Two benign seizures = epilepsy diagnosis. There's nothing "benign"

[pnwmom]

about two benign seizures except that it isn't something worse, like a brain tumor.

Justice Roberts is facing a lifetime on epilepsy drugs, which are serious drugs with serious side effects.

[Maat]

1. Yes ...

I believe that the corporate media is fibbing to me yet again.

[napi21]

2. Tell me about the side effects please. I know nothing about this

disease. I've heard it is controlable with meds and no one would ever know you had it, but that's all I've heard.

[Nevernose]

12. My ex-wife recently got on seizure medications

The cause of her seizures is not clear (probably not a "normal" epilepsy, though, but her personal medical reasons I'd rather not go into on a public board). For the first year, there was frequently slurred speech, confused thinking, and she could sleep for as much as 36 hours at a stretch. They also seemed to limit much of the psychotic mood swings, but at the expense of her seeming to be "doped up" most of her conscious time.

Lately she seems to have gotten used to it, and is back to "normal." Either that, or she's off her meds and is lying about it, but I honestly think she's just used to it now.

[Pastiche423]

17. My side affects from seizure meds..

Neurontin made me a zombie. I could not think. I also gained a ton of weight.

I went into Dilantin toxicity and almost died. In addition, it began to destroy my liver. My doctor put me on a national donor list and told me I had about three months to live.

Once I discovered that it was Dilantin that was killing my liver, I quit taking it. My liver regenerated, I din't die and now I take no meds.

Unfortunately, Roberts has nothing to worry about as far as his job is concerned.

[pnwmom]

19. One of my relatives has it.

All I know is that her mother told me that the drugs have to be regularly monitored because they can damage the liver.

But no one who really needs them should avoid them because of the side effects; a good doctor can help a patient find the best meds for that person's case.

[OzarkDem]

31. Hubby's had it over 20 yrs

It took some adjustments and trying different meds at first, but he's been doing fine for many years. He's a database specialist, so works on the computer all the time w/o problem. He has some GI distress occasionally from meds, but his liver has always been monitored and he's ok.

[SeattleGirl]

3. Unless they are using "benign" to refer to no brain tumors, but I agree,

there IS nothing "benign" about two seizures.

[Beelzebud]

4. Don't expect our useless media to ask any serious questions about this.

We'll be stuck with him no matter what.

[Hekate]

5. He's one of the young justices; he should be able to cope with this disability

...considering the quality of medical care available to him on our dime.

However, why this? is it new? why now? is it the harbinger of something more serious?

It was kind of a family secret about my dad -- basically he could have been fired from his job in nothing flat, because there was no job protection back then -- but in his adult lifetime he had perhaps three grand mal seizures, separated by decades. And as far as I know, that was as far as it went, because I had only my mother for an informant.

Hekate

[Tom Joad]

9. His fascist ideology is the real disability.

[Hekate]

13. And that's the truth! nt

[Ayesha]

6. I despise the man, but

Please don't judge him as unfit for duty because of a disability/health condition. Judge him as unfit for duty because he's a right-wing nutjob!

[pnwmom]

21. Where did I say that?

What I'm objecting to is the spin that this is an insignificant health matter, because it is "benign" epilepsy. Epilepsy is a serious matter.

[malaise]

29. And you are 100% correct

SCOTUS' attempt to spin a serious matter only begs more questions.

[Sherman A1]

27. Well Said!

[pop goes the weasel]

7. oh, stop it

My daughter has seizures. Not one every ten years, but many every week. She takes drugs to control them, so that she can go entire days without having a seizure of any significance. And, here's the kicker--they don't have serious side effects. Gad, stop getting your nuerological information from the 1960s. There is no reason for a person who has one seizure a decade to take anything, and even for people who have real trouble with seizures, many are able to manage with drugs that don't make them seem in anyway different than anyone else, or different from themselves. If a person has serious side effects, they need to switch meds, because there are choices.

I don't like Roberts, but what I dislike even more is people trafficking in misconceptions that make it harder on everyone with neurological trouble.

[Tom Joad]

10. amen.

[barb162]

11. Thank you.

That was very informative. Good wishes to you and your daughter.

