Howdy Montyna!

I have my seizures in groups too. They are called "cluster seizures."

Somebody may have some side effects, a second person have different side
effects and a third person may have no side effects at all!

Another big issue is drug interactions:

Is somebody on multiple drug therapy for their epilepsy?

Is somebody taking any drugs at all for any other diseases or conditions?
Decongestants?
Antihistimenes (this is a big one!)
Aspirin?

In the case of some drugs other things may interact, alcohol, food (good
example is tegretol and grapefruit)

There is one thing that I keep hammering away at and that you should keep in
mind:

Everybody is different!!!!!

I've been on two drugs.  The first was Tegretol, which worked great, and I
didn't have any side effects that bothered me; however, I did get a giant
rash (no itching, no discomfort, or anything), and they had to take me off
it.  Then they put me on Dilantin, which has not caused any daily
problems, but I did have gum overgrowth, which they removed surgically.  I
guess some of that gum overgrowth can be avoided by very good oral
hygiene.  Maybe the gum overgrowth would have happened even if I hadn't
been taking Dilantin (although I really doubt it).

The liver enzyme alkaline phosphatase is very high, but my doctor said
that could be a result of the meds or previous gall bladder disease.
There was no baseline liver enzyme test done prior to going on meds, so
they just don't know the cause.  The gal in the epilepsy clinic though
says an elevated alkaline phosphatase is an indicator to them that the
patient had been taking their Dilantin.

Before I got close to menopause, my seizures also came in sets or
clusters, and they were always right before my menstrual cycle.  When I
got closer to menopause, the seizures started coming mid-cycle.  Then
right before menopause (a very abrupt one), they came whenever they darned
well felt like it.  For a long time, I did not realize the association
with hormones until I started keeping track of them on a calendar and
there was a positive correlation.  My cycles were never regular but my
brain knew it was coming because the seizure symptoms would start right
before my menses.

You might not get any side effects.  I have not had ANY day-to-day side
effects so far (been on Dilantin for almost 13 years).  I really enjoy NOT
having seizures, so I'm definitely staying on my meds because I can't
stand how bad I feel having seizures.  There is also no way for some
people to tell they are having seizures during sleep.  I mean, if you can
have them during the day, why not at night.  They had me on a portable
monitor, and they did find I was having a lot of seizures during my
sleep.  Gee, no wonder I woke up more tired than when I went to bed.

I worked in a sheltered workshop for adults with developmental
disabilities and many, many of those folks had seizures (every type of
seizure was present in that population).  I worked directly with the
social workers, program director, and other staff who saw me all the time
and actually witnessed me having seizures, and nobody knew or ever said
anything to me.  I went around for years and years having seizures in
front of my family, friends, co-workers, and they never noticed anything.
After I was diagnosed and my family was educated, my hubby and kids did
notice odd things that they had thought were part of my personality or
whatever.  Your comment about not telling me you were having a seizure is
exactly what I used to do; not say a word.

Maybe I shouldn't have used the term black-out.  It's actually altered
consciousness (but that's only with the complex version and not the simple
partial seizures).  The altered consciousness is weird because it is very
difficult to concentrate on anything but the seizure.  You are quite aware
of what is going around you, but all your attention, all your energy is
focused on getting through the seizure.  It can be kind of tricky for
bystanders to tell because we might just continue doing what we were doing
before the seizure started (that was the case for me).

Could be.

Barb