Hello Jake,
Actually one of your earlier posts encouraged me to share.

Anyway, the user name, Mxyzptlk was a character in DC comic books that pestered Superman. You can search the net if you haven't already for more info. I got started reading early because of comic books. What can I say? I like books with pictures, as Forrest Gump said "and that's all I have to say about that". My brother was always amazed I knew who Nostradamus was because of a comic book.

Sugar: hypoglycemic for me. I eat more sugar now than when I was a kid, which still isn't much. I am lucky in the sense I like fruits vegetables, meat and potatoes.

58 years: Yes I was walking home from school and had my first grand mal(tonic clonic). I banged into a tree in our neighbors yard. That is all I remember of the first incident. The only potential reason I ever heard for the onset was I had all of the childhood diseases one on top of the other. I wasn't extremely sick with them but it was the only thing that had happened to me out of the ordinary.

Memory: mine is slowly fading I think. It is very hard to say what causes it because it could be age. I don't figure epilepsy is helping though. I have never been in a coma and no great blanks as far as I can tell. Although there are things I did in childhood that my brother remembers and I don't. I could chalk that up to what leaves an impression on one person but not another. Once told to me I seem to remember it but I have an active imagination too. It could just be me filling in the blanks.

Humoring you, I don't mind:
1) phenobarbital was the first medicine they put me on. About all I remember about that is the nasty bitter taste from the white quarter inch cube. That is what I mean about my memory. I wasn't on the phenobarbital long. It must have been about that time they discovered barbiturates wasn't a good thing and took me off of it. I believe my next medicine was depakene(valproic acid) and I was on that for years. It is possible I was on something between the phenobarbital and the depakene. I do remember being put in the hospital when I was in the 4th grade because I was tired. My Mom was no one to get in the way of so when she said she wanted some tests that is what happened. I don't think phenobarbital was any better or worse than anything else I have tried.

2) Generic drugs I have bounced around with no problems. My symptoms are so mild it doesn't seem to matter. I have had less than 10 tonic clonic seizures in my life. I had 3 between ages 7 and 16. I didn't have another until 9 or 10 years ago and those were induced (accidentally) by steroids. They tried to treat my ITP with steroids. I was on 60mg of dexamethasone for too long of a time. I have been told that is enough for a horse. My wife and grown daughters were there to witness it. It was the first time they had seen me have a tonic clonic. I am guessing it affected them more than it did me. They knew I had epilepsy but other than the "twitches" it was more a bit of knowledge than real.

My diagnosis is complex partial. I hadn't heard the word Myoclonus before I read it here. It is an apt description of my twitches though. I will see what my nurse says when I talk to her next. I told her about it over the phone and my reaction to what she was saying is it is possibly the Vimpat I am taking.

Focal aware or impaired: impaired, blank stare, stop right in the middle of a sentence then start again when it is over. Most last the time it takes you to flip a light switch. To the untrained eye, nothing happened. What I call "harder" ones I suspect are longer in duration and cause my head to bob. I have very few "hard" ones. When I have more of them I can trace it right back to a lack of sleep. By lack of sleep I mean several nights running, maybe a week. Sometimes I get an interesting feeling on my head as if someone has placed a hand on my forehead. That is when I know I am really tired.

Good to talk to you.

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