[emilyg]

18. My Dad

Had epilepsy. Functioned just fine. Lived to 93.

[pnwmom]

25. Good for him.

And lots of cigarette smokers live to a ripe old age, too.

That doesn't mean epilepsy isn't a serious condition, or that cigarette smoking is harmless.

[pnwmom]

22. You're reading a lot into what I said. I have a close relative with epilepsy, too.

I'm objecting to the spin that "benign epilepsy" isn't a serious condition. Of course it is, and so are the drugs used to treat it.

On the other hand -- do you really believe they would tell us if he had actually had other seizures besides the two he's acknowledged? Are you sure we would have ever heard about this seizure if it hadn't been so public?

[pop goes the weasel]

40. Why would we have to know?

Frankly, it isn't our business. It doesn't seem to interfere with his ability to work. It's his ethics that are the problem, and there is no medical cause for that. I am quite tired of the publicity surrounding the private health conditions of public figures. If they choose to go public, that is up to them. Consider that your attitude would have kept FDR and JFK out of the White House, Lewis Merriwether out of the Corps of Discovery, Stephen Mather from his post as first Director of the National Park Service.

As for your supposed closeness to your relative, you haven't exactly come off like an advocate.

[Tom Joad]

8. Thank yu Dr. Welby.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. That's nonsense

two seizures in 14 years isn't disabling, and even if is on anti-seizure drugs, millions of people function just fine on them.

[virgdem]

15. That's true...

there are still many misconceptions about Epilepsy. I have had two Grand Mal seizures in my life and I am now completely off the phenobarbitol that I had taken since I was 10 years old. I have functioned very well and had no side affects from taking the medication all those years. I was able to drive, although I had to go through much red tape and BS to intially get my driver's permit. I have been driving for over 35 years with no problem whatsoever. I'm sure that Roberts can and will be able to function just fine. It's his moral and ethical compass that I have doubts about.

[CountAllVotes]

16. how do we know it was only two seizures in 14 years?

I know of people that have seizures and they don't advertise the fact. If they do, they cannot get a driver's license, are medically un-insurable, etc.

Many are also unemployed if they reveal their diagnosis. Frankly, I believe that the ADA is a pile of sh*t.

Roberts was "foaming at the mouth" - a symptom indicative of grand mal seizures which are nothing to fool around with.

I'd be willing to bet that there have been more incidences than are being admitted to. I could be wrong. However, for some reason I rather doubt it.

:dem:

[pnwmom]

23. You're right. Why should we believe anything the Bushies say?

We already know the spokeswoman lied when she said that he never lost consciousness (or someone lied to her). The medics report said Roberts was foaming at the mouth. That isn't something you do while fully conscious.

There's no reason to think that if he had had other, less public seizures, he would have made them public.

[Richard Steele]

32. Yup- this is just the second that REQUIRED HOSPITALIZATION.

Unlikely that it's only the second he's ever had.

[pnwmom]

20. It's a very serious diagnosis. I didn't say it was disabling, did I?

And the drugs have to be carefully monitored because they can cause serious side effects.

By the way, we have no idea how many seizures he's really had. This one was quite public. How do we know he hasn't had others, besides the two he's acknowledged?

[Bluebear]

24. Now that is quite true. This bunch downplays every malady.

They have this need to assure America that Dick can have his pacemaker replaced and it was a "minor procedure" and that he was able to complete a half-marathon two hours later. I doubt they would tell us the real story if this were a more serious ailment.

[thereismore]

26. Rehnquist was higher than a kite most of his tenure. Oops, that was a bad thing. nt

[ChazII]

28. I have been on Dilantin

since 1967 and seizure free since 1982. Grand Mal seizures have drastic effects, too. I will keep the epilepsy drug, thanks. I have a hunch that Hustice Roberts will as well.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

30. Are you a doctor?

Or do you just play one on the interweb?

[pnwmom]

35. I have a relative with epilepsy, but the definition I gave is by-the-book.

Two seizures not caused by another factor constitute, by definition, epilepsy.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

38. Who needs a medical degree when we've got you and Frist?

My hair is falling out. I guess that means I've got leprosy.

