aspergers and seizures

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So auras are more than just a forewarning?

When I first starting getting migraines, actually I had them awhile before I ever went to dr about them, the drs would say its not a migraine because you didn't get an aura. They said you didn't see any lights or colors so its not a migraine. I had a 5 day long headache so seemed like it was something serious to me. Well I thought they were freakin crazy to say people see lights. But a year or so later sure enough right before a headache I would see sparkles of light and rainbow hues around the edges of things. The light sparkles sound weird but when I got kicked in the head in taekwondo & got a concussion I saw plenty of sparkles, in fact a whole fireworks show. I think that happens when the optic nerve gets disturbed. Or maybe its the brainstem, can't remember which at the moment.

I'm actually seeing a neurologist this week because I continue to have weird problems since childhood everything from fainting, to dragging my leg and unexplained neuropathy when I don't have diabetes. I've had 4 concussions, been struck by lightening, had near drowning experience where I lay unconscious at bottom of pool and was revived and was injured by dr during my birth so no wonder I have problems. Really the neuro is going to run out of the room when she hears my story probably.

Ticker, tell the neurologist EVERYTHING you can think of. I mean it. It will help. The flashing lights could definitely be a seizure. I get those during simple partials.

I had what they used to call grand mals and petit mals when I was a child. A lot of them. And I took a lot of meds. Then, when I wasn't having so many 'big ones' for a while, my stupid mom kept deciding that I had outgrown my seizures and took me off my meds. Well, this whole entire time I was having simple partials and complex partials every day of my life, but my mom didn't want to take me to the doctor. Without a neuro to talk to, I thought I was just crazy.

Every time I had a really big seizure my mom decided that it was just some freak thing, but I had still outgrown epilepsy, so I still didn't get the meds I needed. She'd find some reason to blame me for it, like saying I must have stayed up late.

As an adult I had no $ and was very wary of Dr.s. But then, I had a series of life threatenening seizures in my 20's. Which sucked because I'm a single mom. So I got sent to a really good neuro and they asked me stuff that I didn't know had anything at all to do with seizures, such as, "Do your ears ring sometimes? Do you see lights? Do you ever have trouble figuring out how you got somewhere?" and the list goes on and on.

Suddenly it all made some sense. They did some tests and found out right where the damage was and I got a real diagnosis. I know just what part of my brain is hurt.

SOOOO......tell the neuro everything. Even stuff that you're not sure is relevant, but maybe is. It helps them figure out where the seizures are starting in your brain and that helps them choose the right meds. Most people's seizures can be controlled with meds.

Good luck.

Don't feel alone, Ticker. I've had two concussions, was a breech birth baby, and experimented a little too much back in my Uni days.

I've a good friend who used to get migraines, and he could tell one was coming on by clumsiness. First sign was when he'd drop things he was holding. He'd be holding a wrench, for instance, and next thing he'd know, it was calttering on the ground ! ! Then he'd get a blind spot in his vision. He'd see perfectly well, except for a large coin sized blank spot. Then he'd lock himself in his room with the curtains drawn until the migraine was gone. Of course, that was back in the olden days before all the marvelous meds thay have these days ...

Sorry. Double post.

Last edited by Juliette on 01 Feb 2007, 7:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

My eldest son experienced febrile convulsions in his sleep as you described but from the age of around 12mths. He did grow out of them thankfully. As you say, very frightening to witness but once you understand what's happening and in my son's case how to prevent them, you hopefully feel far more calm and in control of the situation. Doctors carried out a spinal tap on my son as a baby and it was very harrowing(mothers were not permited to watch the procedure, though the screams were audible). Not at all pleasant!

About 33% of autistic people develop seizures upon entering puberty. Some develop one sort or another from early childhood, making management and education difficult. Often there is a subtle change in mood/behaviour a litle while before a seizure occurs, but often it is hard to tell whether it is a behavioural change or an impending seizure. Some of the medications used have a behavioural effect, eg. Epilum and Tegretol, as well as treating epilepsy. Epilepsy Foundations are a wonderful resource.

For further reading:
http://www.pediatricneurology.com/seizures.htm

I've been having auras which sometimes continue into mild seizures known as absence epilepsy since early childhood. I used to get told off for being 'vacant' at lessons but it's never been treated.

I told the neurologist everything I could think of. She wanted me to describe the early seizures. She kept asking me things though about my childhood and if I was abused. Has she been reading this forum? I told her everything, the near drowning, being beaten, the massive seizures as young child, the head injury as baby and being struck by lightening. She said maybe I had an anxiety issue from all the emotional trauma and asked if I wanted medicine. I told her not really. It's almost like she didn't think seizures could be an issue with my having syncopy which is why I got referred to her anyway. I guess it didn't help I was twittling my hands as a stim because she was making me nervous. Strange new office, foreign dr who was hard for me to understand and she had incense in her office that was bothering my breathing.

