Seizures and Memory Loss Getting Worse Every Day

[younglady84]

I have Petite Mal Seizures during the daytime and they are only getting worse. I black out on the inside but on the outside, I still function normally continuing whatever it is that I'm doing before I have the seizure but I will have no memory of what happened during the seizure. It's to the point now that I can no longer count to 100 before I lose which number I'm on and I go back to the last number I remember saying after I have the seizure. The other day, my boss asked me to print 5 copies of a set of 15 drawings and I couldn't even remember how many times I printed each drawing or which ones I had printed and which ones I didn't print. I've noticed they can last around 20 min or so and they are getting longer and more frequent every day.

In the last few months, I've started having regular jerking seizures in my sleep. My boyfriend thought that it was just nightmares at first but he can't wake me from them. He shakes me and talks softly to me before he's practically yelling my name and wake up but I don't. He says they last from a min to 5 or 6 min and then I seem ok. They don't happen every time I go to sleep but most of the time I have one and I've never had one during the day.

I'm taking Klonopin 1mg but it's not helping at all. Instead, they're getting worse and more frequent. My Dr sent me for an EEG 2 days ago but I'm afraid that might be the wrong test and it might not show anything. What tests should I have done? Any idea what causes these seizures and why they are getting worse? I'm really scared it might be a tumor or something else. Cancer is very common in our family, and I'm scared it could be that. Please help. I'm so scared.

I currently take Unithroid 0.025 for Hypothyroidism, Vicon Forte, Klonopin 1mg, and Yazmine.

[younglady84]

Don't know why I can't edit my post but I wanted to add:

It's odd because there is absolutely no history of seizures in my family anywhere, but we do have a strong history of cancer in our family (great-grandfather had lung, grandfather had lung, uncle had thyroid and lymphoma, aunt had ovarian, mom had ovarian and breast, all survivors except great-grandfather). Could that possibly have anything to do with my seizures?

New symptom this week as I passed out twice after a petite mal seizure and I'm getting light headed very easily, even just sitting down and not moving. It's getting worse by the day. Please some one tell me what's going on and what to do!

[younglady84]

Got back my EEG results and they didn't find any indicators for me to seize. Now I'm mad and upset because I wanted them to find something and make the seizures or whatever stop. I'm so tired of not remembering anything. So now what do I do? I know something is wrong. Regular 23 year olds don't have this problem yet I do.

[Purple98Lady]

Sorry for all your symptoms. Maybe your dr. needs to find an effective medication to control this seizure activity. Heres a link with causes, treatment etc. You may also use the search tool for further research on this and good luck.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/petit-mal-seizure/DS00216/DSECTION=1

[Rio]

Got back my EEG results and they didn't find any indicators for me to seize. Now I'm mad and upset because I wanted them to find something and make the seizures or whatever stop. I'm so tired of not remembering anything. So now what do I do? I know something is wrong. Regular 23 year olds don't have this problem yet I do.

I understand what you're going through. I'm 21 and have been fighting with epilepsy since I was 13, and I have tonic clonics (grand mals) once a month. I'm on a medication for it that makes me lose my memory (I've lost entire days).

It BLOWS. But sometimes it's funny, honestly. You have to find humor in everything that comes your way in life to get through dumb **** like this. That's how I've done it ^_^

I don't know where your seizures are coming from, but please - be thankful that you don't have full on grand mals. They're exhausting, painful, and usually end with a bleeding mouth. Just keep having faith in your doctors. They had to check first that it wasn't epilepsy, and that was just a simple test that took about 10 or 15 minutes. Now they can move onto making sure it's not something worse, like cancer. But you also have to remember, that a tumor in the brain isn't the only thing besides epilepsy that could cause you to have siezures. Hell, it could be an allergy to something you've recently started using (medication, even food). Keep a journal of everything you do during the day that could even slightly be affecting your health. Then, next time you go to the doctor, skim through it and see if there's anything that seems worth mentioning.

Just keep your head up. If for some reason you really don't have faith in your doctor, get a new one. I've had to do it plenty of times before, and sometimes it really is necessary. I wish you the best of luck. And remember, it could ALWAYS be worse.

