrown around. Odd.

Hi Bruins,

I will tell you one thing you should always avoid is nutra sweet (aspartame) which is in diet soda and many other products. It has been proven that nutra sweet causes more electrical activity in a persons brain which in turn fires up the neurons and that leads to sz. I found that out the hard way after buying diet soda and having many sz. Another thing that bothers a lot of people is foods that have MSG in it, this will often cause sz. for many people also.
I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue

Thank you. Just a bit nervous that the doctor is saying that if the eeg is normal then I have a convergence issue.

Hi Bruins,

If the Dr. says the e.e.g is normal then tell the Dr. to do a PET and SPECT scan on you if you haven't had one or have him order a video e.e.g. where you will be admitted into the hospital and be on camera around the clock then the Dr. can see what's going on with you 24 hrs. each day. The only other thing they can do is a depth electrode e.e.g. where they do surgery and put at least 7 electrodes directly on the brain and see what's going on. I wish you only the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue

Hi all. Just had the sleep deprived eeg done the other day. Dont remember to much of it because I was so tired but I remember a few things.

The tech kept saying your doing good, almost like to calm me down sort of thing which I found odd because the last time I had one done (non sleep deprived) the tech never really said anything.

I was getting some intense vertigo for some odd reason when the test started and a few times in between. Also kept getting a weird feeling in my stomach and the left side of my face kept tingling and twitching once in a while which was weird.

The hyperventilation part was really odd for me. It only felt like 30-60 seconds long but after the test was done she said it was 3 minutes long. I do remember my left thumb kept going out of control for bits at a time which was weird. After they laid me back down to try to fall asleep I felt like I was convulsing a little. It was almost like a shiver/quivering. Started in my stomach/hip area I think then went to my left arm and then to my legs. I tried stopping it but it kept happening every 10 seconds or so for about a minute then it stopped. Was really weird, I kept kicking the end of the bed when it happened. I know I raised up off the bed almost in a thrusting motion with my hips when it happened. Was really strange because I dont recall ever having that happen. My teeth occasionally chattered as well.

Thats really all I remeber. The tech just kept saying you did a good job and to try to relax my facial muscles. She said that a lot and kept asking if I had a headache. Yup, I was exhausted and had a pounding headache sorry.

Probably wont find out results till monday she said. Im not sure if one happened because Im assuming they would stop the test and have to tell me correct? Dont even know if the tech would know by looking at the monitor or not.

Couldnt fall asleep though sadly which really stunk considering how tired I actually was.

Thoughts? Thanks!

Hi Bruins,
It sounds like you had 2 types of sz. during your test. When you had the tingling and weird feeling in your stomach that sounds like a simple partial (aura) sz. and with the jerking around it may have been a grand mal or it could have just been a complex partial sz. and your body was jerking around I'm not sure. Either way the e.e.g. should show what area of the brain is triggering the sz. if it doesn't then it will prove any damage is to deep in your brain to show on the e.e.g. and you need to have the PET and SPECT scans then. I often will feel tired and sometimes I get headaches after a sz. it's all part of the sz. I have found if I stay awake the sleepy feeling goes away faster. I wish you only the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue

Bruins88 - Generally they don't stop the EEG, they keep getting data. That is the one time where more seizure data is a good thing (if you are in status, they will treat that). Hopefully they got something helpful and if they need to see your sleep patterns than you might do better with in patient monitoring. I had no idea that my daughter had abnormal discharges on her sleep deprived EEG, thought it had been a bust when it wasn't (then she only showed activity during sleep, don't think it would take as much effort now to show activity).

Hi Bruins and all,
I hope you don't mind me joining this discussion when it has been going on for awhile.*I feel my story has a lot to offer, but I'm fairly new here. I'm assuming when you say "convergence disorder" you mean conversion disorder? I too had a neurologist give me that label, which caused and still causes a lot of havoc with the quality of health care I have been given. I had a therapist say she doesn't think I have conversion disorder (I was referred to this therapy by a neurologist because of this label), and even though I've had abnormal EEGs! I've also had what I was told were "normal" ones, but find that this is subjective to who is reading the EEG. I also had a set of "tonic clonic" (grand mals) while waking from a medical procedure (upper endoscopy using propoval as anesthesia, which is known to lower the "seizure threshold.")* I was told it is impossible to have anything but actual epileptic seizures in this state! Bottom line, I believe I have had a couple non-epileptic seizures after my body learned from actual epileptic seizures to respond to stress that way, and I find that is not uncommon. And I want to be as healthy as possible, psychologically as well as physically, so continued with the therapy (but still believe most of my current stress and depression was caused from what the doctors put me thru in not taking my actual physical problems serious, even other problems that turned out to be life threatening.)

But back to you. It sounds like your meds are helping some, but not all the way.* After I had a mini stroke, the hospitalist, after listening to "my side" of my history, changed my seizure meds which weren't making much of a difference to yet another med (good ol' keppra) while in the hospital, and I noticed an immediate improvement.* I had "breakthru" seizures a few weeks later on a couple of occasions (but great improvement from having some sort of seizures a couple times a week, and the ones later were not nearly as severe). When I realized I was on a really low dose of keppra, I talked my general practitioner into following my seizure meds and increasing this med, as I had given up on the neurologist who wasn't helping and not having good luck finding a new one. He agreed as long as I don't get worse. The seizures have now disappeared as long as I take my meds as scheduled! Even when I developed a couple of other very serious medical conditions and had a lot of stressors in my life! It has been over a year now, and my life has greatly improved in this respect! I'm not saying to forget finding a neurologist, quite the opposite. I'm saying to keep fighting for the medical care you need, and there is light at the end of the tunnel! I know I will eventually need to find another neurologist for this and past strokes. Your seizure condition sounds eerily similar to how I presented, (altho my TBI was stroke, and mini strokes), I apparently had partial seizures that would "generalize," on occasion, and that is now finally the general consensus in my medical records. Keep advocating for yourself, and keep your chin up, no matter what you are told. Hugzzzzzzzzzz to anyone dealing with seizures or their loved ones dealing with seizures. It is a long, hard road, that needs to be continually monitored forever after you have had any dealings with it. But most of the time, it is manageable!

Thank you for the response I appreciate it. I really don't want to get hit with that because I know for a fact its not true. I also rarely get them in stressful situations to be honest. I usually just get a migraine. A lot of times they happen in bed or when im home alone all day or just with my wife. So yea I dont know.

But I wanted to add, during the one I talked about where it felt like i was dramatically shivering and hip thrustring I was mostly aware because I do remember trying to stop it but I couldn't. Not sure if I was fully aware. It was just really weird especially because my feet couldn't reach the end of the bed but I remember kicking it and it hitting the wall. Im not sure it was just so strange.

Its the vertigo I kept having that confused me. Ive never had that present during an episode. I honestly dont know. Was just figuring the techs would of told me.

Should note when I say hip thrust i mean my back arched pushing my pelvis into the air. I know I went to the right because they had to reposition me. Sorry just weirded out by it.