Medical Question--Siezures

[Mathlete]

I could use medical advice and I know there are some smart people out there.

First let me say that I have been to a doctor and have gotten medical attention. I am just a little freaked out right now and need to vent. I am a 29 year old male. 5'10, 200 lbs. A little on the beefy side but not to bad. Eat reasonably well but I smoke a pack a day. Tuesday I was shopping with my family(Mom, sister, Aunt, cousin) and I had a seizure. This really freaked me out. Totally lost control and was shaking and eventually lost consciousness(sp?). I spent a day in the hospital where they ran a bunch of tests(Head CT, CAT scan, EEG). They told me everything looks normal. I have also started taking Stacker 2(Ephedra Free) within the past week. The doc says that there is a 33% chance that it is epilepsy. Needless to say the Stacker is out.

I have two questions:

1. 1. Does anyone know someone that is living with epilepsy? How are they doing?
   
   2. Should I even be worried?

Edit:

Just found out I lose my license for 3-6 months too. WooHoo

 

[moshquerade]

are you going to quit smoking?

 

[Mathlete]

I would love to say yes but there is a cigarette in my mouth right now.

 

[Vegitto]

Originally posted by: Mathlete
I could use medical advice and I know there are some smart people out there.

First let me say that I have been to a doctor and have gotten medical attention. I am just a little freaked out right now and need to vent. I am a 29 year old male. 5'10, 200 lbs. A little on the beefy side but not to bad. Eat reasonably well but I smoke a pack a day. Tuesday I was shopping with my family(Mom, sister, Aunt, cousin) and I had a seizure. This really freaked me out. Totally lost control and was shaking and eventually lost consciousness(sp?). I spent a day in the hospital where they ran a bunch of tests(Head CT, CAT scan, EEG). They told me everything looks normal. I have also started taking Stacker 2(Ephedra Free) within the past week. The doc says that there is a 33% chance that it is epilepsy. Needless to say the Stacker is out.

I have two questions:

1. 1. Does anyone know someone that is living with epilepsy? How are they doing?
   
   2. Should I even be worried?

I know a kid with epilepsy. It's so bad she can't go to school or even have something close to a normal life . Sorry to say it, but it's the truth and you asked for it .
If you DO have epilepsy, meh. You're 29. If it'd been so bad your life'd suffer because of it, it'd be discovered >10. If you do have it, you take some meds, tell everyone that you have it so they can take care of you when in a seizure or after one and that's it.

 

[Skiddex]

I may be able to shed a little bit of light on this indirectly. About 2 years ago i had mono and unfortunately, contracted cranial encephalitis which is very rare with mono. I was in the hospital for about a week with seizures that would start on one side of my body and spread to the other side, while i was conscious the whole time. very scary to say the least.

of course there were months of tests and follow ups as they had no idea why i contracted the encephalitis (infectious diseases (ID) was in my room every day finding out if i had played with a monkey of some kind from some obscure jungle in the middle of no where).

it was a long ordeal with drugs that had bad side affects (depression) but it is over now with only essencial tremors left.

My point in saying this is it WILL be scary for a bit and there will be many trips to the hospital. I wish you the best and pray for a quick recovery and a positive outcome. PM me is you have any other questions.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Mathlete
I would love to say yes but there is a cigarette in my mouth right now.

because you are so stressed about this? is that why you are still smoking?

give up smoking, start exercising, and if it's epilepsy you can probably control it with a little medication. you can live a normal life.

 

[compnovice]

Cheer up...

 

[Mathlete]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Mathlete
I would love to say yes but there is a cigarette in my mouth right now.

because you are so stressed about this? is that why you are still smoking?

give up smoking, start exercising, and if it's epilepsy you can probably control it with a little medication. you can live a normal life.

you hit the nail on the head there

 

[Mathlete]

Anyone?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: Mathlete
I could use medical advice and I know there are some smart people out there.

