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Has anyone on here had an EEG done?

I am curious to know if anyone has had an EEG done, and what the results came out as? My neuro and I are trying to figure out if I I have migraine with aura no headache or parietooccipital seizures. please help!
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Avatar universal
Hi Kardie

No one has actually told me why I should take aspirin. I think it's pretty obvious really: to help reduce factors that might induce a stroke/heart attack. My guess is that the 'migraine' was actually a minor ischaemic event which would have been too expensive to diagnose and treat.

I live in the UK where there's little money to investigate and treat the sorts of things that you and I suffer from. So the medics deliberately don't tell you anything and just 'watch and wait' (this is government clinical guidance, I'm not making this up). Everything is vague so they don't have to 'waste resources' or answer your questions.Two years on and no doctor will tell me the significance of having what I suppose are called interictal slow waves with sharp spikes. Fortunately it doesn't affect me as far as I can see, which is good because I wouldn't be able to get a second, investigative EEG unless I was in the middle of a life-threatening, major attack.

I thought your report of your experience was very interesting, thank you. Migralepsy is a new one to me, I'll look it up. Although you're having a job trying to get to the bottom of it all, I must say that I envy you your attentive doctor who does seem to care about your health and working out what the problem is.

Deb
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Avatar universal
Deb, do you mind if I ask you what they say the baby aspirin are for?  
I have had 3 eeg in the past 17 months.  This all started with a severe migrain with aura that brought on a seizure.  This was the first and only seizure I've had.  I was sent to City Hospital where they did the first eeg (after they did CT scan etc) and found there were left temperal spikes, so apparently they knew I'd had a seizure.  
I was then told I might have Thunderclap headache syndrome, migralepsy, "which is a new entity where patients with a long history of migraine have a severe migraine and then this can trigger a seizure." (I quote this from the Dr's letter)  or the possibility of a very mild case of left temperal epilepsy.  
The second eeg was okay but I have been on Phenytoin(Dilantin) since the episode.  The Dr. was still unsure if it had been migralepsy or mild left temperal epilepsy.
After the 3rd eeg I think he is leaning to the mild left temperal epilepsy.  He said there is a slowing over the left temperal area.  But he still hasn't ruled out migralepsy.
I have to have another eeg at 2 years from the date of the seizure.  If all is good then I will be taken off the Phenytoin (I can't wait, I do have problems with it.)  
I really am unsure what this all means.  I 'm sorry for being so long winded but this is my experience.
Kardie
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Avatar universal
Hello gusegirl

I had an EEG done two years after my brain attack. I had to keep fighting for tests because the docs (I find now) just considered that I was making it all up and imagining the sx because 'it was only a migraine and migraines don't cause that sort of damage or sx'.

I had some very unpleasant reactions to the breathing and strobe light parts of the test. EEG came back with slow/sharp spike waves in temporal lobe - unsurprisingly to me but something that I can see the docs feel v awkward about. Not sure how anyone could fake electrical discharges!

Yet, they still won't tell me what the problem is (apart from I did see 'epileptiform activity' in my notes when I wasn't supposed to be reading them!).

Meanwhile, I've not had such a "migraine" since and I'm supposed to take baby aspirin every day...go figure...!

Deb


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Avatar universal
Hi! I have had it done already, I apologize for not stating that in my first post! I have had 2 sleepdeprived EEG's done, and they both came back abnormal as having an intermittent slowing in my parietal-occipital lobes. No spike-wave activity during EEG, but I did not have any episodes during the EEG. I have had an out of body experience one time, and a 5-7 second blackout one time, all within the last year or less, as well as 10-20 auras per day. I have recently started taking Carbamazepine, and it is definitely helping, which is great. I would just really love to here if any migraineurs have had an EEG and what their results are/were. Thank you so much!!!
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Avatar universal
Hi,

EEG or electroencephalogram records the electrical activity of the brain. The recording is obtained by placing multiple electrodes on the scalp. The test lasts anywhere between 20 – 40 minutes.
EEG helps to diagnose epilepsy by picking up the abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Epilepsy is causes by misfiring of cortical neurons which is picked up by EEG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroencephalography
EEG is a good procedure to differentiate between migraine and epilepsy so please go ahead and get it done.

Hope this helps!
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