Alone with kids and had a seizure...

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Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and thought it might be time for me to find someone to talk to who can understand how I'm feeling. I'm a 36 yr old sahm of a 6 yr old girl and 8 yr old boy. I've been taking Dilantin since I was 14 yrs old and my seizures have been very well controlled since I finished college. Since then I average having one grand-mal every 2-3 yrs. My husband travels with his job and is away from home a lot of the time, so I am the sole caretaker of our kids. Last month, I unexpectedly had a grand-mal. My 8 yr old called my husband on speed dial, then eventually called 911. I was fine, but it was a traumatic experience for everyone involved. The ER dr said my dilantin level was 10. (I have no family living near either) So just when all of us were beginning to forget about the incident and put it behind us, I had another one this past saturday night. (alone again with my babies) I went to my dr. this morning and they did a stat level -- it as 12. So she is increasing my Dilantin by 100mg daily. (So now I will be taking 400mg daily). Also, I began taking Lexapro a couple of mos. ago. Does anyone think these 2 seizures could be caused by it? My Dr. suggested I stop taking it for now if I felt comfortable without it. I would just love to hear an opinion about my situation: Anyone have any knowledge as to why levels drop? (In the past I remember my dr. saying I did better when my levels were at 14 - 16) Do you think by taking the extra 100mg daily I will get my seizures under control? Thanks for any feedback/opinions; I really need a friend. Grifgraysmom

Comments

Re: Alone with kids and had a seizure...

Submitted by Cathy_C on Tue, 2006-04-25 - 05:25

Hi Mom :) I don't know a whole lot about the reason for levels dropping, but I do find with my own meds it seems that I will take the prescibed amount for a certain time and then it will stop working as well as it did when I first started taking it. Then my neurologist will increase it and the same thing will happen. They say that the maximum dosage of Keppra should be about 3000mg, I am taking 8000mg per day. When I went to my last appointment she checked my levels and the level of Keppra was ok even at that high dosage. It seems my body breaks down the medication quickly and my body doesn't keep it in my system long enough for it to do it's job and then they have to add more. It is sort of like I am a drug user, my body gets used to how much it has and then needs more. I don't know if there is going to be anything that will ever keep my seizures under control the way I am going. As far as you being a stay home mom, I can understand that. I lived in Texas in a not so great marriage and then divorced and moved back home to Maine. I took my 3 children on a Grey Hound bus from Texas to Maine, a 2 day trip. Kids were ages: son was 15 & daughters ages 7 & 5. What a ride for someone with seizures. It was a big risk. When I got back to Maine I couldn't drive because of them and so I couldn't work. I was home all the time with my kids and not married at the time. I have a fire place that I would have logs come out on the floor and I had lots happen that could have turned into serious problems. I finally put in a automatic gas fire place. I remarried in 2000 to a great man that understands my seizure and helps me out as much as he can, I have even been hired to work with him a couple days a week which is nice now that my children are older. Only one home now, age 15. She can be a big help now too. But before getting married I found it very hard to have to rely on everyone for rides to the store and to do errands. It was extremely hard when the kids wanted to do sports in school and I couldn't take them, or go to their games. Things have changed here since then and I am sure things will get better for you also. Keep your chin up and keep happy. Being happy and not stressed out helps control seizures almost more then the medications they put us on, and Laughter is the cure for most health problems I find. Hope this helps. Have a great day and may God Bless you and your family. Cathy

Re: Re: Alone with kids and had a seizure...

Submitted by seizuregirl on Fri, 2006-04-28 - 12:01

Hi. I'm new to this group also. I'd like to add that I work for a pre-school. I was working with my 2 yr. old and young 3's class when I suddenly had a seizure. This was some months ago. I couldn't remember much of what happened, but I was told that I was shouting or something before the seizure took control over me. The usual outcome of a seizure happened. It was a very traumatic experience for my students that I had to go home while my co-worker took over and tried to calm the children 'coz they got so traumatized by it. I must say that this is one of many drawbacks to being a seizure patient. Imagine my students thought I was dying. You can imagine how I felt about that. I felt so bad. When I came back to work the next day my students were so afraid of me that I had to teach another class for that day. Anyway, my doctor upped my dosage from 100 mg to 200 mg (1 pill) 3 times a day. Now months later...I'm on my vacation in the U.S. and bam! My seizure auras starts hitting me. I don't know how many I had yesterday, but I never had that much before. And then this morning another one hit me. I'm expecting that my doctor will be changing my dosage again or at least adding another meds to my Tegretol that I'm taking. Everytime I get these seizures esp. at work, I always fear of being "let go". I really can't afford to lose this job 'coz I like it too much. My other jobs...let's just say...didn't make me happy. Cathy, I agree with you about the "stress" in relation to seizures 'coz I've been there and done that. I wasn't stressed (physical wise or emotional wise) on that particular day though and I still had a seizure. I don't understand it. Seizuregirl "Life is what you make of it"

Re: Re: Re: Alone with kids and had a seizure...

Submitted by jennamay on Fri, 2006-04-28 - 13:34

Hi there! It sounds like perhaps the children you teach could benefit from some epilepsy education in kid appropriate language. There are several resources you might find helpful such as books written for children with epilepsy www.epilepsy.com/info/family_kids_books.html www.epilepsy.com/kids/kids.html You can also look up your local Epilepsy Foundation affiliate: www.epilepsyfoundation.org/aboutus/AffiliateLookup.cfm and see if they can come into your classroom and do some education with the kids. They do have puppet shows and other types of programs they can do to help reduce some of the fear associated with epilepsy. www.epilepsy-foundation.org/efcrKOB.htm Epilepsy.com Editor