[IGY]

I encourage you to try to get an appointment with an oncologist to get checked out, if nothing else to reduce your anxiety, which is terrible for seizures.

I had seizures as a teen but was on meds for years which only succeeded in making me sleepy - I still had seizures. But I made the mistake of trying to wean the meds myself, which caused a major seizure. The seizure meds cause major seizures when they aren't weaned very carefully and really need close medical supervision for that.

The one good thing, though, is it got the doctor's attention, and they put me through more extensive testing and finally found a med that worked. It would be better to raise a big fuss by calling and making yourself a pain until they pay attention,though, than to risk having worse seizures!

There are different kinds of EEGs which are better at finding certain kinds of seizures - different probes, strobe lights, etc. But also with the cancer background in your family, I would tell them that the cancer worry is likely to aggravate your seizures until you can get checked out by an oncologist and get a good report from them. Yes, I advise asking your current doctors and checking out with your health care plan what second opinions you can get or if you can self-refer to an oncologist or get the general practitioner to refer you.

When I was about your age, I started work and was always being diagnosed with bladder infections. I was allergic to the meds and was pretty miserable. My coworker finally begged me to see his urologist. His wife had just died o bladder cancer and had wasted too much time with the general practitioner. The urologist used a catheterized sample and found no infection. He said the test in the cup the general practioners do often yields false positives and gave me a muscle relaxant for stress. My mother-in-law helped me to experiment with thigh-top pantyhose, and that helped - I think I was allergic to the nylon in that part of my body.

Well, all that to say it is worth getting more specialized opinions and tracking down those things which are bothering you. And I finally was able to wean off my meds the right way, with medical inspiration and supervision, but also with my then future mother-in-law praying for me - so I'll pray for you, too.

[younglady84]

:w00t: Actually, I'm doing way better now than I was last year. I was sent to a neurologist in my town and was on 5 different anti-seizure medications in 8 months. I even had an MRI done and they couldn't find anything wrong with me. I was getting to be a nervous wreck to the point I couldn't even drive anymore because I was so stressed and the episodes were getting worse.

Just as the neurologist was ready to write me off as having psycological problems, my insurance company suggested I see another neurologist 88 miles away that would put me on a 3 day EEG that would determine once and for all if I was having seizures or not. He told me my episodes could be caused by any number of things, including low blood pressure or drops in blood pressure. I was so devistated when the results came back negative because I thought that meant I was back at square 1 with no idea what was wrong with me or how to fix it. A very observant nurse of the new neurologist was taking my pulse and discovered my heart was skipping beats. The neuro came back in and checked it and my heart had added beats within 5 min. He sent me to a cardiologist and ordered a mess of tests done including a tilt-table test, an echocardiogram, and a Hoilter monitor. Scared to death, I checked into the hospital and went through with the tests.

A positive tilt-table test showed I have Neuro-Cardiogenic Syncope.

"Neurocardiogenic syncope is also known as vasovagal syncope or neurally mediated syncope. It describes a transient failure of the brain to adequately regulate the body's blood pressure and heart rate. The exact reasons why this occurs are still unclear, but a basic understanding is evolving. The blood pressure control centers are located in the posterior parts of the brain (the brainstem or medulla). Every time a person stands, gravity pulls blood toward the lower extremities. The brain senses this change and compensates by increasing the heart rate and tightening (constricting) the blood vessels of the legs, forcing blood back upward to the brain. These centers in the brainstem (the autonomic centers), then work as a sort of thermostat to regulate blood pressure. In neurocardiogenic syncope, the system periodically breaks down allowing the blood pressure to fall too low, causing the brain to lose its blood supply resulting in loss of consciousness (fainting).

Similar Conditions include:
Orthostatic Hypotension

Chronic Venous Insufficiency

Cardiogenic syncope

Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency

Autonomic Neuropathy

Antihypertensive medications

Cataplexy

Drop attacks

Hypoglycemia

Hypocapnia

Hypoxemia

Drug overdose

Seizure

Intracranial hemorrhage

Panic Disorder

Hydrocephalus"


Further testing shows I have Neurogenic Orthostatic Hypotension.

