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Neurologist won't let me drive unless I take medication after having 1 seizure - is this normal?
Fri, 10/25/2013 - 17:07Comments
Neuro won't let me drive if I dont take med after 1 seiz
Submitted by tcameron on Mon, 2013-10-28 - 16:05
Re: Neurologist won't let me drive unless I take
Submitted by just_joe on Mon, 2013-10-28 - 16:26
Well Sarah I see that my resopnse is not here.
I know that you will get some people in here tell you that after a certain number of seizures you are considered an epileptic, I also know that after seeing an EEG with abnormalites (seizure activity) that that activity could put you in the group wheither you had 1 seizure or many.
OK now understand that many times EEG's come back normal. I had many EEG's all come back normal. I also had a grand mall seizure.
What type of seizure did you have considering there are many types of seizures. Oh and what epilepsy do you have because they all have different seizures they can morph into.
I ask that question because you might have had seizures you were not aware of. I had been written up for day dreaming in classes and my cores on tests and pop quizes were among the highest in class. Those day dream could have been absence seizures stemmed fro any of my epilepseis. When I was diagnosed they had not specialized yet so they had names for epilepsy. I have grand mal, Pettit mal and Focal Motor epilepsy. If you check all 3 of those can morph. They can all start as absence seizures leading them into partial seizures into complex partial seizures into complex partial seizures into generalized seizures into tonic clonic seizures and so forth.
You stated you had a seizure but you did not say what type of seizure you had. Secons oppenions are good but you also did nothing other tham look up the medication the neurologist gave you the name of. You are wanting information from people in here that have epilepsy. I can see why and I know your issues well but I also know that doctors (neurologists are specialist and doctors) are required to treat their patients right and they do take the Hippocratic oath to treat their patients ad keep the information between them and their patients private. They are to give you the best information they know of and they are to treat you the best way they can. They also have laws they have to abide by. One of those laws does regard what they are to do with people that have seizures who drive.
I don't know if you have ever thought of what would happen if you had a seizure behind th wheel of a car? If you did have a seizure while driving could other people get hurt? Could you cause damage to someones home or car? A certain period of time without a seizure is required once that period is up you might get your license back. It all depends on State laws. The neurologist may be abiding by laws set forth by the state. I know about some of the laws and the length of time. I was studying for my drivers license after going 3+ years without one. back then you were required to go 2 years here in Texas and many other states. But a lot of time and many changes have been made since 1973
You will get some people telling yuou keppra is not good and to check on other medications. I understand that you probably read the side effects. My question would be "Have you read any of the side effects on all the OTC meds you have taken?" Understand that eferything has side effects. Milk has them for some people. heaven forbid asprin can kill some people if they are alergic to the contents in asperin. Tylenol can do damage. Have you ever seen all the itty bitty writting on meds advertised on TV all of that writing is side effects pretaining to that medication.
I am not saying you should not question or ask questions. I am saying your questions should go to the neurologist. Now as for keppra. I have been using it for many years. Keppra ahs been one of the best medications I have ever used. Not only did it reduce the number of seizures I was having but it also reduced the time in the seizu=re and the time it takes to get back to normal. What used to take 5-35 minuted (5 minutes in the seizure and 35 minutes to get back to normal) now those same seizures are a few seconds long and maybe 5 minutes to get back to norman. Yes I had heard about the side effects but I also knew that those side effects pretain to a limited number of people taking it. I have read a lot of posts pretaining to keppra. I also know that UCB has made changes to keppra and it is much safer now that it was when it was first brought out. I am also aware of people posting do not use the generic. Many doctors keep saying things like that. My neuros assistant keeps pumping that and she knows I have used generics. I also know the price of keppra is high For the name brand and the generic. Ben there done that. I discussed the issue with my neuro and he know my income was not great. HE wanted to know if the generic worked as well as the name brand. Well I had already been in drug studies on new medications so he knew I was aware of side effects and how to use the diaries we had to put things on. I used the generis for 3 months and returned to him with the diary and guess what nothing different in any way. Most side effects generally happen when you are put on the medication and are adjuting the levels until you get on a the dosage the doctor wants you on. I had 1 side effect which was on a different medication and that side efffect was blured vision which laster5-10 seconds 3 different times in the first month of taking the medication. That medication is Vimpat it too is made by UCB. Now I saw that you are 30.I wish I were that young again. I have been dealing with and living with epilepsy for 50+ years.
