Question for Ellie
 

When I was speaking to Michael's doctor the other day, she said that my head injury as a child which was to the back of my head behind my right ear resulting in a skull fracture and concussion (and coma) could not be related to me having olfactory seizures.

Okay Ellie the brain expert...what do you think?

That's a term I'm not too savvy with, however, I kind of always thought it was an aura (if you meant odors). The way I always thought of that type was it was an aura, and I know you do have things similar to mine (within the Parietal lobe).

Head trauma can cause seizures, with seizures come auras (as I always thought of the oldfactory type). So essentially, assuming you meant smelling things that aren't there by 'oldfactory' - that could very well be your 'aura' and then the other sensations be your seizure.

Now I do know there are seizure types like this that maybe your doctor isn't familiar with since they actually are rare (except to us, huh?). They are also hard to detect resulting in unfortunate cases of misdiagnoses and treatment for mental disorders. All Sensory Seizures seem to be something that is harder for a doctor to accept than a patient, or at least from my personal experiences.

It's weird your doctor would say that because head trauma is a common cause for seizures. Your seizure types can change over time, which he should also know that. What's annoying is they all use oldfactory in a different way; auras, seizures, migraines, hallucinations, etc.

My opinion? That area is pretty close to the areas that could very well cause some sensory type of seizures, then again you could hit the front of your head and injure the back of your brain (hello impact). I'd go to someone else and carry information in with you. Some things are so rare doctors seem to assume they just don't exist, or if you don't appear to be severely 'damaged' that you're fine.

I can't complain myself, I do smell random things sometimes but mine are auras. Sometimes I will have a seizure, sometimes not. I also hear things, but it's normally music, so I don't mind it too much. The thing I keep in mind is these things don't happen for NO reason, there is an underlying reason that should be investigated in case this starts to snowball and end up being a bigger problem.

While epilepsy isn't a 'disease' - our seizures can spread and the types can change at any given time.

So in short, I'd talk to a different doctor. :D