The Gaming Den

First and foremost, I am seriously pissed at the moment and annoyed.


I've often had migraines/headaches/whatever the fuck this is over the last 10-ish years. I never got treatment and kept relatively quiet about it even to family&friends as complaining only resulted in being told that I was either hungry or it wasn't that important.

I always got a severe dull pounding throbbing sort of pain under my eye-lids and the top of my head and sometimes a similar effect near my temples.

They came and went infrequently. I never actually kept a diary or anything. But it was about once-ish a month.

I have seizures as well. At first these were diagnosed as epileptic , then psychogenic, then epileptic, then psychogenic + 10% epileptic.

In March 2008, I starting having the same sort of migraine that lasted for about 2 months. It was a bastard of a thing. I couldn't function. Steroid shots, whatever gave only very temporary relief before just picking up again within a few hours or once a day. In the middle of this 2-month period, my seizures started acting up again. The 2-month headache was finally broken by an intravenous drip of a drug (DHE-45/dihydroergotamine) The migraines continued since then on and off but about 3-4 times a week at first and then almost continuously throughout the week.

i've had this sort of continuous pain now for what's been about a year and a half now.

My seizures were confirmed to be psychogenic through conclusive video-eeg testing over several days. This was done again a few weeks ago just to make sure it was that.

Now, I've been told as of last week that since the seizures are psychogenic or pseudoseizures thusly my migraines are also psychogenic/pseudoseizures. Without any reason other than I have the psychogenic seizures and the migraines have lasted longer than a few months...

The doctors have advised my family to ignore the migraines in me and they will go away as it's just me just trying to not do daily stuff.

I write this in the middle of a particularly painful pain pain that's been lasting the last two days. My family has concluded that it's in my head, once again.

So, I can't be having this. I'm ready to punch something possibly my face just to see if that'll stop the poin.

Also, anybody who can provide any advice, I'd be glad to hear it. Hoping this also includes our resident doctor in training - Frank.

Please.

I be not an expert in these things...

But basically psychogenic pseudo seizures aren't shit that you do to avoid work or whatever.

If you are having that problem and your family or fucking doctors are saying to just ignore it because you are using it to get out of doing things then you need to seek help outside that circle.

It's not like you are a 3 year old throwing a fit. Helping the person with the seizures does not cause them to have more seizures to get more help, and ignoring the person does not cause them to have less seizures.

Actually if the diagnosis is right, they are not seizures. Notice the word "pseudo". It means that it is acting like a seizure without really being one. As for psychogenic it means the origin is psychological.

I would advise seeing a psychiatrist and getting a second opinion.

Data Vampire wrote:Actually if the diagnosis is right, they are not seizures. Notice the word "pseudo". It means that it is acting like a seizure without really being one. As for psychogenic it means the origin is psychological.

I would advise seeing a psychiatrist and getting a second opinion.

NO, pseudo is an older word for it. It is a somatoform disorder. But still counts under the seizure umbrella.

Data Vampire wrote:Actually if the diagnosis is right, they are not seizures. Notice the word "pseudo". It means that it is acting like a seizure without really being one. As for psychogenic it means the origin is psychological.

I would advise seeing a psychiatrist and getting a second opinion.

NO, pseudo is an older word for it. It is a somatoform disorder. But still counts under the seizure umbrella.

And I'm seeing a psych who also got on board the "get over it" walkathon.

My wife has had some anti-migraine success with the medicines Topamax (relatively harmless preventative med she could take while preggers) and Frova (taken after a migraine starts to end it quickly). I would imagine you may be familiar with them already, if not perhaps the doc can help. I recall frova being friggin expensive so we just rarely used samples for the most part.

I have not had a migraine in about ten years so I have not gotten to try them myself.

//edit. Typoe. Topamax, not Topomax. Accursed iPod keyboard

Well, I advise good scotch and watching the Marx Brothers.

That'll probably be more help than the advice you've gotten so far from actual medical practitioners.

Data Vampire wrote:Actually if the diagnosis is right, they are not seizures. Notice the word "pseudo". It means that it is acting like a seizure without really being one. As for psychogenic it means the origin is psychological.

I would advise seeing a psychiatrist and getting a second opinion.

I wasn't talking out of my ass here. Pseudo-seizures is a name for any non epileptic seizure. And just because something is psychological doesn't mean you can turn it off with will power, or that telling the person with persistent migraines to stop being a bitch is going to do anything.

Bullshit inability to understand that 'psychological' doesn't mean 'under control of the person in pain' is exactly why I suggested he find a better doctor.

Step 1: get pliers
Step 2: snap a tooth in half
Step 3: having blacked out from pain, wake up
Step 4: go to a doctor and mention the crazy pain in your tooth, get oxy prescribed
Step 5: ???
Step 6: PROFIT! no more pain

I know Cynic IRL, and I believe he's taken Oxy at times. From what I remember of his opinion, it's either not that effective at blocking the pain, or only helps for a fairly short time; while the seizures very certainly continue. Even were they to be psychogenic, it's very much not a conscious decision to randomly (and dangerously) lose consciousness.

