Life under the microscope
As I had my first seizure in 1999 and was officially diagnosed with epilepsy in 2000, I can say that I was in the middle of my adolescence when those things happened.
My mother, sister and myself lived in a 2-bedroom apartment (plus a huge living room) of about 70 sqm (750 square foot). But we all bundled up in one bedroom because that was better. We watched movies every night and had a laugh. Continue reading “I liked my “seizures at home” period as an adolescent”
A couple of days ago, I woke up with an incredibly painful headache. I wouldn’t categorize it as an “ice pick” headache because it lasted about 2 days.
It’s not a migraine, although, after googling around for causes, I was convinced that it was.
I wasn’t hung over either :).
What started as a splitting headache over my forehead (frontal lobes of the brain) slowly moved and grew. By the end of the day, my whole head was pounding, as if my heart was beating inside it. Continue reading “Morning headaches”
I read today 1 in 5 adults with epilepsy also present ADHD (Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) symptoms. Here’s the link to the article: http://bit.ly/ADHDandEpilepsy. Another article I read a while ago (sorry, but I don’t have a link) stated that attention deficit in people with epilepsy is an adverse effect of many anticonvulsants.
I guess this briefly explains my attention deficit problems, if I choose to believe them.
To explain:
In primary school, I was a straight A (10*) student. I had no problem learning, being attentive or memorizing stuff -> no problem concentrating at school. Continue reading “Attention deficit, concentration and my epilepsy”
Since I had my first seizure on January 1st 1999 (at 5am), I’ve been through a number of medicine. Each time the problem was that my body got used to them real quickly and doses increased, medicine changed.
I started of with Phenobarbital in 2000 and reached the maximum dose of 400 mg/day in 2002 in a single dose per day. I had quite a few adverse effects: dizziness, vertigo, fatigue, continuous headaches among others.
In 2004, when I started my Bachelor studies (in another city), I changed my neurologist and, of course, she changed my treatment. I started Carbamazepine and reached 1600 mg/day (in two doses) in 2008. Among the side effects were: dizziness, headaches, trouble sleeping, sudden mood swings, ataxia and I could go on. Continue reading “My medicine so far”
My first job, back in 2008, was in consultancy. To be more precise, I wrote project proposals that helped private/public sector entities to get European funding. My second job was the same.
The field is an extremely tiresome and stressful. It was a job where the smallest mistake could have cause a project to be successful or rejected.
During the one year, I spent in the second company, I had a seizure at work. It came after a few long days, a week or so before a project submission deadline. But my colleague and bosses were great. Continue reading “My “favorite” seizure: epilepsy at work”
Dealing with epilepsy 
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