Blog #170: CAN YOU PREVENT YOUR SEIZURES?

 

     You can if you are among the 50% of epilepsy patients who are on the “right anti-convulsant at the right dosage.” You and your neurologist will know this is the right anti-convulsant for you because your seizures stop while taking your prescription. It’s trial and error. ¹

 

     Unfortunately, the other patients in the epilepsy population will continue to experience seizures, some very infrequently and others almost daily. These groups find their seizures do not disappear.

 

     Epilepsy surgery, no matter how drastic this sounds to you, in selected patients is very safe and can be curative. A pertinent blog on this topic is on this link: https://lancefogan.blogspot.com/2017/12/blog-89-surgical-removal-of-seizure.html In addition, the GAMMA KNIFE offers hope: http://lancefogan.blogspot.com/2024/01/blog-162-gammaknife-is-focused.html?m=1

 

     How to lower your risk of more seizures? You have heard this guidance from your neurologist/physician repeatedly: “Are you taking your medication as directed?” You all know what is important but too often our patients don’t follow our recommendations. Especially our youthful patients. Life interferes: “I got sick with a high fever or I forgot my pills or I traveled and left the pills at home or I drank too much alcohol or I didn’t sleep and etc.”

 

     Keep a seizure journal to keep track of seizures. Is there a discernable pattern: not enough sleep, another illness, menstruation, stress, recreational drugs, beginning a new medication from another physician that could have an effect on your epilepsy?

 

     Side effects can discourage taking your medication regularly. Reporting these side effects to your neurologist can help the doctor work with you to adjust dosages or change the medication to another effective one if the side effects are intolerable.

 

     Consider a pill-dispensing container that will separate the day’s dosages to discourage forgetting or taking more than prescribed any one day. Carry your physician’s contact information with you if you run out of meds.

 

     Always wear a bicycle helmet when bicycling, avoid bright flickering lights if they precipitate your seizures as they often do in some people. Do not drive a car until your neurologist clears you and consults with the Department of Vehicles.

 

1)     Richardson G. How Can People with Epilepsy Prevent Seizures? BrainandLife,org. June/July 2024. p37.

 

Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His hard-hitting emotional family medical drama, “DINGS, is told from a mother’s point of view. “DINGS” is his first novel. Aside from acclamation on internet bookstore sites, U.S. Report of Books, and the Hollywood Book Review, DINGS has been advertised in recent New York Times Book Reviews, the Los Angeles Times Calendar section and Publishers Weekly. DINGS teaches epilepsy and is now available in eBook, audiobook, soft and hard cover editions.