my story and questions.

i'm fifteen years old and live in australia. i've had epilepsy for about three years, i think. although i could be off by a year or so, i'm fairly sure my first seizure was in december of 99 or january of 2000, after a night entirely without sleep. i don't really remember. i woke up later on and went on with my business. next thing i know, my parents are telling me i just had a seizure and i need to go to the doctor.
for about... two years beforehand (roughly the time i hit puberty), i'd shown symptoms - namely a tendency to drop things and be unco-ordinated first thing in the morning. however up until this point, we didn't know i was epileptic. the doctor i went to the next morning took an ECG test, said nothing was wrong with my brain and we let it lie.
since then i've had a few seizures - 7, as a rough number. they apparentely occur when i have disrupted sleep patterns, but often if i have a big weekend and don't sleep for a couple of days or whatever, i won't have a seizure for at least two weeks afterward. my most recent one was three nights or so ago. the night before i had been getting bright, flashing colours in my vision although nothing happened. the next night it came on much stronger and i called out to my father before lapsing into a seizure. i only ever have them when i've been sleeping - they don't just occur out of nowhere at school or anything, although apparentely i also have absence seizures on occasion.

for a year and a half or thereabouts, i've been taking Epilim. i hate it. honestly, i'm delibretely a little slack in taking it, because i hate the way i feel when on it. sometimes i think i'd rather have a fit than feel as listless and unattached as i do thanks to the medication. maybe this isn't the most healthy attitude to have, but honestly, i know this is contributing to me not achieving as highly as i should be. although my underachieving is partly due to lack of motivation, my medication is a definite factor. considering how hard i have to work next year to get the marks i need, i really can't have something this major as a deterrant.

has anyone here had a similar experience? how did you/do you deal with it? are there any remedies and/or medications you recommend?

thanks,
erin Tweet