Hello.   I'll show you where we hide the strawberries and chocolate.   In
the meantime, I have two websites courtesy of two of our Regular Posters,
who will likely show up later today.

   Julie Walton is the Webmaster of the Idaho Epilepsy News Site.   Her
Site address is --> http://www.epilepsyidaho.org   Bookmark the Entrance so
you can refer to it often.    CHECK out First Aid for seizures chart
(printable) both for 'ordinary seizures'   and a newer one she added for
First Aid in Water (if you swim much).
   Those are handy for people around us who don't know what to do during a
seizure.    There's a section on Tips and Tricks and Safety and Seizures
that a bunch of us have contributed to, but Julie did most of the work.

Within that site there's a line to the efa.org website (Ep. Foundation of
America), which has a Medications Glossary.

 Many of our seizure types they'll often start us first on Dilantin as it's
one of the oldest, so best studied szr. medications.   Also since the
patents etc. have been paid off, it's more Economical to buy than some of
the newer pills.  Several people around here are using Dilantin.  *IF that
doesn't give full control when you reach the therapeutic level (depends on
your body weight, metabolism, etc.)  there are lots of Other pills that
might help.

   The Second site is more specific to another Olde Regular you'll see
around here.   His is more specific to an Implant he has, but he also has
useful stuff on seizures and weblinks etc. that you might find useful too.
His www address is at http://www.howdydave.com  .  BOTH his site and
Julie's, as I said, have a link to efa.org  U.S. site.

  You *might also be Photosensitive, since Las Vegas is a fairly Flashy
Place, and you might have reacted to some of the Light shows.  Do you notice
any discomfort, for example, near Strobe lights, Neon Tubes in shopping
malls, or visual things like that that you might not have related to auras
of a possible minor seizure?
 ONCE you can identify the sorts of things that cause you to feel
Uncomfortable,  Dizzy or on the Verge of a possible seizure,  you can reduce
or avoid those things, and get better quality of life.
 (E.G.  some of my triggers are Lemon Cleaners, strong lemon or sour drinks
or foods -- those bring on my type of aura for my type of szrs.)    If you
look down the symptoms of Julie's first aid chart you might be able to
identify which feelings most closely and thus your types of seizures,
whether Petit Mal or stronger.

   You probably shouldn't drive like your Already know, when 1st diagnosed
(your Dr. had told you that).

  One of our Regulars who hasn't posted for awhile said that her Epilepsy
was like this 'irritating younger sibling that your Parents make you take
around with you, whether you want him along or not'.....   THAT pretty much
describes what you said at bottom, and like most of use felt when First
diagnosed.... WHEN will the Next one come?   Today,  Next Week,  Next
Month??    They might need to try more than one type of pill, if the base
one doesn't give Complete Control.  This is Normal, not a failure on YOUR
Part!!   Don't let that upset you.  You are not responsible for the seizures
happening.

   It's also normal to feel worried about this stuff.   Our Brain is where
most of us store 'who we are' and it's scary to feel that we're at risk of
Losing control or Losing who we are....  You'll hear from others here who
will give you more ideas and information.    We also have multi-women on the
group who can give any specifics on or off the group about how any 'women's
stuff' might vary wrt. seizure control from men's stuff.    Us Men just have
to avoid Beer and Scotch,  feed the dog and stay out of Traffic (when
walking)...  Oh, and remember to take our Pills at the right time the Doctor
said -- AM and Night, or whatever rate.  But we took a while to learn that
too.
   Any of the pills usually depend on a Fixed rate of taking it, so that
you get a Level Blood reading when they do any tests, and a Stable control
level.  G.   (I've  added other comments below, behind ***s --> 3x. )

**** In a way you're lucky.  LOTS of us (well not me but others) have Normal
EEGs since it has to actually be hooked up when the Seizure Waves happen, or
the EEG doesn't see anything./
Then had an MRI which was normal.
*** USUALLY? an MRI would see any Problems down to fractions of a
millimetre.  Unless they do these again, this Might? be a good sign.   There
is no Major internal damage -- blood clots, broken vessels etc., so some of
the seizures might be caused by reactions to other things external to us --
like my Lemon odour reaction, some people reactions to flashing strobes,
etc.   BUT *I'm not the Doctor, so this will be of interest to others if you
find more for them./

Stayed on dilantin and

*** We have others (many?) using Lamictal.  I'm not one of them, but I was
only able to use Dilantin for a short time. It's not unusual for some of us
to Not be able to get relief with it.  At High doses compared to our body
weight, rate of absorbing pills, etc. several of the Anti Ep Drugs can
produce similar symptoms.   Just Dilantin will often do it Quicker and more
noticably.  /

It might not be due totally to the Dilantin.  Your forgetfulness and the
other symptoms might be due to seizure activity (not necessarily grand
mals).  You know, every one of us has to live with the possibility of more
seizures.  I think once you can get better control, that fear lessens
somewhat.  You know, if your seizures are starting out as simple partial
or complex partial and then expanding to grand mals, I would expect some
kind of fear component (which can remain between seizures in my
experience).

