About two months ago, my neurologist and I reduced one of the three seizure medications I take in the hopes of improving my fatigue and stabilizing my INR levels (a measure of effectiveness of Coumadin). Well all good things must come to an end as they say. Sure enough my seizures have come back. Seizures are a strange experience and it seems that how we experience them differs from person to person. And even how they emerge within a person can change depending on where the faulty electrical firing is occurring. There’s nothing like your brain being electrocuted by itself.
When I have seizures they are broadly known as partial seizures, as if they not quite seizures. They are seizures but they effect more localized areas of the brain and so their symptoms may be more discrete. Seizures typically last between 1 to 5 minutes, beyond that serious problems in the brain can emerge. My seizures last on average 1 to 2 minutes, although prior to medication I found myself in status elepticus, meaning a constant state of seizure activity. This can damage the brain and requires emergency treatment with high-dose of anti-epileptics. I have an epileptic brain pattern consistent with an old-school diagnosis of organic brain syndrome, which is a progressive form of brain disease. In short, at some point medications will stop working and my brain will develop more significant damage, including memory loss, changes in coordination, emotional instability, etc. So medication management is important and right now it stopped working.
Two weeks ago, I had my first series of seizures that I attributed to taking Benadryl for allergies, yes folks Benadryl can cause seizures in people with epilepsy. However, over the past several days my seizures have gotten worse without Benadryl. When I have a seizure my head feels like someone is blowing it up with a lot of air, like a big balloon. I get dizzy and suddenly start to have coordination issues and numbness and tingling down one side of my face and down the side of the body opposite the side of the brain being impacted by the electrical storm. It lasts about 1 to 2 minutes. And recently it starts back up again. And I feel like a balloon being blown up.
So my neurologist has increased one of my medications with another increase possible in another week if I’m not stabilized. The joys of a balloon brain.
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