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What Do Seizures, Nausea, Tinnitus And Dysgeusia Indicate?
Question: I am a seizure patient who has taken medication my whole life since I was 5.I fell off our swimming pool slide and factored my skull and had a laceration to the brain on my left side. My seizures have been controlled with medication. Every once in a while I would feel like I was going to have a baby seizure. My speech would get slurred. I would know what I wanted to say but I couldn't get it out.My ears usually rang and I got a weird taste in my mouth. Yesterday while at work my legs quit working and I couldn't stand up. My vision was coming and going and it was all I could do to pick my head up. I was nauseated as well and my depth perception was horrible.I got sick if I moved.At the hospital the doctors said I was fine and sent me home. They couldn't see anything on the CT scan, but I have had seizures my whole life and the other doctors had no problem diagnosing it. Af ew months agony chest was also hurting. My head above my left eye was killing me and my left shoulder was throbbing in my back. When I woke up the next day my whole left arm was numb and I went to ER. They again sent me home and told me to follow up with cardiologist. I was just under to much stress. Today my left eye at my eye brow still hurts and my face feels a little tingle numb everyone in a while. HELP
Brief Answer:
Possible differential diagnosis
Detailed Answer:
Hi Paulaidmnd, thanks for asking from HCM.
I can understand your concern. You are having sudden onset of episodes of slurred speech, nausea, tremors, lethargy, blurred vision. Such kind of symptoms can not be ignored. Usually these symptoms occur due to
- Aura like symptoms just before seizures - As you said it could be baby seizure. Aura like symptoms occurring before major seizure may resemble above features. We can not confirm it by any investigation. But it is a warning sign. You must
: Maintain compliance of the drug
: If possible, ask for your drug level in blood. If it is in normal range, no need to worry.
: Avoid any seizure precipitating factor like bright light/fasting/stress/low calcium or sugar.
- Migraine episode - As you mentioned you also had headache left eye and above, nausea along with aura like symptoms. This can happen in a "classical Migraine attack". Migraine attack occurs in episodes, throbbing, one side, usually preceded by aura like symptoms, vomiting. Kindly discuss it with your doctor. If you develop repeated episodes of headache, eye ache and vomiting, think about it. It can be controlled by preventive and abortive therapy.
- Lamictal side effect - Lamotrigine is as such a safe drug. But still taking it for long duration can cause some serious side effects as you mentioned above along with insomnia, blurry vision, loss of co-ordination.
To confirm, blood level is needed to know whether it is going above required level. Treatment is simple - gradually reduce the dose.
Hope it will give you some insight. Please let me know what your doctor is suggesting about above diagnosis. If you are having any doubts, do let me know.
Thanks. Take care.
Possible differential diagnosis
Detailed Answer:
Hi Paulaidmnd, thanks for asking from HCM.
I can understand your concern. You are having sudden onset of episodes of slurred speech, nausea, tremors, lethargy, blurred vision. Such kind of symptoms can not be ignored. Usually these symptoms occur due to
- Aura like symptoms just before seizures - As you said it could be baby seizure. Aura like symptoms occurring before major seizure may resemble above features. We can not confirm it by any investigation. But it is a warning sign. You must
: Maintain compliance of the drug
: If possible, ask for your drug level in blood. If it is in normal range, no need to worry.
: Avoid any seizure precipitating factor like bright light/fasting/stress/low calcium or sugar.
- Migraine episode - As you mentioned you also had headache left eye and above, nausea along with aura like symptoms. This can happen in a "classical Migraine attack". Migraine attack occurs in episodes, throbbing, one side, usually preceded by aura like symptoms, vomiting. Kindly discuss it with your doctor. If you develop repeated episodes of headache, eye ache and vomiting, think about it. It can be controlled by preventive and abortive therapy.
- Lamictal side effect - Lamotrigine is as such a safe drug. But still taking it for long duration can cause some serious side effects as you mentioned above along with insomnia, blurry vision, loss of co-ordination.
To confirm, blood level is needed to know whether it is going above required level. Treatment is simple - gradually reduce the dose.
Hope it will give you some insight. Please let me know what your doctor is suggesting about above diagnosis. If you are having any doubts, do let me know.
Thanks. Take care.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Arnab Banerjee
Answered by
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