Complex Partial Seizures

Have you ever:

• awoke and didn't know where you were?
• had strong feelings of déjà vu?
• smelled an odor such as smoke, burning rubber, etc. you couldn't locate?
• been extremely confused for no apparent reason and couldn't understand why?
• had 'crawling' feelings on your arms?

These are some of the symptoms of complex partial petit mal, a form of epilepsy.

I know.

I have it.

Epilepsy is defined in the World Book Encyclopedia as "a disease of the nervous system. A person may inherit the tendency to have epilepsy, but one person cannot catch the disease from another person. When a person has a seizure, violent changes occur in his brain as his brain suddenly releases a burst of energy. An important function of the brain is to change energy derived from the sugar and oxygen in the blood into nervous energy. An epileptic attack results from the failure of the brain to limit and control the time and place of its release of this nervous energy. The period of relaxation which follows an attack indicates that all the brain's available stores of energy have been exhausted."

Mine may have begun when I was in high school. I can remember 'staring' spells for a very short time and then exhaustion. When Mama gave me a chore to do, it was done as if I were under water and moving in slow motion.

The first episode I remember that really scared me was when I was in my mid-twenties. I was driving down a street that I had driven many times before when, out of the blue, I had no idea where I was. I was driving in the left lane and didn't recognize any of the buildings or streets. As my car began to slow and horns began blowing, I just as suddenly remembered where I was. I had to move to the right lane and make a quick right turn to go home. My heart was beating so fast, it scared me almost as much as forgetting where I was. I was so exhausted I didn't know if I should drive on home or not, but I did and went to bed and to sleep as soon as I arrived.

After several of these episodes I was ready to go to our doctor who referred me to a neurologist. I was told epilepsy can have several causes:

• brain injury
• poisoning
• head trauma
• stroke

As far as I knew, none of these had ever happened to me. Many tests later, I was diagnosed with complex partial seizures and put on a regime of medications strong enough to kill an elephant, I felt. For months we tried different medicines until finally I was put on depakote and tegretol which slowed the seizures. During this period I did nothing much but sleep until I gradually became used to taking this heavy dose.

In 1986 I had to have an operation on my right ear, and the surgeon told me he believed the growth in my ear was the cause of my seizures. The 'cholesteatoma' had eaten into the outer layer of my brain very slowly over my lifetime. My brain trauma! Believing with the doctor that this was the cause of my seizures, I immediately stopped taking all my medications.

(WARNING! Never stop taking your medications without consulting your doctor!)

I had a few days of feeling like a normal human being again, on top of the world and driving where I pleased. (In Louisiana you have to be seizure-free for six months before you can drive again.) And then came the crushing blow; two and three seizures a day, back on the medications, sleeping all the time, no driving and feeling like a limp rag. I did have epilepsy.

I've learned to live with it. My life doesn't center around shopping and driving where I want to go. There are other things in life and where one door closes, God opens another.

I would like to thank my husband who has endured this disease with me. He has always been supportive, understanding and loving. I couldn't have made it without him!

Amazing Grace, shall always be my song of praise
For it was grace that brought me liberty
I do not know, just why He came to love me so
He looked beyond my fault and saw my need

I shall forever lift mine eyes to Calvary
To view the cross, where Jesus died for me
How marvelous, His grace that caught my falling soul
He Looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

Copyright © December, 2000 - 2003 Elzie Hayes, Text Only. All rights reserved.