Going backwards to go forwards again. That is what happens when you run before you an walk. 20th December 2007.
Well, it is agreed and a relief really to know what a seizure will be like. This was something that had worried my Husband because he had no idea what would happen if and when I had a seizure again.
It was a seizure and my husband had, unbeknown to me, recorded the part from my last black out, which I was unaware of.
Following an appointment with my Neurologist it has been confirmed that it was an epileptic seizure due to how my eyes were. They seemed strange on the video when I looked at it and there was the abnormal breathing, if you could call it breathing. It was more like gasping and spluttering. Yet I remember doing that breathing but was unable to actually stop doing it.
It seems that following surgery the course of a seizure can indeed change. My Neurologist was straight to the point and said that these seizures needed halting now before the brain got into the habit of it. This I assume to mean that there is a pathway that messages travel causing whatever action is needed to cause a seizure and once the seizure pathway has been established then it will be easy for it to reoccur again and again, if unchecked. Therefore it has been pointed out that an increase in medication is needed to halt this.
I had reduced completely off the Primidone and that occurred in November whilst on holiday. Unfortunately I had also been reducing, slightly I might add, the Lamotrigen (Lamictal) and at that point I was on 150mg AM and 150mg PM. I had further reduced this dose to 150mg AM and 100mg PM at the beginning of December. This was maybe too rapid a decrease after coming of the Primidone completely because I have been off the Primidone for a mere two weeks.
Now I am increasing the Lamotringen again by 50mg per week until I reach 200mg AM and 200mg PM. Hopefully, this should normalise the seizures again but should it not then an increase would be necessary until the point of control is reached. I do not wish to return to taking Primidone, for purely personal reasons due to the side effects. However, if it is necessary then obviously I would, unless another form of medication materialises.
It seems that there are odds for everything in life and reducing drugs after surgery has risks. There are two ways of doing this, or looking at it. Stay on the medication and you have a certain low percentage risk of recurring seizures and it is the same for those who choose to reduce their medication. They have the same risk of repeat seizures but there has to be a scientific figure for these odds and I do not know them because the variants are so different for each person, in respect of age, seizure strength etc. This is pure speculation too but then it seems most things are. in all fields of life.
I have felt much better and more relaxed since increasing the drugs but am not being lulled into a false sense of security. It pays to be realistic and there is so much about the brain that I would like to know. I have also been getting more sleep recently so this may add to the feeling of being more awake and lively. Plus a stress factor has disappeared and this burdens the system on top of sleep depravation
However, it is a case of what I want to know would maybe be a little indelicate to many academics. Maybe it would not but it is rather trivial and maybe I will ask but not yet until I have figured out whether it needs asking. This is not scientific reasoning but a personal thing so until it is asked there is no point elucidating the point further.
That is how things stand and I do feel more centred again, so whether it is the not knowing that causes the regression back into total lethargy I do not know. However, I am better and that is all that matters to me and no doubt several other people involved in my wellbeing.
