Seizure Cause and Solutions

In November of 1993, I had my first Grand Mal seizure. My parents took me
to the Emergency Room, where the doctor did a spinal tap (normal), an MRI
(normal) and checked cholesterol (80's); then put me on Dilantin for the
remainder of my life. I took the medicine faithfully for a time, but
preferred the idea of treating it with diet alone. Also, the doctor
didn't seem to have confidence in what he was doing. After eighteen
months, I had another seizure.


On Christmas day of 1994 I had two seizures on the one day (#3-4). I
later got ahold of the medical report, which was handy for later doctors.
According to the report, I was "unresponsive to verbal stimuli and was in
an obvious post-ictal, or post-seizure, state. Pupils reactive to light.
Withdraws all extremities upon stimulation." I woke up from the seizures
around 9 PM, and then had a full night's sleep and a solid nap the next
day.


When I am getting ready to have a seizure, I get real dopey and typically
stand around not doing anything for a couple of hours or more. Once while
I was at college, I blacked out (typical for me) then fell down in a
frank seizure on the lawn. I woke up about three or four hours later in
the hospital. The doctor put me on Tegretol, which had no effect on my
seizures at all, even though it was at a therapeutic level. A little
later he tried me on Keppra, which also had no effect.


In Summer of 1998 I had an EEG, and it did have Epilepsy pattern. In
March of 2000 I had another MRI, but it also was normal. Shortly after
this, we got hooked up with a doctor that treated primarily through diet
and vitamins. He discovered that I had trichinosis in the base of my
brain that was causing the seizures. He gave me something to kill off the
trichinosis. It didn't even slow down the seizures. He then did another
test and discovered that there was a virus in the linings on my brain. He
gave me something to eliminate the virus, but that didn't do anything
either. On page 1265 of the Merck Manual, 17th edition, it says that
seizures are definitely mentioned in cases of heavy infestation.


It has now been almost ten years since this problem first cropped up. Is
there anything that anyone knows that is guaranteed to work. We are about
to give up hope. I do not want to go to the ketogenic diet, because among
other things I don't believe it is the healthiest diet available for
that. The neurologist labeled it Complex Partial Seizure.


Are there any tests that would tell us what is going on and what we can
do to correct it?
Has anyone had any success in treating seizures apart from drugs? Surgery
is the last resort, but it is a possibility.
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