To help yourself feel safe, you might need to do things to make your
environment as safe as it can possibly be.  You might have to get your
spouse more involved than he wants to be.  For example, it might be better
for him to bathe the babies or small kids.  Just do what you think you
need to do to keep yourself and your family safe.

Well, you might want to start looking at your seizures from another
angle.  I like to look at these things as the tendency was already there
(because it is possible to have an inherited genetic tendency to have
epilepsy if the conditions are right) but to a lessor degree.  I mean, a
lot of medical conditions don't just suddenly appear, bang.  Usually
something is or has been going on that just hasn't been discovered yet (by
the patient or the doctor) or hasn't been aggravated enough to have
obvious symptoms.  For example, people all of a sudden don't have diabetes
(talking about the mature onset or type II).  It's a gradual slow
accumulation of things and when it gets to a certain point (like having a
couple of blood sugars over a target number), you are diagnosed with
diabetes.  It was something that was really there before but under
control.  Hope this makes sense.

You know, another thing is that you noticed the association between
alcohol and the seizure.  Sometimes that's all it takes to avoid problems,
know what the triggers are and avoid them.  You know, talking about
triggers, I don't know how long I would have lasted in Las Vegas.  Gee,
all the lights and other visual stimulus would drive me nuts.

My DH was with me

Do what you feels comfortable and reassuring to you.  You might want to
keep a journal or diary.  The purpose of this would be to try to find
things that are acting as triggers.  I mean, there are tons of triggers
ranging from hormone fluctuations to visual and audio things that drive
the brain nuts to lack of sleep.  Food usually isn't a trigger (although
alcohol is known to be).   I think when you have epilepsy you have to know
yourself super well to avoid problems.

Barb

Welcome to the group, Cujo. I'm a 38-year-old female and had my first grand
mal seizure around age 22.
One thing that I have found very helpful is to know what my triggers are.
After every seizure my husband and I analyze all the things I did, ate or
drank in the 24 hours before it happened. That's how I realized that MSG and
its relatives are big triggers for me - they are almost guaranteed to give
me a seizure the next day. Other major triggers are emotional stress and
lack of sleep. Knowing what may cause a seizure makes me feel more in
control of my situation. Some seizures have no discernible cause, but the
vast majority are attributable to something which I can try my best to
avoid. (Unfortunately stress and lack of sleep aren't always preventable,
but eating MSG and drinking alcohol are.)
I mark all my seizures on a calendar so I have an accurate count of them to
give my doctor.
I don't tell everyone I know about my epilepsy, but if I'm going to be
somewhere for a long time, like at a job or overnight at someone's house, I
do make sure that someone there knows my condition so they will know what to
do if I have a seizure. Most people are very understanding.
I don't drive and I wouldn't go swimming or mountain climbing alone, but
other than that I don't feel restricted in my activities. I don't consider
myself disabled, and I know that there are far worse conditions that I could
have so I don't feel sorry for myself. But it took me several years to learn
to cope with it. I hope you'll find a way sooner than that!
Best wishes,
Hilary

When I was just taking Dilantin alone, it caused me to have the same
symptoms.  I am now taking another anti-epileptic drug called Keppra,
which only usually intensifies these effects.

If you haven't read my other posts, I had my first full (being
unconscious) seizure in August, though it wasn't until I had the second
one a month later, that I knew what it was.  I had the first in my
sleep, so when I woke up, I just figured I had a bad nightmare and was
fighting it or something, so I never had it checked out.  I have had
what my doctor calls trances (basically I will space out, will look like
I am staring at something, feel funny, not be able to move, and not know
what is going on for a minute or two) for almost a year.  They are
really minor seizures and are more common.  Before the second seizure, I
never knew what they really were.  LIke I said, I figured I could
possibly have borderline low-blood-sugar, since it runs in my family.  I
have had so much blood-work now, I definitely knew that was never the
cause.

I was not diagnosed with epilepsy.  The diagnosis I was given was that I
have a chemical imbalance (no reason given yet) in the right side of my
brain.  So, I take it that when it is imbalanced, I have some form of
seizure.