Anyone here with experience of simple partial (focal) seizures?

[deathbyprocrastination]

I've been referred to the first seizure clinic by my GP because of an episode 10 days ago that sounds a lot like a simple partial seizure. If that is what it is, then it's actually not the first time. I had a similar episode 2.5 years ago while living abroad. Would really welcome hearing from someone who has had them. I have had an ongoing headache since it happened (and generally felt a bit weird) and would like to know if that's common. Thanks in advance

Bumping

@deathbyprocrastination What’s your symptoms? Wonder if that’s what I’ve had twice, altered awareness but didn’t collapse. Scans didn’t show anything so diagnosed as vasovagal attack.

Hi @PurplePumpkinDream sorry for the slow response. I'm booked in for an MRI tomorrow. I've had a couple of really weird episodes where I experience constant deja vu for hours at a time, it hits me in waves and I often feel a bit nauseous and dizzy. The first time it was followed by a really terrible headache. This latest time I do have a headache as well but a weird throbbing/swooping one, which has come and gone for two weeks. I didn't lose consciousness or have any motor symptoms, just a weird loss of sense of time where 30 mins would feel like 2 minutes.

The consultant who I was referred to (after a 111 call and follow-up appointment) reckons it is either migraine with aura or temporal lobe epilepsy. He seemed to think migraine with aura was more likely but he told me to go away and research both and the temporal lobe epilepsy symptoms sound much closer to what I experienced.

Have you been ok since your episode?

I have the deja vu thing daily and the waves rising up from my stomach to my throat. I can function and talk through them if I must (at work for example and have a customer) but I prefer staying still until it passes and the nausea feeling isn't so bad. I had been to my gp about it a couple of years ago and it was dismissed so I just learnt to live with it.

I was diagnosed with generalised idiopathic epilepsy in February this year after having two tonic clonic seizures witnessed by my husband and then paramedics witnessed my post ictal state.

If you do get diagnosed epileptic there is a fantastic support group on Facebook, they've been so so supportive since I was diagnosed.

Also I recommend you always have paracetamol at home for your headaches, I get them daily and they're also a side effect of some epilepsy medications.

@weakpanda many thanks for posting. I'm glad you were able to get a proper diagnosis and have good support now. The consultant prescribed naproxen for the headaches but I haven't found it's helped much because it's not really a standard headache I still have the whooshing going on...

Hopefully after you've had your tests they'll be able to get you on medication to help. It's trial and error though so may take a while to find the right one for you but I hope it doesn't take too long. It's really not a nice feeling at all.

I’ve been having mini seizures recently. I’m seeing a neurologist this week. I don’t black out but they go on for hours.

I hope you feel better soon.

Sorry to hear that @Ipanemama - mine (if they are indeed seizures) go on for hours too

@weakpanda thank you - right now it is just the headache / head weirdness that I’m struggling with. Do you get that following a seizure?

@deathbyprocrastination I always have a headache but that's one of my meds side effects. I just feel like I've taken a step back from everything, feel a bit smaller/everything else feels bigger and my balance is very off. Occasionally get dizziness after aswell

Yes I also have a funny headache (overall pressure and neck pain) and feel a bit spaced out. I’ve been like this for a few weeks so need to find out what’s going on. I was assessed by paramedics but my vitals and vision are okay so I was told to follow up with GP.

@deathbyprocrastination so far no more episodes but I’m always aware that it could happen again. Luckily I get warning signs so that I can sit/lie down should it happen. Good luck with the MRI.

Hi, I have temporal lobe epilepsy. After a series of seizures, I feel shocking for a week or two: tired, headaches, memory problems

For a few years the doctor was unsure if TLE or migraine with aura, as there was nothing unusual on the mri scan.
However I've had an increase in déjà vu seizures so the epilepsy diagnosis was confirmed.
My advice is to seriously consider the medication. I resisted it for so many years. But each seizure resets the clock on the 12 month wait to be allowed to drive again.

I hope you are ok, and good luck x

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the posts and you sharing your own stories.

Feel pretty rough right now so glad the mri is being done tomorrow. But am a bit concerned that unless I’m having a seizure at that moment the mri is being done won’t actually show anything and it won’t be taken any further but my head feels so weird, I really want to get to the bottom of it.

I have also realised / acknowledged for the first time, that I sometimes experience a really odd phenomenon whereby someone I’m talking to will seen somehow detached from the backdrop, like they’ve been superimposed on it. I don’t know if this is linked in any way to the seizures but what @weakpanda said about things feeling smaller made me think of it

Just checking back into this thread for advice. My MRI was clear and am still waiting on the results of EEG but, as with the MRI, I'm not sure what the odds are of it showing anything up if I wasn't having a seizure at the time.

I felt better for a couple of weeks but now feeling really odd again. It's been building over the past week or so and this morning I woke up with the same repeated 'rising' / whooping feeling and often get very dizzy / unsteady. Wondering if others with anything similar? It's really affecting my ability to function normally day to day and I'd love to at least have a diagnosis so I can get some tips on how to manage symptoms.

How did you get on @deathbyprocrastination?

I’ve had multiple of what I think could be these type of seizures all week and I’m really worried as everything I Google brings up links to brain tumours