I am 39 years old and I have never had a history of seizures. However, 3 months ago I had a really bad one and was told today by my neurologist that I have epilepsy because of seizure like activity that showed up on two EEGs. On my first visit with him, he told me that the extremely bad sinus infection that I had not been treated for could only be a trigger not the cause of a seizure, especially in people who have epilepsy. I had an EEG and a CT scan performed on me when I was about 18 years old and there was nothing abnormal at that time. The reason for the checks when I was 18 was because I was having sharp pains in the right side of my head, which I called headaches. However, about 8 years ago, I was checked by a Dr who told me that these headaches were probably due to ear problems. These headaches, as I call them, have been persistent everyday for the last 20+ years with the exception of when I had a tooth extracted and the dentist gave me a shot of Lidocaine in my upper left jaw area. My question for you is this: can a person develop epilepsy overnight at age 40? Could the 2 EEG results showing seizure like activity be something other than epilepsy?