First let me say that I have been to a doctor and have gotten medical attention. I am just a little freaked out right now and need to vent. I am a 29 year old male. 5'10, 200 lbs. A little on the beefy side but not to bad. Eat reasonably well but I smoke a pack a day. Tuesday I was shopping with my family(Mom, sister, Aunt, cousin) and I had a seizure. This really freaked me out. Totally lost control and was shaking and eventually lost consciousness(sp?). I spent a day in the hospital where they ran a bunch of tests(Head CT, CAT scan, EEG). They told me everything looks normal. I have also started taking Stacker 2(Ephedra Free) within the past week. The doc says that there is a 33% chance that it is epilepsy. Needless to say the Stacker is out.

I have two questions:

1. 1. Does anyone know someone that is living with epilepsy? How are they doing?
   
   2. Should I even be worried?

Edit:

Just found out I lose my license for 3-6 months too. WooHoo

My friend/Old College Roomate has Grand Mal (sp?) siezures which, IIRC, is a form of epilepsy. He does fine when he's on his medications and relaxed, but if he gets uber-stressed over something, parties too hard, etc...basically does something to throw his system into whack, he has a decent chance of siezing.

His siezures are the classic "flopping fish" kind. He totalled his car from one, and lost his license for a certain time (3-6 months or a year or whatever it was) pending no siezures during that time....though I'm sure the law varies by state (He's in Minnesota).

He hasn't had a siezure in a good while now, and has his license back.

Anyway, I remember how we found out: He came back from class and his chin was gaping open (from falling during the siezure) and he wasn't exactly lucid. He also didn't remember how he hurt his chin. We took him in for stitches, but when the docs heard the story they had him do some MRIs, CATs, etc...Things came back wierd, and they went from there to more tests to his diagnosis. I dunno what it means, if anything, that yours all came back normal.

They're nothing to joke about, and you should definitely quit smoking. If the shock and embarassment of flopping like a fish on the floor of a mall isn't enough to convince you, then I recommend seeing a hypnotist or someone to help.

 

[Rock Hydra]

I don't have any advice to offer, but I hope you get better and bounce back from your dilema.

 

[eits]

answers to your questions:

1, no.
2, yes.

do you have a family history of epilepsy?
quit smoking... that can definitely cause epileptic seizures.
do you have a lot of stress? anything happen in your life lately that might cause stress?
don't take any diet pills... that's as dumb as smoking.
start working out.
take up yoga or tai chi.... something to calm your body NATURALLY (i.e. no bvllshit like cigarettes or drugs or medication).

 

[eits]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Mathlete
I would love to say yes but there is a cigarette in my mouth right now.

because you are so stressed about this? is that why you are still smoking?

give up smoking, start exercising, and if it's epilepsy you can probably control it with a little medication. you can live a normal life.

qft. nice post, moshie.

 

[Slew Foot]

I dont have much experience with epilepsy, but Ill parrot what others said. Avoid smoking and other "unnatural" relaxants. Exercise, and eat right. Stress and electrolyte abnormalities can cause seizures, but it looks like you may have had these checked out already.

 

[eits]

if you drink coffee, stay off the coffee, too.

 

[thebigdude]

I had the exact same experience when I was in junior high. Just had a siezure one day. They ran all kinds of tests and couldn't find anything. They never did figure out what caused it. But since I never had one again (knocks on wood) I never really worried about it.

 

[montanafan]

Don't know a lot about epilepsy, but I have had some experience with students who had it. One important thing would be to make sure that people around you at work, school, family, etc. know about it and what to do when you have a seizure. I had one student who would just fall backwards when the seizure started and I just got used to keeping an eye on her when she was standing and was able to catch her before she hit the floor.

I know that with all of them the doctors had to do a lot of tinkering with types of medication and dosages to get the fix and that they had some lifestyle management things they had to do. All of them eventually did get things worked out to where they could have pretty normal lives. So my advice would be to get a good doctor, be patient working through all the adjustments to medication, follow their advice about lifestyle changes, and good luck.