I need to tell someone

[Denisej007]

I am 45 years old. I started having seizures when I was 12 or 13. My seizures were controlled for many years and I was able to hold a full time job and live a normal life. This past year has been total ****. I have not be able to hold a job nor do I have an income what so ever. I live with three cats, which I will have to give away soon because I can no longer afford to fed them and myself. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want this posting to sound like a pitty party, I am just releasing my thoughts. Lately I have been having partial seizure which eventually leads to a grand mal seizure. I take as many precautions as possbile to keep from hurting myself such as using plastic cups to drink from, using the microwave to heat food when I have it. I don't drive because I am afraid to get behind the wheel. Just for the fun of it I will back my car out of the driveway and pull it back in, but going somewhere is totally out of the question. I also have a sleep disorder. I cannot sleep!!! I can stay up for 72 hours without a wink, plus I've been put on prozac. I currently take 400mgs of dilantin, 1000mb of tregretol, dalmane, 2mgs of klonipin and prozac. The dalmane does not help me sleep although that is why is was proscribed. I have to take 4 additional non-asprians in order to sleep approx. 5 hours. Anyhow, I appreciate anyone that reads my thoughts and I welcome any feed back or possible solutions to my fear of living.
Thanks and God Bless.

[Lara]

Hi Denise,
It's nice to meet you here. I'm so sorry you're having such a difficult time. I hope that you'll be feeling stronger soon. I just wanted to let you know that there is a very active Epilepsy Forum (http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=144) here so you might want to copy and paste your message over there as well. There are lots of other forums here as well, like the Emotional Support (http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=10) forum and Sleep Disorders (http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=246).
All the best to you, and I hope you're feeling stronger soon.
Lara

[Boopers]

Oh Denise, I'm so sorry you are having such a difficult time. My heart goes out to you. Isn't there someone you can go to like family or church to help you out with food and shelter? It breaks my heart to think you are going without food. :(

Please keep posting and let us know how you are doing! I care!! :)

Love,
Linda

[potatobug]

I am truly sorry for what you are going through with the seizures.They are so disruptive and make it difficult to function I'm sure.When I have anxiety attacks, I hyperventilate into a petite mal seizure,because of being hyper reflexive and an imbalance of adrenaline and cortisol.Not quite the same as or as frightening as what you are going through, but I think I understand a little.Hope you soon have a handle on things and are able to go back to your life being yours,

regards

Patty

[The Dude]

God bless you Denise!!!!!!!

Welcome to our site :):)

http://img138.**********.us/img138/435/grouphugym7.gif

[Denisej007]

Oh Denise, I'm so sorry you are having such a difficult time. My heart goes out to you. Isn't there someone you can go to like family or church to help you out with food and shelter? It breaks my heart to think you are going without food. :(

Please keep posting and let us know how you are doing! I care!! :)

Love,
Linda
Thank you Linda. The church does give me bread and sometimes I get cheese and peanut butter.
Thanks for your kindness.

[BambiVA]

Denise, I noticed you are from the Richmond Va area. I had to have brain surgery a couple of years ago. And used Dr Peter Alexander from http://www.neurosurgicalva.com/index.htm.. A wonderful group of Doctors. Also Dr Tom Smith he works out of Mechanicsville. He is also good. Best of luck

~Bambi~

[Linda Lee]

I to have a numbness and a foggy feeling. It will two years in June since my clipping. The right side of my scalp iches me to death, I'm always ashame to get a hair cut because I dig my scalp raw. I'm starting to have alot of nose bleds also. I had an MRA last summer and things looked really good but like all of you I will always have some sort of a problem to deal with.I retired from my job because of my energy level and I'm taking good care of myself. I fully understand about the nubness you are talking about.If it is any consulation I have it too.

[thebug]

[SIZE="4"]Hi [SIZE="5"]Hi Denise
I can understand your frustration, my name is doug and I startd having seizures at age 4. I then got on medication and was seizure free for 10 years then at adolescence my seizures returned and got worse. They did like you are saying they started out as a partial seizure and then went to a Tonic clonic(Grand Mal) seizure I was going to neurologist in my area and all they did was add medications and it didn't help. I even had 1 seizure last 4 1/2 hours before I came out of it. I wasn't able to work when I was out of school and have lived with my parents. in 1988 my parents heard from a friend about a dr. that specializes in epilepsy, and opened a epilepsy clinic up. we made an appointment to see him and he changed my life. I spent 26 days in his epilepsy clinic where he had me on a video EEG and monitored me for 17 days. he gradually decreased my meds I was on so he could see where my seizures were starting and what they were going into. he had said I was a excellent candidate for surgery but at that time it scared both my parents and I and so I saidd I wanted to try the medication route first. He chose to put me on Mysoline, because it also has Phenobarb in it and that helped my seizures from crossing over and going innto a Grand mal. my seizures improved dramatically , but I still was having 1 every few months or if I got sick with flu , and my DR. had said that he could keep trying meds as they came out, but didn't feel any med was ever going to control them as I had to much scar tissue damage from when I had Spinal Meningitis at 7 months old. After being out of his clinic and back to college and still having a few seizures I gave the surgery a little more thought, and decided to go for it. So in September of 1990 I had a Left Frontal temporal lobectomy done. It changed my life completely, I was able to get a job, and go out and do things on my own. I have only had about 3 seizures in the 16 years since my surgery, so that is a big improvement from 1 every 6 days that I was having in the beginning. I still take medication, but as long as my seizures are staying controlled that is all that matters to me.
If you have anything you would like to ask me or if you would want to know about my DR. you can E mail me at Bug1@insightbb.com.
DOUG