Re: Electrical impulses

Posted By CCF neuro MD MM on November 20, 1998 at 09:59:24:

In Reply to: Electrical impulses posted by Anthony on November 19, 1998 at 23:47:54:






this may sound weird, but every once in a while I experience a sensation alike to the knid one gets when being shocked by an outlet.  A sensation rushes trough my body, beginning at my head, sort of like I stick my fingers in an outlet.  This effectively blocks out all other thought processes for the brief second this happens.  It is almost like I black out for a second.  I have to stop and recover when this happens.  However, the feeling does seem to be triggered by certain smells.  
I usually get the feeling when I open a musty closet, enter an old building, or smell chemical odors.  It is pretty overwheming, and it is beginning to worry me.  I am a 17 year old male.  My late uncle and two of my cousins from a different uncle have been diagnosed with epilepsy.
Any thoughts???
thanks




I cannot say for sure what exactly is causing your symptoms but I am
impressed by the fact that your thought processes are temporarily blocked
out. Given your family history of epilepsy you should have this
investigated to see if these are very brief bursts of seizure activity.
The ideal investigation in this case would be an EEG and I suggest that
you check this our by seeing a neurologist, if this does turn out to
be epilepsy, it should be easy to control since these events are relatively
benign (compared to grand mal seizures at least).
I would strongly suggest that you should not drive or swim alone until this has
been sorted out, you do not want your thoughts blocked out even for a split second
while driving at 65 miles per hour !