I feel Good!

Well I think my 17 year battle is over. I have been telling Dr's for years that I have had seizures and they have told me it was migraines. It does not happen often, but when I get a seizure I get them pretty bad and have gone to the emergency room 6-7 times thinking my time was up. My last one was about a month or so ago and was strong enough to do something to my heart.

So anyway I see every Dr in this county with one being my neurologist. He finally sits down and listens to me. So I tell him my troubles, my life story and all that and then after ½ hour he starts asking me questions:

"Do you ever taste strange things?
"Oh like metallic tastes? All the time"

"And smells"
"You mean for something that is not there like garbage when there is none around?"

"Do you ever experience Dejuvu?"
"All the time"

"Do your muscles twitch?"
"So bad it will wake me up at night?"

Well in the end we both come to the conclusion that I got what is called mini-lobe seizures. Not Grand Maul Seizures but definately not migraines either. So I cannot help but ask him why he did not realize this 16 months ago when I last saw him.

"Because I was going by the notes of your previous Dr."

Well thanks for that. It just shows that you got to be proactive with your health. I always had the idea that they went to school for 8-10 years they must know more then me, but I just knew what I had was not a headache, it was far more than that.

So far so good. The meds are really working. No real bad side effects and my mind is clear and not cloudy. In fact the other day I started to smell my sheep when my sheep were 40 miles away. And then when I got a dejuvu spell I started to fret that I was going to have a seizure.That was when I realized I had forgotten to take my meds that morning.

What a life-changing medication. It may not sound like a big deal, but when you walk around dreading when you are going to have one, always planning where you will to hide, twitch and shake, should you have one, it really is a big deal to be free of that nonsense. I feel good after 17 years!!

Good news, Travis!! Man, I thought Doctors were supposed to think for themselves. But I guess we are all human and sometimes act on what we are told rather than investigate for ourselves. Many times on the service drive, I'll have a customer that tells me how to fix their car. My usual line is, "I don't want to give the tech too much information. I want him to thoroughly check everything out so he doesn't miss something."
My wife had a gifted music student that was having problems at school, getting into trouble, sent home, picking fights. They finally found out that she was having mini seizures that caused her to black out for just a moment. No shaking, no falling down, so small no one noticed. But it would cause April to be very disoriented, which was a scary thing, and that's when she would act up and cause problems. Once properly diagnosed, she reverted back to the sweet child she used to be. So keep the medicine regular!! Jim.

Yes, being proactive is the operative word. I have a condition that has concerned me for several years. The VA sent me to the hospital in Little Rock to see a specialist. In the examining room was a young woman sitting at a computer. Her back was to me, she never looked up. I sat down and she asked me a few questions. These were the same points I had found on the Mayo web site a day before. She said, "OK, you can go now." That was my 'examination'. I found out later, she was not even a doctor but a nurse. What was done was a screening, not an examination. Presumably, to save budget, they screen. In most cases the patient is OK but a small percentage will have a serious problem that will manifest later into a life threatening situation. But they save money. I don't want to be part of that small percentage. Just yesterday I got insistent with the VA doctor in my town and he is pursuing more aggressive options now.
Good for you, Travis. Hope your suffering is behind you now.

Those are good news indeed Travis. I'm sure that you'll experience a complete new life from now onwards. Enjoy and live it! after being in such a long nightmare it must taste like ambrosia. I'm really happy for you