All the EEG's I had the first year came back normal. There were about 15 while I was 12. In order for the insurance company to cover anythng they needed to know the reason for my seizures. Great. I was planning a great spring break but it never happened. In the hospital I was in they took all kinds of tests many of which are not used today because the advent of technology. On the last day of testing I was given another EEG. I was tired and fell sleep during that EEG and it showed a abnormality ( seizure activity). The head doctor ( a neurologist) took the EEG information and looked closer at the other tests geuss what before that EEG they had found NOTHING.After th EEG they found scared brain tissue which was in more than 1 lobe on the left side of my brain. Now your abnormality came when you had your sleep deprived EEG. Did they also do a MRI? Or did they check the MRI you had down earlier? If they had and they looked at where the abnormality came from they might have found something. DId you ever fall when you were a kid? Did your head ever hit the wall hard? Those things can and have caused hemmorages to the brain and those hemmorages can and do cause scared brain tissue. My current neurologist wanted to check how close the facts that I had given his predicessors. ( have had the same group of neurologists since 1970 one retires another takes his place, that one specializes in ALZ so another one takes his place that one retired and the one O have now too his place Doc has been with this group since the early 1980's) Underestand that the original tests were done in 1963 and back then the MRI had not even been thoght of. Originally the scar tissue was in the lower left lobe and it was before or after birth. The series of tests done in 2004 had a little difference but not much. The scar tissue is in middle of the left lobe but it also extends into other lobes all n the left side. Doc was able to come up with a different date. It happened sometime between the age of 6-8.
Sorry if I got to long butthere are times that I feel some people need to use some commen sense and not look at all their technology set back and think before looking up everything on the web. You are the generation that has had it and uses it. My generation helped create it and computers. When some of us were diagnosed with epilepsy they were still putting people with epilepsy away in homes out of the publics site. Even in the 19+70's some states were not letting people with epilepsy get marriage licenses. So at times we may get winded but we do know waht we are talking about. Consider the fact that specializinf started in the 1980's
I do hope you get the answers you need and you do check with the neurologist and ask what type of seizure you had and what type those can morph into.
I hope this helps
Joe
Well Sarah I see that my resopnse is not here.
I know that you will get some people in here tell you that after a certain number of seizures you are considered an epileptic, I also know that after seeing an EEG with abnormalites (seizure activity) that that activity could put you in the group wheither you had 1 seizure or many.
OK now understand that many times EEG's come back normal. I had many EEG's all come back normal. I also had a grand mall seizure.
What type of seizure did you have considering there are many types of seizures. Oh and what epilepsy do you have because they all have different seizures they can morph into.
I ask that question because you might have had seizures you were not aware of. I had been written up for day dreaming in classes and my cores on tests and pop quizes were among the highest in class. Those day dream could have been absence seizures stemmed fro any of my epilepseis. When I was diagnosed they had not specialized yet so they had names for epilepsy. I have grand mal, Pettit mal and Focal Motor epilepsy. If you check all 3 of those can morph. They can all start as absence seizures leading them into partial seizures into complex partial seizures into complex partial seizures into generalized seizures into tonic clonic seizures and so forth.
You stated you had a seizure but you did not say what type of seizure you had. Secons oppenions are good but you also did nothing other tham look up the medication the neurologist gave you the name of. You are wanting information from people in here that have epilepsy. I can see why and I know your issues well but I also know that doctors (neurologists are specialist and doctors) are required to treat their patients right and they do take the Hippocratic oath to treat their patients ad keep the information between them and their patients private. They are to give you the best information they know of and they are to treat you the best way they can. They also have laws they have to abide by. One of those laws does regard what they are to do with people that have seizures who drive.
I don't know if you have ever thought of what would happen if you had a seizure behind th wheel of a car? If you did have a seizure while driving could other people get hurt? Could you cause damage to someones home or car? A certain period of time without a seizure is required once that period is up you might get your license back. It all depends on State laws. The neurologist may be abiding by laws set forth by the state. I know about some of the laws and the length of time. I was studying for my drivers license after going 3+ years without one. back then you were required to go 2 years here in Texas and many other states. But a lot of time and many changes have been made since 1973
You will get some people telling yuou keppra is not good and to check on other medications. I understand that you probably read the side effects. My question would be "Have you read any of the side effects on all the OTC meds you have taken?" Understand that eferything has side effects. Milk has them for some people. heaven forbid asprin can kill some people if they are alergic to the contents in asperin. Tylenol can do damage. Have you ever seen all the itty bitty writting on meds advertised on TV all of that writing is side effects pretaining to that medication.
