Please read this in case you ever come across someone having a seizure...

[edam]

This story explains some of the myths around seizures. If you ever see someone having a seizure PLEASE don't try to put anything in their mouth!

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6913883.stm

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Thanks. Scary how many people believe the myth - when I developed epilepsy my deputy at work said, if you have a seizure, shall we try and stop you swallowing your tongue? She was a health researcher...

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very important!

First seizure I ever saw was DP having one - randomly saying she couldn't see anything and dropping in the street in guatemala. My god was it scary. And I was immediately surrounded by people - someone offering me a lighter to put in her mouth "to stop her biting her tongue". Very pleased I didn't accept!

This was years ago and she has only ever had two in her life thankfully.

Oh god, one of my very close friends has epilepsy from a head injury he got when his mothers drunk bf crashed the car with him in it when he was a child. He seizes about once every two or three months and frankly it is terrifying. I knew about not putting anything in his mouth but tbh I always call an ambulance even though he doesn't want one.
His seizures last for around 15-20 minutes which is a long time and he has been told that he will probably die during a seizure because of the type of injury he had. So I don't care if he doesn't want an ambulance (and in fairness he is usually ok by the next day) but I don't want him to die

Oh and his tongue is in ribbons from years of biting it during seizures

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Blimey aDad, the lighter thing is scary. Hate to think what happened to anyone who ever took that guy's advice.

Carmenmere, that is very sad indeed. 15 to 20 minutes is very unusual. In normal circs, anything over five warrants an ambulance.

Is his increased risk because he has lengthy seizures and goes into status epilepticus? Poor man.

I'm very, very lucky that I've only ever had seizures in my sleep when I'm safely tucked up in bed and my epilepsy is perfectly well controlled by one drug.

And I do sympathise with anyone who sees a seizure - have always thought it must be scarier for the witnesses than those of us having the episode, given we aren't aware of it at the time.

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did you sort out your pills in the end edam? that all sounded v frightening (also wanted to ask how things were with dh but you don't have to answer on this thread - can't find the old one but you probably can!)

Hey fox, sorry, got wrapped up in other stuff and only just come back to this thread. dh is OK atm. I'm OK too, not sure what you mean about sort the pills out? I'm fairly boring and not dramatic at all as far as epilepsy goes, two tablets every night and you'd never know anything was wrong!

oh gawd, sorry edam. Probably something from about 10 years ago that jumped into my mind when I read edam and epilepsy - thought there was some problem with generic pills that had been prescribed for you that didn't work as well but I'm glad there's no problem!

Good to hear about dh.

Ooh yes, that's right fox, bloody pharmacist and bloody PCT pushing generic prescribing. Horrible. But sorted it out with GPs who were horrified.

Poor you - all part of their plan to cut down on medicine costs I suppose .

Correct. They told pharmacists to issue generic drugs no matter what the prescription said. And pharmacist lied to me! Claimed the drug was the same. Bollocks - it's renowned for being a very, very sensitive drug and the generic version contained a common food allergen!

thanks for the article
out of interest, when you were diagnosed was the consultant able to tell you that you definitely had epilepsy, and if so how did they work it out? Reason I ask is that my DH has some seizures year before last and after lots of tests they said they couldn't be sure whether it was epilepsy or not, and said it was likely to have bene caused by stress. They said never rule it out but that in 50% of cases they could never actually tell whether someone has epilepsy. Have you heard of this?
Luckily he has had nothing since but I am always watching him just in case. It's like being left in limbo.

how frightening for you - thank goodness you spotted it. I bet there are loads of people who don't check what they are given.

Princess, that does make sense, I'm afraid, even though it sounds very odd. Epilepsy is the tendency to have recurrent seizures, rather than a defined illness like, I dunno, diabetes. If someone carries on having seizures = they probably have epilepsy. If they don't they probably don't, IYSWIM.

Lots of things can cause seizures - high temperature, for instance - so one or two seizures do not mean someone has epilepsy.

Must have been very scary for you, I do feel for partners as I think it's probably worse seeing someone else having a seizure than having one yourself.

I seeeeeeee, I get it now - you explained it better than the consultant
So I can relax a bit and just make sure he doesn't get too stressed, if that is his trigger.
Thanks v much for that.

Basking in glow of being better than consultant. Glad to help!

Sometimes it's obvious from a brain scan what's wrong but in most cases, not. Epilepsy is very mysterious.

With my brain scan, they did find something unusual, but they have no idea why it suddenly started causing seizures at age 29. And they said more people than you'd expect have this oddity. Since brain scans were invented they've picked up loads while looking for something else - mostly not causing any problems at all, you wouldn't know there was anything strange if you hadn't looked.

very useful/informative thread.

never seen a siezure - and tbh i idnt know any of those myths either! so i wouldve prob tried to make head safe and stood back and waited anyway.

is good to clarify thats right tho! and to know if to call ambulance r not.

ta for the info!

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