My name is Pam i had my strok 5 years ago thi s month. It was a clot in the middlecerbullar artery which transormed into a massive bleed. At first I recovered well ,however after about 7 months the fits,“WSeizures” began… Now mostly undr control, fingers crossed.Iwonder how many more hav experienced these… unpleasant things. O the good side the stroke has not affected, my speech or walking… I cant type very accurately,but readin the other postsshere I realise how lucky I have been. Pam
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Hello Pam, welcome to the forum. I had two tonic clonic seizures following my stroke and then a seizure where I stayed awake but it was inside the CT scanner 
. They’re very scary and I suffered with PTSD for a good while after discharge. However, it’s now over 12 months since I had a seizure and the initial fear has definitely faded. When I first had the seizures my cognitive ability and speech was very limited but thankfully I have regained all of that now. My seizures were caused by cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) which caused a subarachnoid haemorrhage.
I hope you continue to make a good recovery from your stroke.
I don’t suffer seizures but they can occur after a stroke depending on whixh part of the brain has been affected.
I can only imagine how scary they must.
I hope they are under control & you don’t have any more.
Ann
Hello Pam - Yes, I can relate to this. My Mum had very similar situation. Timing was similar to yours in the sense the seizures started after 6 months or so after discharge to home care.
As Mum cannot communicate, it was off to A&E where she was treated and anti-seizure medication was prescribed. She was back home and over the next few weeks months there were instances of further seizures and we did go back to A&E.
The anti-seizure medication was horrendous, and we chose not to have it - a personal choice, not a recommendation.
During the second or third visit, hyponatremia was diagnosed.
Hyponatremia is when the amount of sodium in your blood is too low .
At this stage, Mum was on several medications as part of her initial discharge post-stroke and whilst she was anti any medication, due to her condition and as her advocate and following medical advice we kept her on it. As it happens, one of the meds (I believe it was the blood pressure medication that was the culprit that caused the hyponatremia.
These medicines remove extra water and sodium from the body . So, there’s less fluid flowing through the veins and arteries. This reduces pressure on the walls of the blood vessels.
So we stopped the blood pressure medication. I would have to look up our day log, but I think the hospital consultant advised us to do this and indeed may have questioned why she was on blood pressure medication when she didn’t have high BP. (All happened whilst in stroke recovery ward).
Stopping blood pressure medication and adding half a teaspoon of salt in her daily fluids has restored the sodium levels and she has had NO fits or seizures in the last 4/5 years.
We believe it was a side effect/consequence of the BP medication that the seizures happened. Pre-stroke Mum was on NO medications whatsoever. During her stay in hospital her body may have been shocked by the numerous meds that were introduced as part of her post-stroke care.
I hope this helps. It’s all personal, it’s actual and it is not a recommendation.
Thank you.
Namaste|
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Hellobigmugoftea,.Seizures really are scary…I have hadquite afew now. first they treated me for depression, but im convince d it was PTSD. Howeve r now off that drug. The firstseizure laste long enough for help to arrive, since then, theyintensified.until the last major one wher eI was unconcious for 4 days. That took a month to recover from. The fear of another is hard to overcome, but since being prescribed a rescue medicine, I feel much more seure, andstarting to regain confidence to return to ‘normal’ life.with the odd trip to hiospital to keep my ‘reserved’ bed! I hope youcontinue to be seizure free.Pam
Hello
4/5 years, Seizure free!!that is great. i was told i couldresume driving after 12 months, but I cant manage more than 5 months… Its been 5 yeara now. so I give up on the driving. the unpredictable nature of thes things makes it too dsngerous to contemplate. pam
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I think there is no harm in you getting your GP to do a blood test to check the sodium levels - that was the reason Mum had seizures and so once we stopped her BP medication (which she didn’t need and as was advised to us) and then by adding half teaspoon of salt to her daily fluid, there have been no more seizures and Mum is totally fine.
Something for you to think about.
Takes care.
A lot to think about, I have had many blood tests, but have been thinking I may be on too many pills… Doctors have agreed to try reducing one, but not sure if its doing any good yet.
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I wonder what they gave for you to say anti seizur medication was horendous. none of my business of course, but I always found it such a relief… However I think there are different types and reasons for seizures.My seizures have been frightening, and are due to the damage caused by my large bleed.
I usually end up losing conciousness, which I always hope for when they happen. Now I have a rescue medication which can sop them if use in time.I have high blood pressure and getting the right pills is tricky. I feel a bi like a guinea pig at times.
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For us, the issue was the sheer volume of the medication and the associated side effects. Mum is nil-by-mouth and has to be fed via a PEG tube and she also has to take any medications via the tube as well. Medications also can cause blockages of the tube due to viscosity of insoluble components that are added to some medication.
Mum had never been one for taking medication and she always refused when given the choice. Also, as it turns out, it was almost certainly the other medications she was asked to take (and which she had not refused at this stage as we were not as aware) that led to her having seizures.
It worked for us and that is why it is important to do what works for you. From what you are saying, your condition is different and you experience is different as you say you found relief.
So by all means take the medication if it helps you. You saying you feel like a guinea pig at times might not be that far off the mark. Again, I speak from our experiences and so you may take this with a pinch of salt, but doctors prescribing medicines do not know you personally and the medications they prescribe are based on guidelines they follow. Sometimes, these are not right and so they then put you on some other medication, or you may have a side-effect and so again they may give you medication to counter the side-effect or change medication all together. So in that sense, you are a guinea pig until they are able to establish which medications work for you.
We are all different and ultimately, we have to try to find what works for us. What we are told and what are given are often just guidelines.
Wishing you all the best and success in your recovery and search for the mix that works for you.
Namaste|