sorry to hear you had a siezure...
there is no worse feeling....I know I had one last week and now jsut
waiting for time to go by so I can regain my confidence... And as for the
stress thing..!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha..
that is what my doctor said as well as now my blood pressure is up and he
wants me to get that down and get rid of stress....
I said ok...tell me how.?....I am not sure of your situation but mine is I
am 38 male own my own business with 7 employees have 2 wonderful kids girl 9
boy 7 and a wife that I wish I could trade in! ...well sometimes anyway!!
ha..
So now my doc wants to get to know me better!! I said sure.....lets do
it...so if I find that magic formula for getting rid of stress I will let
you know..
Otherwise do take care and take it a day at a time and as our friend in
here says...
Stay Vertical!!!!!!!!
cheers.

I went back and reviewed some of your older messages to get an idea what's
going on.  You have been having more seizures (grand mals) this year than
previous years.  You were at toxic level for a while although your Dilantin
levels have been very low at times, have had a goofy potassium level.  You
were interested in weaning off Dilantin.  Is all of this right?  You were
supposed to see the doctor at the end of July.

I can't recall and can't find a message related to this, but were you
having liver disease problems or are your liver enzyme tests coming back
abnormal?  By the way, FYI, Dilantin can raise the alkaline phosphatase
(liver enzyme).  The nurse (specially trained and can refill prescriptions)
in our epilepsy center who I see every other year, said that an elevated
alkaline phosphatase level is a good indicator that the patient is taking
their Dilantin.  Alkaline phosphatase levels can also be increased due to
gallbladder disease (as well as other things).

You didn't say if you are a male or female.  If you are a female, sometimes
hormone fluctuations can cause a lot of problems (this was true for me).
Photosensitivity isn't that wide-spread, but it is something that has to be
considered.  The other thing that has really been significant in my ability
to control seizures is overall health because if anything goes wrong with
my body, my brain knows it before my body does (particularly important if a
prolonged elevated temperature is involved even if it isn't elevated that
high).  Lack of sleep and alcohol are two factors, that I'm sure you
already are aware of, that can provoke seizures.

I'm not familiar with all the epilepsy medications available, but there are
several that do not stress the liver (instead they use the kidney).  There
is also the possibility of using two or more drugs to control seizure
activity.  One thing good about the liver is that it can recover if damage
is not severe.

There are plenty of options to control seizures (including surgery if
appropriate), but the thing is it is time consuming.  You aren't going to
be able to go around untreated (whether meds, surgery, or something else)
particularly since it sounds like the frequency of your grand mals is
increasing.  In addition to the risk of status seizures, it can be outright
physically dangerous in some situations (I knew a young woman who had a
seizure in a bathtub and died of a combination of burns and drowning).

Be patient, hang in there.

Barb.