Seizures again?

[alice]

I had a right temporal lobectomy five years ago. After being seizure and medication free for years, about two months ago I fainted. Ever since then, I've been experiencing faintness/dizzyness. I'm also getting nausea frequently. Since my surgery, I've had daily headaches/migraines and now my neurologist said that my headaches may have moved and instead of causing pain (because my headaches have become less frequent/severe since fainting)that they're now causing this dizzy feeling. I'm scheduled for a video EEG in two weeks, but I'm scared to death these episodes are a form of a seizure. Can seizures reappear after all this time and can headaches just "move"? What happens if I don't have any episodes while I'm on the EEG? Is there a way to know for sure if these are seizures?  Thank you for any information your may provide!

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear Alice:

Sorry to hear about your symptoms.  From your symptoms there are a variety of reasons other than seizure activity that could account for them.  However, seizures might also account for them.  Not knowing what things have been done lab-wise, the previous workup prior to surgery, etc I cannot tell you what is happening.  Some general things, seizure activity can come back after years of being seizure free, possible depending on what the presurgical evaluation showed.  The EEG should help in determining this.  As you know, one can have a normal EEG with epilepsy and show spikes in someone who has never had a seizure.  Your epileptologist will have to determine if your having seizures on his/her judgement and tests.  Dizziness and fainting can also occur for general medical reasons, such as syncope, HTN, low blood sugar, etc and these should be ruled out.  Headaches are usually stereotyped to the individual and usually do not move around too much.  I would not think that this is your old headache just moved.  People do develop new headaches and always, something new needs to be evaluated.  

Sorry I can't help you more with the information given.  I hope that your dizziness is just from another easily treated entity other than seizures.

Sincerely,

CCF Neuro MD

[alice]

p.s. My primary ran a bunch of bloodwork to rule out other possibilities and it all came back normal. I'm also not pregnant, so it's not morning sickness.