I decided to rename the category “Head Case” so it indicated what the entries are really about: epilepsy.
The weather is absolutely gorgeous today. It’s 41 with no clouds; a bright sun and big blue sky overhead. Sure, some of you might be shocked that I can enjoy 41-degree weather, but you can put on a jacket to keep you warm, whereas (last time I checked) clothing can’t make clouds go away.
So I went for a walk and ended up sitting next to a little stream down by the local beach. Yes, the beach still has a bunch of snow on it. No, I didn’t try to go swimming. I started thinking about stuff and… I think it’s because I was talking about it a little during my hair cut on Tuesday—I realized how long it’s been since I’ve had an epileptic seizure.
I’ll try to make this a quick summary (assuming that’s possible): my first generalized tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizure happened the morning of Sept 30th, 1991. Freshman year, getting ready for school in the morning, put my breakfast in the microwave, sat down, woke up on a gurney being rolled down the driveway toward an ambulance.
Flash forward to the summer of 2000, which was when I was getting a physical and told the doctor that I’d been having blackouts for about a year (they usually only lasted a minute or two, so I honestly just got used to them). It’s possible for someone to have a single seizure in their lifetime and that’s it; that summer is when I was officially diagnosed with epilepsy.
Initially, I was having blackouts every two months, but they started becoming more frequent. I went to Minnesota Epilepsy Group and we started medication hopping: try one drug and increase the dosage until giving up on that one and trying another.
I spent a week and a half in 2001-02 in the epilepsy ward of United Hospital in St. Paul with a bunch of electrodes glued to my head. (A New Year’s Eve party hat wouldn’t have fit very well.) Since seizures are basically caused by a burst of overactivity in the brain, the doctors wanted to find the problem area to help them pick the right medication(s). My current prescriptions: lamictal and depakote.
My last blackout happened as I was increasing the dosage over time (lamictal can wreck your liver, so I was going up by 25mg ever other week). It was April 16th or 17th of 2002—I don’t remember which, but Minnesota law suspends your driver’s license if you’ve had an “involuntary loss of consciousness” in the last six months. I got my license back a couple days before my birthday that year; if I hadn’t, I would have needed to take my driver’s test again.
So now we’re a couple weeks away from that date in 2002. Nine years since my last blackout. That’s longer than the time between my first seizure and being diagnosed with epilepsy. (I’d been having smaller seizures as my body got acclimated to the first medication I was taking, but a doctor initially thought they were “icepick migraine headaches” since they have similar symptoms. Don’t ask me why he didn’t think they were seizures given my medical history because I haven’t a clue.)
Nine years is a long time and I started to appreciate how well the drugs have been working. No more medication-hopping, no more frequent trips to the clinic, no more seizures. It’s a trend I hope to continue so I can spend less time thinking about having epilepsy and more time outside enjoying the sunshine.
