Bad adult absence apilepsy

[hhmmhh]

Is it possible for me to have really bad absence epilepsy(over 100 per day with some long ones)mostly without anyone noticing? I am 27, and went to a counselor who diagnosed me with ADD about 2 years ago.  I went to a psychiatrist who did a computer test and who agreed with my counselor.  He prescribed medicine for that. About 3 months ago I was driving and ran off the road apparently due to a seizure.  They did an eeg and several showed up. Since then I've had a couple more eeg's  some of which were 24 hour ones and they continue to show up.  1st my neurologist put me on Depakote and I couldn't tolerate it physically.  Next I tried zarontin and it worked but I tested positive for lupus.  Apparently drug induced.  Since going off the medicine the lupus symptoms have stopped. I'm on lamictal now and feel normal.  I have a 24 hr. Eeg next week to see if its working.  More info but not enough space.  

Thanks.

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

It's rare for absence epilepsy to start in adulthood. However, if the EEG really does show the typical seizure pattern (generalized spike-wave pattern at 3cycles per second) and clinically you have brief spells where you just "space out" for a few seconds at a time, then this could represent absence epilepsy. Glad that everything is better on the lamictal. Good luck on next week's EEG.

[CHADDY]

There is an epilepsy forum where you can talk to other people with epilepsy that might have went through the same thing if you are interested.  It is at WebMD.org   click on Boards and Events  then scroll down to Epilepsy and there are a lot of people there with lots of good info too.

[hhmmhh]

My last eeg did not turn out good.  Despite the medicine I was taking, I still had 85 seizures in a 24 hour period.  Someone was with me the whole time and never saw anything.  These seizures were supposedly about 3 seconds in duration.  My doctor said that all the usual medicines had failed and referred me to the Emory Epilepsy clinic in Atlanta.  I go there Wednesday.  My neurologist here suggested the possibility of vagus nerve stimulator.  This sounds drastic to me given that these seizures are not visible and that I can function normally.  He thinks that I've probably always had these seizures and they continued into audulthood.  I'm 27.  My main problem now, is not being able to drive.

This all came about because I veered off the road while driving and woke up hyperventilating. I think that if this was a seizure, the activity was made worse by medication I was taking and that nothing that drastic is likely to happen again because I don't take that medicine anymore.

Most of the people who have this problem are children, so no one really knows what to do with me.  Maybe somone can help me at Emory, we'll see.