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I am confused. Neurologist told me I am having seizure activty

Wed, 06/13/2007 - 14:33
Ok I don't think that I have epilepsy.. I started having slurred speech, blurred and double vision about 1 1/2 yrs ago. I thought it was stress related. I didn't have insurance at the time so I didn't go to the Drs. I have also suffered from migraines since I was 13 I am now 27. Dr. put me on Topomax 50mg a day for migraines. No bad side effects. Slurred speech came back, along with blurred vision and right hand weakness. Dr sent me to a specialist. Had a MRI and EEG. MRI was ok. EEG DR said was showing signs of seizure activity in the left temporal lobe area. Thus causing the above syptoms. I am confused.. Didn't say I was epileptic. Saying that migraines can cause seizures even when not suffering from one. Anyone ever heard of this? He also upped my Topomax to 200mg a day

Comments

Re: I am confused. Neurologist told me I am having seizure acti

Submitted by babzy on Wed, 2007-06-20 - 22:52
hi, are they sure it is epilepsy and not a stroke related? 1 sided weakness alarms me in that sense. is there any history of cardiac or stroke in family, was your mri normal? i had many eegs in my life and to tell you, i found they werent the most reliable test when it came to diagnosing. if something occurs on left side it affects what the right side does. did you have any tingling.. what caused the migraines? injury? i would go get a second and third opinion. hope you feel better

Re: Re: I am confused. Neurologist told me I am having seizure

Submitted by clearlake1979 on Fri, 2007-06-22 - 08:06
They are not stroke related. The weakness only affects the right hand. Which is directly correlated with partial type seizures I guess. The blurry/doubled vision and slurred speech is also indicitive of a seizure as well as a stroke. But since a stroke has been ruled out by MRI the EEG showed during the 2 setting of strobe light activity that I am having seizure like activity with electrical conduction. The neuro said that it could be related to the migraines that I have suffered with since I was 13 ( i am now almost 28) The Opthamologist gave me a clear bill of health. No blood work was done. There was blood work done 4 weeks prior as I was in the PA-C earlier with the same symptoms. All was fine exc ept my high cholesterol. YIKES!! I think the Topomax took care of that though. I went from 135 to 118 in 5 wks Nichole Leck Beauty Fades, Dumb Is Forever!!

Re: I am confused. Neurologist told me I am having seizure acti

Submitted by littlemoon on Thu, 2007-06-21 - 22:52
I just posted this above your post in this forum. Im confused too! I realize mine may be a little different than your situation but I also had the double vision/blurred vision.: I was just diagnosed with "Complex partial seizures, without motor manifestations, which may relate to cause of PCOS (annovulation.) At least thats what my neurologist wrote down for me when I asked her to give me something in writing so I could tell people what I have. She also thinks is genetic, but I was adopted so have little info. My symptoms for the past 6 months have been some slight dizziness or slight off balance feeling, some headaches, tiredness, and for a couple months some blurred and double vision upon waking in the morning, which eventually just completely went away one day. This all started back in December and lasted for two+ months. Then I was better for a couple months and then got the dizziness feeling in a different way than the first time and it has gone on for about a month and a half. During this most recent time I also developed what my GP thought was restless leg syndrome (tight, aching calf muscles, and knees keeping me awake at night.) Over the last 6 months I have had a ton of tests, Cat Scan, MRI, blood tests for lupus, lymes, defiencies and every other thing possible. I had three eye doctors check my eyes and had every eye test available. I went to an ENT & hearing specialist who both ran a battery of tests on me. Everything came back fine and the only explanation I got was maybe it was an inner ear virus which is what the vision physical therapist mentioned to me. As I said, I just spontaneously got better and then it came back differently, as more of just a dizziness without any eye issues. My GP eventually sent me to a Neuro as she was not confident she could do much else for me and was still concerned. I then had another battery of blood tests run and she sent me for an EEG, which to be honest, I almost cancelled out on as I was so tired of the endless testing and financial strain even with insurance. I did the test and was sure it went fine. But it came back abnormal during the resting portion and after the breathing portion. I never felt any different or knew anythng was wrong during the test. The neuro told me she felt I had a "Little Seizure Disorder" based on this and my symptoms. She also seemed surprised at the EEG findings. She also felt there may be a connection between the partial seizures, my pcos and restless leg thing. She put me on 500mg of Keppra 2x a day and felt that would take care of it and could possibly, over time help relieve my pcos symptoms (irregular menses, hair loss, acne, oily skin, some hirsutism, cystic ovaries- diagnosed 4+ yrs ago by a reproductive endo.) I left the office feeling- hey! maybe this is all related and felt I finally had an answer, and it all seemed to make sense when she talked with me about it....but now that Im doing some research on complex partial seizures, I dont seem to fit the symptoms at all. All I have is the dizziness/off balance feeling and that blurred, double vision from before. I recalled some earlier things from years ago...episodes of extreme dizziness that would hit me out of the blue, last maybe 10 seconds and I was fine. It was rare and always explained away by docs as nothing but a change in blood pressure or low iron. The neuro felt those were seizures. She also never mentioned epilepsy, just a seizure disorder. Im having a hard time making sense of this now. Do I have epilepsy or a seizure disorder? Does it seem possible I even have Complex Partial Seizures with my symptoms? And has anyone else had relief with pcos symptoms while on Keppra? (Ive been on the pcos soulsysters.com message board for yrs and never saw this mentioned, or seizures for that matter.) I realize this is a massive amount of info...but I am overwhelmed and confused and hoping there is someone with more knowledge about this unusual circumstance out there! My researching has left me with more questions than answers and more confused than when I started. Thanks for any and all responses!!!

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