I am not saying you should not question or ask questions. I am saying your questions should go to the neurologist. Now as for keppra. I have been using it for many years. Keppra ahs been one of the best medications I have ever used. Not only did it reduce the number of seizures I was having but it also reduced the time in the seizu=re and the time it takes to get back to normal. What used to take 5-35 minuted (5 minutes in the seizure and 35 minutes to get back to normal) now those same seizures are a few seconds long and maybe 5 minutes to get back to norman. Yes I had heard about the side effects but I also knew that those side effects pretain to a limited number of people taking it. I have read a lot of posts pretaining to keppra. I also know that UCB has made changes to keppra and it is much safer now that it was when it was first brought out. I am also aware of people posting do not use the generic. Many doctors keep saying things like that. My neuros assistant keeps pumping that and she knows I have used generics. I also know the price of keppra is high For the name brand and the generic. Ben there done that. I discussed the issue with my neuro and he know my income was not great. HE wanted to know if the generic worked as well as the name brand. Well I had already been in drug studies on new medications so he knew I was aware of side effects and how to use the diaries we had to put things on. I used the generis for 3 months and returned to him with the diary and guess what nothing different in any way. Most side effects generally happen when you are put on the medication and are adjuting the levels until you get on a the dosage the doctor wants you on. I had 1 side effect which was on a different medication and that side efffect was blured vision which laster5-10 seconds 3 different times in the first month of taking the medication. That medication is Vimpat it too is made by UCB. Now I saw that you are 30.I wish I were that young again. I have been dealing with and living with epilepsy for 50+ years.
All the EEG's I had the first year came back normal. There were about 15 while I was 12. In order for the insurance company to cover anythng they needed to know the reason for my seizures. Great. I was planning a great spring break but it never happened. In the hospital I was in they took all kinds of tests many of which are not used today because the advent of technology. On the last day of testing I was given another EEG. I was tired and fell sleep during that EEG and it showed a abnormality ( seizure activity). The head doctor ( a neurologist) took the EEG information and looked closer at the other tests geuss what before that EEG they had found NOTHING.After th EEG they found scared brain tissue which was in more than 1 lobe on the left side of my brain. Now your abnormality came when you had your sleep deprived EEG. Did they also do a MRI? Or did they check the MRI you had down earlier? If they had and they looked at where the abnormality came from they might have found something. DId you ever fall when you were a kid? Did your head ever hit the wall hard? Those things can and have caused hemmorages to the brain and those hemmorages can and do cause scared brain tissue. My current neurologist wanted to check how close the facts that I had given his predicessors. ( have had the same group of neurologists since 1970 one retires another takes his place, that one specializes in ALZ so another one takes his place that one retired and the one O have now too his place Doc has been with this group since the early 1980's) Underestand that the original tests were done in 1963 and back then the MRI had not even been thoght of. Originally the scar tissue was in the lower left lobe and it was before or after birth. The series of tests done in 2004 had a little difference but not much. The scar tissue is in middle of the left lobe but it also extends into other lobes all n the left side. Doc was able to come up with a different date. It happened sometime between the age of 6-8.
Sorry if I got to long butthere are times that I feel some people need to use some commen sense and not look at all their technology set back and think before looking up everything on the web. You are the generation that has had it and uses it. My generation helped create it and computers. When some of us were diagnosed with epilepsy they were still putting people with epilepsy away in homes out of the publics site. Even in the 19+70's some states were not letting people with epilepsy get marriage licenses. So at times we may get winded but we do know waht we are talking about. Consider the fact that specializinf started in the 1980's
I do hope you get the answers you need and you do check with the neurologist and ask what type of seizure you had and what type those can morph into.
I hope this helps
Joe
Sorry...first response
Submitted by Frank Lee on Mon, 2013-10-28 - 12:31
Sorry...first response could not be printed correctly; could not change or delete.
Sorry...first response could not be printed correctly; could not change or delete.