She is sending me for a EEG and I was told to go sleep deprived with no more than 5 hours sleep. She wants to do tilt table test if she can find anyone to do it.

She asked more about the trauma than the seizures. I told her about migraines too. I kept thinking she maybe just thought I was a fruitloop and nothing more. She checked my ability to follow her finger with my eyes ?? She also asked things I thought was absurd like why do you wear hearing aids? Well isn't that obvious? Its not exactly a fashion statement to wear them.

I didn't get to tell her about what I think may be absense seizures which I have had multiple times a hour ever since I can remember. I just thought I was zoning out as one friend put it. But then I met someone with confirmed epilepsy who told me about absense seizures and it sounded a lot like what I have had. I can do things like continue to type at the computer, drive and I can hear and be aware of everything around me. But I cannot respond back with words if someone speaks to me. Case in point was having one while standing in line at a burger stand. They girl kept screaming at me like I was either deaf or drugged "ma'am, ma'am MA'AM what do you want to order?" I could speak until it was over and it only lasts a couple seconds. course she gave me strange looks after that. Most of the time its not even that severe, it lasts just like a split second.

Hey Beadsinmytoes,

If you suspect your child has aspergers she probably does, i think you should try to get the diagnosis, and if she ends up in special ed, you know its not that bad at least she might get some help she needs, if not, if she is like my son, she will get very frustrated with the regular curriculim. It was good to hear what you said about the kids having a good chance that they will not have those seizures as adults, i hate to watch him go through it, he is so helpless, it breaks my heart, but there is not much we can do but to let the seizure run its course the doctor tells us.

Hey ticker you mentioned your doctor is ending you for an eeg, my son had one in October of last year and the flashing lights they used for the test caused him to have a seizure the folowing morning. Just wanted to give you heads up.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm having the test on my day off work so I can stay at home if I feel like crap afterwards. Also I have the next day off too. I forewarned them I will be grumpy after getting only 5 hours sleep and no caffiene. At least they said I could eat breakfast. I get violent and extremely irritable when I get hypoglycemic.

Yes, thank you for correcting me on this.
I have a lot of these, I didn't realise how many until read some more information on it.

Last edited by renaeden on 02 Feb 2007, 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I suspect a lot of people have seizures and don't even know it. I've heard even those that jerk in their sleep are having something called myoclonic seizures.

I've never been tested for seizures, but I sometime wonder if the 'zoning out' I get sometimes is some kind of one. It can last anything from a few seconds to a minute, and I suddenly get the vivid impression of being somewhere different, to the extent that I suddenly become lost in completely familiar surroundings and realize that I've got no idea of how to get to a place I go every day. Then it goes away just as quickly and the normal world snaps back into focus.

On the other hand, I've never heard of any kind of seizure where you're still able to operate perfectly normally while it's happening to the degree that you can analyze it and wonder at how strange it feels.

That's what an Absence Seizure is. This article describes it well except for I always recall when I have had one.

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/9339/9400.html

The last few months I started getting seizures out of the blue.
All I can think is my heavy drug use of recreational drugs in the past could have caused the seizures. And I did have one accidental drug overdose from benzylpiperazine(a stimulant like speed) back in dec 2006 which could have damaged my brain.

Anyway the seizures I get are weird, it starts off with my vision going all trippy/not with it kind of feeling with the ends of my fingers going numb which lasts for a few minutes. Then I get violent head and upper body jerks constantly for about 3 minutes. And my memory completely goes and my speech gets effected, I clench my jaw and sometimes teeth grind. Also feel extremelly shaky all over and feels like my blood pressure,heart rate and pulse is going very fast. Plus I get a feeling of fear. So it feels like a panic attack with seizures.
After 2-3 mins that stops and I just feel extremelly floppy,weak and very tired. Which lasts for hours later and also feel not with it then as well.
But luckerly I never go unconscious with it.

The seizures can happen as much as twice a day for days in a row and other times I won't get them for a week.

Been to the doctors three times as they were useless, and finally got refered to the royal free hospital to have an MRI scan and EEG scan for the 14th of aug 2008.
Will have to make sure I'm sedated for the MRI as I'm extremelly claustrophobic.

Pretty sure I will have a kind of epilepsy. Hope it's not something worse. But hope the medication will control it and hope the side effects won't make my life like hell.