Adults with absence seizures

Hi @absentsenior
Welcome to the Epilepsy & Seizures Group at Mayo Clinic Connect.
What are your biggest challenges right now? Are your seizures well-controlled at the moment?
Chris

Hi @absentsenior
Welcome to the Epilepsy & Seizures Group at Mayo Clinic Connect.
What are your biggest challenges right now? Are your seizures well-controlled at the moment?
Chris

@santosha biggest challenges right now
are changes in my ability to multi-task and my cognition and my motivation. I have a best friend and a sister who are both close and do the best they can to help. I've been alone most of my life and am used to doing for myself. Dependency doesn't come easy. The hardest part in the early days was everybody trying to remind me and help me remember, particularly vacations. Ultimately I put together a paper that explained the problem with my memory to help them understand those losses are no longer lost memories. They are events that never happen to me and there is nothing to recover. We have a forbidden phrase where I am concerned, and it is simply the words "do you remember?" A definitive diagnosis has been hard to come by.
And of course, i'm at the clinic, because they are the best to help answer that question and it looks like we're making progress slowly, but surely, but at least it's progress. I looked for and found this group because I know no one else with epilepsy, particularly at my age. I'm not sure what i'm looking for but at least now have the ear of people who know where i'm coming from.And maybe I will be able to help one or some of them in some way.

@santosha i'll apologize in advance and say I hate that question. With unaware seizures, you, of course, have no clue. Because I don't know if i'm having seizures or when i'm having seizures since I live alone.I've never felt a loss of time. I ended up coming to the clinic because I was losing long-term memory and after everybody telling me it was normal at my age. I trusted my gut and took myself to an neurologist, who advised me I had a seizure disorder.
When she retired, I applied to the clinic and thankfully, was accepted. And for the first time started getting answers.
The various medications for epilepsy have either been not effective or the side effects have been to difficult to live with.
Soon, I am being put before the committee for surgery to possibly implant a neurostimulator and will have an answer sometime in the next couple of weeks. Then I will have more decisions to make. Between the damage of the epilepsy and that of the medications, I am not the person I was and I want her back. At this moment in time, I only have to deal with social security and learning about Medicare when my epilepsy has affected my ability to learn new things. This should be a lot of fun.

I agree with you cognitive and memory mostly short term is so haunting. I have to remember my lovers and its a struggle to understand where was we before the seizure. Like I had it all in place. My body keeps stiffing and I continue to remember I had a high sense of learning and talking lately I been silent just trying to remember daily events. so forgetful not on meds yet. I must remember my appointment with Ohio health I write it down then forget where I placed it. I do remember my friends but the housing program keeps kicking them out so its a struggle to remember me since I don't they may not be perfect but they help me remember who I was and I have to know if people around me are safe to prevent a seizure again I am debating a new treatment do to I may loose more knowledge going fourth I will spend time with all of you so when I go here or with Ohio it wont be odd. I be able to rest and read trying to staff off social media for a while just remember my studies and how smart I am I need my brain to have a sharp six sense reading books revelant to me.

I agree with you cognitive and memory mostly short term is so haunting. I have to remember my lovers and its a struggle to understand where was we before the seizure. Like I had it all in place. My body keeps stiffing and I continue to remember I had a high sense of learning and talking lately I been silent just trying to remember daily events. so forgetful not on meds yet. I must remember my appointment with Ohio health I write it down then forget where I placed it. I do remember my friends but the housing program keeps kicking them out so its a struggle to remember me since I don't they may not be perfect but they help me remember who I was and I have to know if people around me are safe to prevent a seizure again I am debating a new treatment do to I may loose more knowledge going fourth I will spend time with all of you so when I go here or with Ohio it wont be odd. I be able to rest and read trying to staff off social media for a while just remember my studies and how smart I am I need my brain to have a sharp six sense reading books revelant to me.

@santosha biggest challenges right now
are changes in my ability to multi-task and my cognition and my motivation. I have a best friend and a sister who are both close and do the best they can to help. I've been alone most of my life and am used to doing for myself. Dependency doesn't come easy. The hardest part in the early days was everybody trying to remind me and help me remember, particularly vacations. Ultimately I put together a paper that explained the problem with my memory to help them understand those losses are no longer lost memories. They are events that never happen to me and there is nothing to recover. We have a forbidden phrase where I am concerned, and it is simply the words "do you remember?" A definitive diagnosis has been hard to come by.
And of course, i'm at the clinic, because they are the best to help answer that question and it looks like we're making progress slowly, but surely, but at least it's progress. I looked for and found this group because I know no one else with epilepsy, particularly at my age. I'm not sure what i'm looking for but at least now have the ear of people who know where i'm coming from.And maybe I will be able to help one or some of them in some way.

Thank you for the feedback. I've worked as a Travel Agent for 45 years and am still doing so. I've been amazed I've been able to continue to work. Doctor tells me my job is like muscle memory after so long. It's getting harder each day and I can only hope I can make it to retirement in September. Three things have been the hardest. The first was to stop my family and friends from asking "Do You Remember?" They work hard at no longer using that phrase around me. The second has been giving up reading for pleasure. That stopped a long time ago and I now understand was the 1st indicator. It became exhausting to read. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I've forgotten the beginning and cannot maintain continuity. The last and almost the worst is who the meds have turned me in to. I've tried many of them and the side effects have been particularly bad. They've taken my laughter and joy away and made me angry and short tempered and caused blepharospams. Those involved shots around my eyes and lids. Eight for each eye until I figured out the cause and stopped that medication. I just hope the doctors decide I'm a candidate for RNS. I should find out soon.