@hippele
Hi Ray, Good Morning From São Paulo
Answering your question.
As a 5-year-old in France, I accidentally ingested some medicines (colchicine, a gout medication, was one of them) at my grandfather's home, mistaking the pills for candy. My mother found me convulsing and rushed me to a village hospital. The situation worsened when the attending physician, who had reportedly been drinking, administered additional medication that triggered a week-long coma.
Upon returning to Brazil, I appeared to have fully recovered with no apparent consequences. However, during puberty, the first auras emerged and later developed into complex partial seizures. Despite seeing multiple doctors, my symptoms were repeatedly dismissed.
In 2018, at age 47, my seizures significantly intensified. Finally, in 2019, at age 48, I received a definitive diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy with left mesial sclerosis. One of the epileptologists who has treated me explained that the childhood poisoning incident had caused lasting neurological damage that remained silent until puberty, when hormonal changes triggered the manifestation of epilepsy.
As @jakedduck1 has pointed out in another post (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/291877/), approximately 65% of people will never know the cause of their epilepsy. I can say I am fortunate to know what caused my epilepsy.
Does anyone else here in our community know what caused their epilepsy?
Have all a nice day!
Chris (@santosha)