:eyes:

[fed-up]

33. my mom had 3 seizures w/in one year of her massive stroke-after 2 months she stopped Dilantin

We were never warned that it is not unusual for someone that has had a massive stroke to then end up with a seizure disorder due to fried nerve endings from the stroke.

I was totally freaked out when she had her first grand mal seizure, but within a few hours after she had been ambulanced to Kaiser and they checked her out she was fine, just very tired. She was put on Dilantin.

Her second seizure a few months later was not as traumatic for me, but she was still a little surprised to again "come to" in an ambulance.

By her third seizure another 6 months down the road we were old hands at first aid for seizures and I was quick to remove her glasses and dentures and make sure her clothes were not restricting any movements.

By this time I had done a lot of research on seizures and learned that they can be stress related among other causes. She was going through a divorce and we figured that was the trigger.

The Dilantin was causing liver issues and her doctor tried to downplay my alarm even though she was at twice whatever level she was supposed to be at (10 years ago, so my memory is a little fuzzy).

The Dilantin caused her to be very dopey and this had been interfering with her post-stroke therapy and recovery and quality of life.
She DID NOT drive, nor did she operate heavy equipment. She used a wheelchair so any chance of falling and hitting her head during a seizure was minimal. I was her full time caregiver and if she was not in her wheelchair she was in her hospital bed.

Her divorce was finalized so her main source of stress was over.

She indicated that she did NOT want to be on the Dilantin so we very carefully over a 3 month period weaned her off. (She had only been taking half the recommended dose anyway). The main thing the doctor was concerned about was if she was to go into a "never-ending" seizure-I forget the medical term, but that risk was minimal.

We decided that her quality of life was more important than the chance/consequence of another seizure. She remained seizure free until she passed away 1 year later from lung cancer.

[pnwmom]

36. You must have gone through a lot of hard times, fed-up.

I hope things are going better for you now.

:hug:

[blogslut]

34. I'm more interested

in the head injury than the seizure.

[pnwmom]

37. I wondered about that, too. There's conflicting information out there about

whether he lost consciousness, which also makes me wonder.

It seems that they're working very hard to downplay this.

[Breeze54]

39. All that convulses is not epilepsy - could be cardiovascular

Epilepsy: getting the diagnosis right

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7075/158

All that convulses is not epilepsy

Epilepsy may present with a variety of symptoms, and other conditions may mimic its manifestations.
The diagnosis is almost always based solely on the clinical history. It is therefore not surprising
that diagnostic accuracy remains a major problem.1 About a fifth of patients referred to specialist
units with "intractable epilepsy" are found, on further assessment, not to have epilepsy.2 It is also
common for patients to have symptoms for months or even years before epilepsy is diagnosed. Thus, it
is important to be aware of both the heterogeneous and sometimes subtle forms of epilepsy and of the
alternative diagnoses.3

more--->

-----------------------

All seizures are not epilepsy: many have a cardiovascular cause.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12071066&dopt=AbstractPlus

snip-->

BACKGROUND: Adult studies have shown that up to 35% of epileptics may have been misdiagnosed.
These patients may have cardiovascular syncope, with abnormal movements due to cerebral hypoxia,
which may be difficult to differentiate from epilepsy.

[pnwmom]

41. But in this case they say that doctors have ruled other factors out,

and that Roberts has had benign seizures unrelated to anything else.

Of course, we don't have any particular reason to believe anything they say.

[Breeze54]

46. I didn't hear they ruled anything out. I did hear that they don't know.

[kenny blankenship]

42. What's the matter with having a Supreme Court Chief Justice who foams at the mouth?

Anybody that the ReNazicans would put up for that court would foam at the mouth. It's who they are and what they do.

[Withywindle]

43. Not necessarily.

I had several nasty seizures on a couple occasions as a teenager - doctor was SURE it was epilepsy. Then I had the brain test with the electrodes and everything. EEG? I think that's what it was.

It wasn't epilepsy - it was hypoglycemia. With a managed diet, I haven't had one in 20 years.

[w8liftinglady]

44. I have seizures.Mine are from a thiamine deficiency.I take Kaeppra and IM thiamine.

[LittleClarkie]

45. Let's not play Frist here. How do you know exactly what his prognosis is

from news reports.