Hmm... in that case, maybe talking to psychiatrists re: drugs-that-make-the-brain-work-properly is in order. This would also ideally help the seizures.

Or getting that condition where the brain doesn't register pain as being a bad thing, it just sort of goes "Oh, I seem to be in pain. Whatever" without the actual *pain* part. But I think that requires either brain surgery, a serious car accident, or prolonged use of large doses of morphine.

Honesty I've never heard of that medical defintion of pseudo.
Also I never said that psychological problems can be turned off with will power.
I suggested the second opinion from a psychiatrist because I know better than that.

http://www.braininjury.com/seizuresandheadinjury.html
Has a pretty good article on Seizures. Here's the most relevent bit, and I find no fault with it:

There is a controversial diagnosis as pseudo-seizures or non-epileptic seizures, which is given to patients who outwardly exhibit signs of a seizure but that do not have abnormal EEG readings. The reason this diagnosis is so controversial is that it implies that the origin of the seizure activity is psychological rather than organic. Persons suffering from pseudo-seizures have other psychological problems and needs unrelated to any head injury. However, there are studies showing that almost 1/3 to 1/2 are suffering from true organic EEG confirmed seizures also suffer from some sort of pseudo-seizure. If you are confronted with this diagnosis, be very careful and get a second opinion.

there is a body of research which indicates the existence of "subclinical" types of seizures, also know as Partial Complex Seizures (J. R. Roberts, 1992). Subclinical seizures would be those which are not found even on EEG at the time of the event. This condition is also called Atypical Psychosis, episodic dyscontrol, post traumatic temporal lobe dysfunction or multiple partial seizure like symptoms without stereotype spells. Another attempt to name the phenomenon by Springer and others is called an "Epilepsy Spectrum Disorder" (ESD). Animal and other research shows there may be abnormal electro discharges from the limbic system which can only be detected with implanted electrodes and thus most patients would have normal EEG tracings.

Anyway, it really only takes seven misfiring neurons to trigger a seizure, you can totally have one without having enough weird electrical activity in the brain to show up as much of anything on an EEG. Roughly one in five epileptics get those. My suggestion for right now is to go after the migraines first, as agony buildup may ultimately be causing the seizures.

Start by drinking a fuck tonne of coffee. I'm serious. Caffeine withdrawal causes headaches, but caffeine suppresses migraines. So just... don't withdraw from it. Ever. Lots of people claim they "need" coffee in the morning, but you seriously may. Also, take aspirin every day. Like you were recovering from heart attack or stroke. I seriously hope you have a tough stomach, because both of those are kind of hard on your digestive system.

-Username17

There are also studies indicative that some psychedelics can treat some types of headaches or atypical psychosis, tho finding someone who can craft some are a bit iffy. Unfortunately in the US, anything which produces psychedelic results is immediately labelled as having no medical use, even if there is medical use!

My advice would be to have an endocrinologist give you some tests; hormone levels can also trigger migraines. This solved most of my headache problems...

If you follow Frank's advice, look for buffered aspirin or take buffering agents like water, calcium, etc. I always keep a Zantac-otc on hand for when I have a flare-up of allergies.

-Crissa

Well, couldn't he just take caffiene supplements instead, Frank? Or would the stomach trouble still happen (I don't drink coffee...)?

The caffeine and aspirin directly aggravate the stomach by being acids and I think anhydrous.

Anyhow, caffeine pills are just bad news. I don't know why they're at all otc delivery systems for the stuff. Modafinil is safer :P

-Crissa

My mother had horrible migranes; used to hit her every weekend without fail. Then one day, after the doctor changed her high blood pressure medication they stoped. After checking with her doctor he clalmly stated that this was one of the many possible side effects of the high blood pressure medication. She was town between joy and wanting to choke the doctor for not telling her this some ten years eariler.

well, thxall 4 support.

this' gonna be brief. i fell from the 2nd to the1st floor last night by goin over the railing in the middle of a seizure.

compound fractured left clavicle and have arm in sling. so things keep looking down. err no pun intended. goin 2 cut bak net activities untill healed.

so long & thx for all the fish 'till then.

Get well soon.

Well, perhaps said mother could've told the doctor about the migraines earlier...

-Crissa

Oxycodine can have some very severe side effects. Like not being able to go to the bathroom.

I know someone who was taking it for a pinched siatic (sp?) nerve in their hip; the constipation was so bad that they needed to go to the hospital (3 different laxatives, 1 over the counter, and 2 prescription, failed to have any effects; and .... yeah, not fun times).

For extremely acid diets.... I have a friend who gets really bad reactions from anything with acidity; she found out that a tablespoon of baking powder mixed in water helps to neutralize it; no more than 4 a day though. They found out that aluminum was the real cause of their trouble though.