Hi everyone:

It gets stranger than that (At least for me anyways).  I can have an aura
for NO REASON AT ALL.

Yep.  You heard me correctly.  NO REASON AT ALL.

I can be doing ANYTHING.  Be ANYWHERE. And have one at ANYTIME.  Heck, I've
sometimes had them while sitting in front of the computer (When this is the
cause, walking away from the computer for a while usually solves the
problem)

All for no reason at all.

What are the feelings I get when I have one?  Well for me, it can come one
of two ways.

The first is what I like to call the "partial partial".  The "partial
partial" is little more than a tingling feeling, usually in my left arm (I
have felt it to some extent in the right one too).  Over time (Usually over
the course of several minutes), it just gets stronger and stronger with each
tingling wave.  At its worst, it can feel like my left arm is being ripped
off my shoulder.  It can also be so strong that it starts to affect my head,
giving me a momentary feeling of slight and subtle dizziness.

The other kind is the complete partial.  This one is the scariest because
it's so deceiving.  I don't know from one complete partial to another if one
of them will actually turn out to be the "Big Kahuna" (I think we all know
what that is, but I'll explain it anyways later).  A CP for me starts out
like the Big Kahuna does.  It starts out with a licking of my chops feeling
(As if I were looking down at a nice juicy T-Bone steak).  This is the
signal for me to get to my bed or - And especially if out in public - the
nearest safe place (As in an area that IS NOT on a hard floor or pavement),
and lay down on my side (Laying on my side is to prevent me from swallowing
my tongue and to allow any secretions to flow out.  This is an instruction
given to me in a discharge paper from the ER when I had a seizure not too
long ago).  I then lay there throughout the onset, yelling out (Not
neccessarily for help, but just yelling out as this helps in keeping me from
biting down on my tongue as long as I can keep talking.  If someone comes,
oh well.  I can explain it to them once the event is over).

Obviously "The Big Kahuna" is the seizure itself.  When I have one of these,
I get all the symptoms above, but unlike a CP, the onset does not stop.
Obviously when that happens, I go under and don't come to until it's over.
This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours (Just recently, I
was out for a good 2-3 hours with a seizure).  When I do come to, I get a
slight nauseating feeling, almost like I've got to throw up, but not quite.
When I was younger though, I would throw up at least once.  Nowadays, a can
of soda in the ER is usually enough to settle things down.

After coming out of a seizure, I **ALWAYS** call an ambulance and go to the
ER.  I have found this to be most beneficial.  Add to the fact that I've
been known to have MORE than one seizure in any given 24 hour period and
that's all the more reason to have the paramedics take me in.  Some of them
don't always like it, but oh well - TOUGH KAHUNAS.  I need medical care.

Well....That's my Epileptic life.  What's yours?

Cheers :D

Pat Cook
Denver, Colorado

 Hi.  You dropped out part of my post in above quote ("It's not
unusual..." etc. ) that changes the context somewhat.   For the record
I said (I added the ***s in Line 2)  -->

  It's not unusual for a seizure (one of) to be triggered by
exposure
to pesticides, paint or cleaner ****fumes*****, hot muggy air in
summer and
other triggers without a person necessarily having epilepsy.  But
also
many of us are *sensitive to some of those and can have an Aura or
seizure onset brought on by some of those too.
***<The original poster also had only *1 szr. so far, and not more/
enough to be able to test to see if it was a longer term problem like
some of us have or a single event. >

Old post cont'd-> *My Aura used to include a **Lemon odour or taste on
top of my tongue**
before the stronger onset.  Many of the popular 'floor cleaners'
laced with Lemon to cover up whatever other chemical odours might be
there, will bring on an Aura and quick weak feeling within 30 seconds
of exposure.  If I don't get out to fresh air within a couple of
minutes I *expect that I'd have a full Complex Partial seizure, even
though the last official one I had was June 1998.  I Still get the
dizzy swirling 'twilight zone'  feeling when near lemons.  ///end
paste of olde post//////

  I don't know what's in any Professional stuff now, but 2 years ago
some used Lemon among the fillers, and it produced the same Auras as I
used to get (in 1993) at Szr.Onset, where any strong Lemon Cleaner
would produce the aura typical of a Right Temporal Lobe CP seizure
onset. /G.