3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th Seizures Experiences – July – October 2015
9 months seizure free and i’m feeling good. I’m still required to take my meds everyday – the 1000mg of Keppra XR. I didn’t change my diet drastically but made some healthy changes. I also didn’t drink as much – I was doing 2 – 3 glasses of wine max. I did not want to accept I was epileptic. We all thought this was a phase until another nocturnal seizure happened – again on a Sunday.
This was after 4th of July weekend. I admit I was drinking on the holiday weekend. Whenever these seizures happen, I try to nail down the triggers. This time, I for sure thought it was mainly triggered by alcohol. Told my doctor, he increased my dosage to 1500 mg. After this seizure, I decided to not drink as much and cut out beer.
So after cutting out beer and only drinking wine. I thought I would be good, welp 6 weeks later, ANOTHER nocturnal seizure ,August 29th. I didn’t call my doctor about this seizure because I didn’t want him increasing my dose when I know it’s triggered by alcohol and stress.
I have identified my seizure patterns: in my sleep, on the weekends, and when I’ve been drinking the day/night before. Cutting drinking out entirely for me is hard. When I started having these nocturnal seizures, I limited to no more than 2 drinks. (Doctor’s orders too)
Seizures really affect my body not only physically but mentally. I was becoming more depressed and getting more anxiety, I’ve always been sort of an anxious person to some degree, but in this last year, the level of my anxiety tripled.
I tried to test myself and these seizure triggers. My data so far is alcohol withdrawal and stress. 3 1/2 weeks after the August seizure, on Saturday I had a glass of wine with dinner. After I fell asleep, boom ANOTHER nocturnal seizure. This time was different since it happened on a Saturday. Travis took a video of me again and it was not flattering. What freaks me out is the no control I have. Who is this person? It takes me a while to snap out of it and luckily I have him comforting me. After this 5th seizure, I had to let my doctor know. I told him about the last 2 and since they are now happening more frequently, I had to come in. I informed him about the drinking and the anxiety. He tells that increased anxiety can be a main side effect of Keppra. I did not want to take an anti depressant to fight a side effect of another medication, and thankfully my doctor agreed. He increased my Keppra XR to now 2,000 mg and if i have another seizure and still feel more depressed/anxiety then it was time to explore a new seizure drug. He tells me I have epilepsy and it is not only the drinking that causes it. I just don’t agree with the diagnosis process. I have seizures with no cause, so I am epileptic?
It was a couple days after the doctor’s and I didn’t start the increased dosage yet. I wasn’t in a rush to triple up on me meds. Well, I had my 6th seizure by myself at my house. I went to bed early because I had a work meeting in San Francisco and had to wake up at 430AM for a flight. I was stressed about the flight and the meeting. I had NO alcohol over the weekend . So this trigger was different. The weird thing is when I woke up from my sleep (it was around 11PM) I knew I had a seizure but didn’t know what date/year it was. I called my boyfriend and he knew I was out of it and drove over. I bite my tongue, felt the soreness in my muscles, head pounding and yet I still rallied and went to my meeting at 430am.
At this point, I have come to terms that I have developed epilepsy at age 26. It took me 6 seizures to finally accept it. I will not let this brain disorder stop me from being who I am. I am finally launching this blog to have you hold me accountable in this health and fitness journey.
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