My wife (a 26-year-old healthy female) recently started having seizures.
She's seeing a neurologist next week, but I just want to know more about
what is going on. Perhaps someone can share some information with me.

One day in 2000 my wife had a fainting spell when I came home from work. She
had yellowish vision and felt warm and confused for several minutes
afterwards. We attributed this to her diet (she was practically starving on
a 1000 calorie diet, which she abandoned after this). Nothing else happened
until 2004. On September 15th of 2004, my wife had gone all day without
eating and when she finally sat down to eat, her right arm started to
twitch, her neck muscle tightened and she had some paralysis throughout her
body. Again, she had the yellowish vision. This time it was accompanied with
a headache towards the front of her head. For some stupid reason, we wrote
this off as a muscle spasm and didn't want to think about it.
Several days later on September 23rd of 2004, my wife went to a dentist to
have teeth filled on the bottom jaw, towards the back. The dentist numbed
her up with pivocane [sp?] and then a few moments later, my wife went into a
full-blown seizure and seemed comatose for 3 to 4 minutes according to the
dentist.

Here's exactly what the dentist said to me:
"Sir, you need to pick up your wife, she can't drive. She had what looked
like a seizure to me, jerking, eyes rolling, and she looked comatose for a
few minutes. It looks like she needs to see a doctor."

Although my wife later explained to me that she was not unconscious. She
could hear and feel everything, and in fact could think clearly. Her vision
was blurred and yellowish. She could feel the dentist tapping her face
trying to wake her up.

I drove her from the dentist to the ER (except we stopped to get a candy
bar and soda, thinking that might help.. it did).

While sitting in the lobby after 2 hours, she had another seizure. She lost
complete control of her body, moving in a strange rhythmic, circular motion,
neck and upper back muscles just went limp. She was crying while this was
happening and again, she new exactly what was going on and did not loose
consciousness. A nurse saw it and moved her into a room... then they did all
the testing (CT scan, blood work, etc. all inconclusive). At this point she
was practically starving although the nurse was reluctant to allow her to
eat because she might have choked if another seizure occured. They wanted to
start her on Ativan but I asked them not to. Instead, I snuck her some food
while the curtain was closed. Her headache went away and she did not have
another seizure for 24 hours.

After a couple hours of staying in the ER, my wife was discharged without
any prescriptions and instructed to follow up with her GP and a neurologist.

My wife seen her GP the very next morning, and he made an appointment for a
fasting glucose test, complete metabolic panel, an EEG, and a follow-up with
a neurologist. He also prescribed Phenobarbital and instructed her to use if
only if the seizures returned or could not be controlled by eating and
resting.

That evening (the 24th of September) my wife had another seizure. This time
the seizure was brought on by anxiety (she was also hungry again, but did
not eat in time). Again, she did not loose total consciousness. My wife was
reading on the Internet about Aspartame, and my wife recalled guzzling down
about 4 Diet Dr. Peppers each day (while on an Atkin's diet) the prior week.
Apparently the web page she was reading upset her so badly that it started
the seizure. First her head started twitching slightly and a headache came
on. At this point I asked her to stop reading the web page and relax. But it
was too late. Two minutes later my wife was on the ground, not twitching per
se, but muscles moving involuntarily and slowly. She was crying the entire
time. She could speak to me and knew exactly what was going on. Her vision
was again yellowish or dark during the episode. After this episode she
experienced a headache and a sense of unreality or confusion for
approximately 30 minutes. She continued to feel groggy until I gave her a
candy bar and a piece of cheesecake. Within 15 minutes she was feeling fine
again. From that point on she was able to keep the seizures under control
just by making sure she had a full stomach and remained calm. I have not
noticed any personality changes or anything of that nature.

Summary:

1. my wife was improperly following the Atkins' diet, with 1000 calories per
day, only 50g of fat, and 20g of carbs prior to the seizures.
2. my wife was consuming very large amounts of diet soda containing
Aspartame (Diet Dr. Pepper).
3. Her seizures never left her totally unconscious. She could hear and feel
during the seizures, although her vision was disturbed before and during the
seizures.
4. Her seizures could be brought on by just thinking about them, accompanied
with her seizure threshold already being lowered e.g. lack of food or sleep.
5. Headaches, twitching, and vision disturbances usually preceded the
seizures.