Orthostatic hypotension is not a disease, but is rather a physical finding that is a manifestation of abnormal blood pressure regulation due to various causes. The American Autonomic Society (AAS) and the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) define orthostatic hypotension as a systolic blood pressure decrease of at least 20 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressure decrease of at least 10 mm Hg within three minutes of standing up from a non-standing position. Mine drops an average of 35 mm Hg systolic and 40 mm Hg diastolic. (I dropped from 102/68 to 70/30 in under a min during one test.)

Basically, my brain wasn't getting enough blood and oxygen because of my blood pressure being so low already. So when my BP drops, it's not registering in my brain that my BP has dropped so the normal result is fainting (syncope). For whatever reason though, my body fights to keep me from passing out and as a result, I get periods of time where I black out internally. So they gave me Flornef and Midodrine and told me to increase my sodium and fluid intake. But the Midodrine makes me sick so I'm currently participating in a Phase III study of a drug called Droxidopa that has been used in Japan since the mid 80s to treat Orthostatic Hypotension and I'm doing much better on it. The episodes haven't gone away but they are getting better.

I'm so grateful to my insurance company for giving me the name of another neurologist that put all doubts to rest and got me the right treatment. And I'm grateful to you for praying for me and encouraging me to keep going. THANK YOU!!! :wub:

[IGY]

Fun - I guess since God could turn back the sun dial, He can make prayers work now for things which have already happened in the past :)! It was great to see your update!

Wow, I have pretty low blood pressure and sometimes think it is responsible for me not feeling well at all at times - I guess it can be pretty serious when it dips too low!

[younglady84]

:smile: Thanks IGY! Obviously, God wasn't ready for me to give up yet so He sent someone to help me at the last min. I'm so grateful. If it wasn't for God and Mrs. West, who knows where I would be now. The neurologist here would probably have me on another anti-seizure medication that wouldn't be helping or he'd probably have written me off as having psycological problems and sent me to a therapist. My biggest concern is being on those anti-seizure medications for 8 months, I wonder what kind of effect it will have on me in the long run.

I still see the neurologist, Dr. Biton, who actually listened to me and helped me. I go for check-ups every 6 months and to keep him updated with how I'm doing. He likes to hear about it and he was right about my blood pressure being a factor. Dr. Biton also sent me to an endocrinologist because I've also got Hypothyroidism and while my GP had me on synthroid, my thyroid was still swollen and the synthroid made me sick too. The endocrinologist changed my synthroid to a time release brand that doesn't make me sick and changed my dosage. As a result, my thyroid has gone back down and I'm feeling better. I know it's a lot more expensive to see specialists like these and have the tests run that they wanted, but it's worth it to me to be on the right path and be on the right medications and finally be as happy as I can be again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy to have Neurocardiogenic Syncope. I'll have this the rest of my life and I'll have to be very careful when I'm only 24 now. I'm still learning about it and my limits. But I am happy it's not cancer or a tumor or seizures like they thought at first.

Yes, BP drops are serious but I guess it really depends on your age and your body and it's tolorance. The cardio said he's had little elderly ladies who's BP drops lower than mine has on record before I drop yet they continue on talking or whatever and don't seem to notice a thing. 70/30 and I was close to dropping. I'm only 5'7" and 117 lbs though but I've actually had this for the last 18 years. Why I've suddenly gotten a lot worse in the last two years and started hitting the floor is still a mystery. But I'm getting treatment now and while the episodes haven't stopped, they aren't as frequent, and I know now that if my vision gets blurry, I need to stop and lay down with my feet elevated and wait for it to pass because fighting it can make it worse and can cause me to hit the floor anyway (trust me, it's really fun in Wal-Mart and trying to avoid the stares while telling people I'm fine, I'm just trying not to pass out and no it's not my blood sugar, it's my blood pressure but thank you for your concern and the crackers because I really do appreciate it). The Droxidopa is working better than the Midodrine and I'm not sick from it so I'm doing much better.

But I am going to get a medical ID bracelet to identify that I do have Neurocardiogenic Syncope so just in case I am out at Wal-Mart or somewhere else and I do drop suddenly, they won't try to treat me for diabetes (hopefully) and instead let me come to and if it isn't within a few seconds to a min, I just need an IV of saline for a little bit and I'll be fine. But please don't stop checking on people who are either like me or have diabetes because we may still need help. :smile: