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Marine with siezures
Tue, 05/25/2004 - 11:42Topic: Complementary Therapies
Good morning, I'm in the Marine Corps infantry and I've been diagnosed with a siezure dissorder. I was put on depakote and my MRI, EEG, and CT all came back normal. Before medication I was getting 3-4 simple partial siezures a day(extreme muscle contraction/paralysis of my left side). They had been steadilly increasing since after boot camp, almost a year and a half ago(they started from 1-2 topping out with 4). They started to pay attention when I lost conciousness in the field on a patrol. Depakote helps but if I don't get enough sleep (common in MC) I'll get one. As far as I've been informed they are keeping me around to do admin duty's but not really helping my condition any. From reading this site I've found lots of good info on auras, attitude characteristics, types of epilepsy etc. I was wondering if there is anything else I should do to help keep me siezure free.thank you for any more infoLcpl Knuth/Semper Fi
Comments
RE: Marine with siezures
Submitted by mommy2kyra on Tue, 2004-05-25 - 11:42
I'm amazed that the Marine Corps didn't let you go after your diagnosis...the stress (physical and emotional) of serving is huge. I don't see how you could avoid the sleep deprivation, and that's a MAJOR trigger. Kudos to you for educating yourself and doing all that you can to reduce seizure activity! The only other tip I can think of is to try to relieve stress whenever you can. Meditate, take a nice walk, or maybe take a course in Tai Chi.Best of luck to you (and all who serve), I hope that you gain better control of your seizures soon!Heather
RE: Marine with siezures
Submitted by e_nuffofthis on Tue, 2004-05-25 - 09:19
Hi there soldier! Sorry noone has gotten back to you, but sleep deprivation is such a huge trigger!! This didn't start until you joined the service, right? You need your zzzz's.... can't get around it. The only other things that may help is to make sure you are taking a good multi, some studies suggest that taking extra 400 iu of vitamin e could help. There are some studies that fish oil may help. And of course, to de-stress anyway you can, Yoga is suppose to be great.Take care.