New here, my husband had one seizure and is now on meds

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Hi,

New here and worried. My husband had one seizure in February...his first one. He is 65 and has no seizure history prior for himself or in the family. We were opening a new business, and he wasn't sleeping more than a couple of hours a night, not eating well and working everyday....and his stress level was through the roof.

He had a seizure, and about a month later an EEG, which showed some abnormal activity, his MRI was fine, but I'm concerned that after 1 seizure they put him on Keppra (disaster) and now Dilantin (not much better). Is it common to be diagnosed with epilepsy after one seizure? He was diagnosed by a neurologist who didn't seem to care about the other things going on in his life at the time. I am thinking about getting a second opinion...

Please give me your thoughts on this or share your experiences if similar....and thank you so much...so glad I found this site.

Comments

The EEG showing abnormalities

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2015-08-06 - 15:57

The EEG showing abnormalities along with a seizure is more then enough to diagnose epilepsy. As for him being 65 and being healthy. IT majes no difference. ANYBODY at any age can get epilepsy. Rich Poor any race there is no difference. He was diagnosed by a neurologist who didn't seem to care about the other things going on in his life at the time. The neurologist diagnosed him and you might be surprised but your husband is his patient and all the neurologists I have been to rarely asked what was happening until after the secone visit. That is when he will be asking questions. Like have you had anymore seizures? Is the medication working like it should? Are you getting the sleep you need to get? All kinds of questions are asked then. Te first visit he diagnoses the patient and prescribes medications. A medication that works for one person may not for the next. So it can be trial and error when it comes to medications and dosages. Oh and medications for epilepsy are not like aspirin where once it is taken it lasts for hours. Dosages are set and it takes time to build up the theraputic levels the neurologist wants met. once that is done if it is working and no seizures then he keeps that dosage. If the patient is having seizures then the dosage can be increased or decreased. Research some start by going to the help section. Trigers, epilepsy 101, types of epilepsy and types of seizures. How long did your husband take keppra? There is a reasion for my question. If it was because of side effects in the first week of 2 then he might not have needed to be taken off. It takes 4-6 weeks for the bdy to get used to the medication and after that most side effects go away. SIde effects do happen. But I do know that 5-8% of the people taking the medication may get a side effect. You will see posts about sied effects amd medications not working. Those posts would come from one of the 5-8%. Meaning that 92-95% of the people taking it had no problems with it. I am currently taking keppra. It not only reduced the number of seizures I was having but it also shortened the time in those seizures. I took dilantin for about 35 years and yes it workd well but after taking it for that length of time I had gotten toxic on it. They took me off without weaning me off so I was in the hospital for a few days so the theraputic levels could be reached on the new medications. I know about stress and lack of sleep. They are 2 of the biggies when it comes to triggers. But I also a trigger to one person may not be a trigger for the next. For most of my life I have gotten 5-6 hours of sleep. That started when I was 13. I hope this helps and your business takes off and does really good. I had to close mine when the recession hit back in the 1990's Hope he gets seizure free too Joe

The EEG showing abnormalities along with a seizure is more then enough to diagnose epilepsy. As for him being 65 and being healthy. IT majes no difference. ANYBODY at any age can get epilepsy. Rich Poor any race there is no difference.  He was diagnosed by a neurologist who didn't seem to care about the other things going on in his life at the time.  The neurologist diagnosed him and you might be surprised but your husband is his patient and all the neurologists I have been to rarely asked what was happening until after the secone visit. That is when he will be asking questions. Like have you had anymore seizures? Is the medication working like it should? Are you getting the sleep you need to get? All kinds of questions are asked then. Te first visit he diagnoses the patient and prescribes medications. A medication that works for one person may not for the next. So it can be trial and error when it comes to medications and dosages. Oh and medications for epilepsy are not like aspirin where once it is taken it lasts for hours. Dosages are set and it takes time to build up the theraputic levels the neurologist wants met. once that is done if it is working and no seizures then he keeps that dosage. If the patient is having seizures then the dosage can be increased or decreased. Research some start by going to the help section. Trigers, epilepsy 101, types of epilepsy and types of seizures. How long did your husband take keppra? There is a reasion for my question. If it was because of side effects in the first week of 2 then he might not have needed to be taken off. It takes 4-6 weeks for the bdy to get used to the medication and after that most side effects go away. SIde effects do happen. But I do know that 5-8% of the people taking the medication may get a side effect. You will see posts about sied effects amd medications not working. Those posts would come from one of the 5-8%. Meaning that 92-95% of the people taking it had no problems with it. I am currently taking keppra. It not only reduced the number of seizures I was having but it also shortened the time in those seizures. I took dilantin for about 35 years and yes it workd well but after taking it for that length of time I had gotten toxic on it. They took me off without weaning me off so I was in the hospital for a few days so the theraputic levels could be reached on the new medications. I know about stress and lack of sleep. They are 2 of the biggies when it comes to triggers. But I also a trigger to one person may not be a trigger for the next. For most of my life I have gotten 5-6 hours of sleep. That started when I was 13. I hope this helps and your business takes off and does really good. I had to close mine when the recession hit back in the 1990's Hope he gets seizure free too Joe

The EEG showing abnormalities along with a seizure is more then enough to diagnose epilepsy. As for him being 65 and being healthy. IT majes no difference. ANYBODY at any age can get epilepsy. Rich Poor any race there is no difference. He was diagnosed by a neurologist who didn't seem to care about the other things going on in his life at the time. The neurologist diagnosed him and you might be surprised but your husband is his patient and all the neurologists I have been to rarely asked what was happening until after the secone visit. That is when he will be asking questions. Like have you had anymore seizures? Is the medication working like it should? Are you getting the sleep you need to get? All kinds of questions are asked then. Te first visit he diagnoses the patient and prescribes medications. A medication that works for one person may not for the next. So it can be trial and error when it comes to medications and dosages. Oh and medications for epilepsy are not like aspirin where once it is taken it lasts for hours. Dosages are set and it takes time to build up the theraputic levels the neurologist wants met. once that is done if it is working and no seizures then he keeps that dosage. If the patient is having seizures then the dosage can be increased or decreased. Research some start by going to the help section. Trigers, epilepsy 101, types of epilepsy and types of seizures. How long did your husband take keppra? There is a reasion for my question. If it was because of side effects in the first week of 2 then he might not have needed to be taken off. It takes 4-6 weeks for the bdy to get used to the medication and after that most side effects go away. SIde effects do happen. But I do know that 5-8% of the people taking the medication may get a side effect. You will see posts about sied effects amd medications not working. Those posts would come from one of the 5-8%. Meaning that 92-95% of the people taking it had no problems with it. I am currently taking keppra. It not only reduced the number of seizures I was having but it also shortened the time in those seizures. I took dilantin for about 35 years and yes it workd well but after taking it for that length of time I had gotten toxic on it. They took me off without weaning me off so I was in the hospital for a few days so the theraputic levels could be reached on the new medications. I know about stress and lack of sleep. They are 2 of the biggies when it comes to triggers. But I also a trigger to one person may not be a trigger for the next. For most of my life I have gotten 5-6 hours of sleep. That started when I was 13. I hope this helps and your business takes off and does really good. I had to close mine when the recession hit back in the 1990's Hope he gets seizure free too Joe

New here, my husband had one seizure and is now on meds

Comments

The EEG showing abnormalities

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2015-08-06 - 15:57

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