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View Full Version : Query : Anyone with RA and Epilepsy


Birdbomb
12-29-2006, 04:51 PM
RA = Rheumatoid Arthritis (auto-immune disease)

I have had arthritis for over 30 years, Doctors have for YEARS been telling me it was osteoarthritis. Both my knee have been replaced with prothestics. I went thru bilateral carpel tunnel surgery 2 years ago with the repair of trigger fingers. But it was the removal of a snyovial mass from a ruptured tendon on my right thumb this past Nov. that I was finally tested for RA. I went off the chart.

My doc says I have had RA for a long time. DUH! Even though he replaced my last knee, he said it LOOKED like osteoarthritis. I am BEYOND anger that it's taken so long to find this out. I have been seeking treatment for the pain and stiffness for YEARS only to be told, "take asprin, motrin, live with it, it's all in your head, you'll just get addicted to pain killers, we can't kind anything wrong, come back if it keeps bothering you...blah,blah,blah" Now my hands and feet are a nightmare. It's like wearing lava gloves and socks and having someone pound on them with hammers. We won't even discuss the back, hip, neck, elbow pain or the dry eyes.

RA is an autoimmund disease. It affects many different parts of the body including organs. The brain is an organ which CAN be affected.

No one in my family has epilepsy, only me. Mine was sudden onset at age 47. I had ONE grand mal in the back yard watering my garden about 40 days after my first knee replacement. I have always felt that the seizure had something to do with that surgery. But now that I know about RA, I just wonder if the RA wasn't the real reason for the seizure.

I never had another grand mal, but have had felt the same fluttery feeling many times, that preceded the GM. Over the next 3 1/2 years, I experianced several complex particals and 1000's of simple particals. ( I have been seizure free for the past year and a half and completely off all AED's since Oct.) I tried about 10 - 15 AED's and the VNS implant as treatment but it was the added protein, iron, Zinc and B12 that got me seizure free. Go figure.

I have searched the internet and RA message boards and web sites for ANY connection of RA and SEIZURES, now I will ask any members who have RA and epilepsy....IS THERE A CONNECTION FOR YOU? Does your RA cause your seizures?

Buttons2
01-04-2007, 02:29 PM
Hi Birdbomb, name makes me think of seagulls & need for wearing a hat at outdoor eating facilities!!

Lucky you live where there's some sunshine! I'm stuck in the NW & these cold,rainy days are not my idea of heaven!

Never have gotten a clear diagnosis on whether or not I have RA. I do have myoclonus however,came on about 7-8 years ago. I also rely on B12 & other B vits to keep me going physically & brainwise.

My opinion is that you might be correct in thinking the surgery brought on the seizure. Good luck ever getting any doc to admit the possibility however!

Are you taking Klonopin? It was prescribed for my myoclonus but I never took it. I added magnesium to my vits about a month ago, I haven't had a severe myoclonic jerk since then. I was doing soooo much better until a couple month's ago when for no reason I could figure out, I began having violent jerks once again-holiday stress?? Nearly fell out of bed one night!

Anyway, hope you are doing OK. My grandfather had RA. I've always been told it's very difficult to actually diagnose RA so you are certainly not alone in feeling someone should have figured this out! I wasn't even told I had degenerative disc disease,had to find it out by reading my files!

Last doc I saw last fall I asked him what he thought of the fact that my SED rate has been falling from high of 7 to low of 1 now, he actually told me this was a GOOD thing cause it means no inflamation or cancer in my body-DUH. This jerk never even reads my file,nor does he see me hobble down the hallway to the exam room. Patient heal thyself has become my motto!

Take care,Buttons

Guitarmom
01-01-2009, 09:29 AM
I have psoriatic arthritis, epilepsy, severe migraines....it has been 15 years with the arthritis and almost as long with the others (took a long time for doctors to realize what it all was, howevr...
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