Epilepsy: Anyone been admitted to hospital to have tests run?

@1710dave
Did you ask your doctor why s/he wants you admitted and what tests need to be done. The Cleveland clinic has a level 4 epilepsy center at least the one in Cleveland. I think their facility in Florida is a level 3. Perhaps they want you admitted to the epilepsy center Monitoring Unit so they can do a VEEG (video EEG) or have you evaluated by an Epileptologist. If this test is what your doctor has in mind they will likely decrease or eliminate your seizure meds to invoke a seizure. When analyzing the EEG and the video that coincides with it the doctors will probably be able to identify your seizure focus (origination of seizure.)
You made the following statement, “The last one I had I could hear people talking to me but I could not see anything and it lasted 10 minutes.”
When you heard people talking to you, were you able to comprehend what they were saying? I have heard this claim many times before. But I often wonder if the person is having a focal aware seizure when they hear the voices or perhaps auditory hallucinations and then the seizure progresses into a Bi-Lateral Tonic-Clonic seizure. Can you shed any light on this Dave?
You mentioned you had health issues for the last 20 years. Have you had any heart problems? The Cleveland clinic is a great place for a cardiovascular workup. They may check out some of your other health issues to see if there is any connection to the seizures.
They will do various blood tests including glucose, sodium, potassium liver and kidney function and many others.
There are various types of imaging they may want to do, an MRI or CT, Maybe a fMRI (functional MRI) PET or SPECT (Single-photon emission computed tomography) many epilepsy patients have this test done in an epilepsy monitoring unit who have a seizure. I think they do the test during a seizure or maybe just after and then the next day they do another one and they check the difference in blood flow in the brain. It helps them determine the seizure focus (where the seizure begins.)
They may want to do a spinal tap.
If it were me I would definitely confront the doctor and ask why s/he wants you admitted.
Take care,
Jake

Test already show it is in the right frontal lobe.I am waiting on papers they are sending that will hopefully tell what test they want to do.If they want to do any test using dyes I will have to refuse, my immune system has a bad reaction to a lot of things to have gandolinium put in itI think that is the name of the stuff in the dye,it can cause brain damage..My first seizure lasted around 30 minutes then I took hemp oil for a month and had another seizure then I got on keppra and it took a year to have another and the reason was, i told the doctor I was taking only half the pill twice a day and he told me that was like not taking anything so I stopped the pill and it took two months and I had a seizure.I have stayed on the keppra ever since and I have had a seizure once every two years and it seems to come on when I start taking supplements trying to pull the mercury out of my body.This last seizure I did know what they were saying I could hear them real clear telling me that I was going into a seizure but I could not see everything was black,I even answered back when it first came on and told them i knew that I was having a seizure.All the doctors I have been to over the years not one could find anything wrong.That is why after looking up mercury poisoning I feel that is my issue because all the problems at least ten or more are all listed under mercury poisoning.If you research mercury,they claim it causes epilepsy,ms,autism,there is a list of neurological issues from mercury.I talked with a couple of people that had root canals done threw mercury fillings and it causes a lot of issues ,,one was an attorney and she had to give up her practice because her mind wasn't working right memory was the worse thing she lost.My memory is really bad and I when partly color blind,right side of my brain gets real hot they call it brain burn,I have sharp pains in muscles at times like a hot ice pick was stuck in it.anxiety attacks,lost most of my strenght,there is more but I won't bore you with all of it.The other day when I had the seizure I was in a lot of pain for a good hour before it hit.I don't know it that could help bring it on or not.Sorry I got carried away with me, what issues do you have or do you have everything under control.
Thanks for the info
Dave

my son just had this done and it was a long term monitoring (continous EEG monitoring) they slowly took him off aptiom and he no longer takes it but is still on his other 3 AED.s. thye were in hopes that surgery would be a possibilty however my sons whole brain is active and discharging both front left and right

Did you feel this testing your son underwent was fruitful, @zachareycovert?

I got my paper work today from cleveland clinic.They want to put me on eeg and take me off meds and see if I have a seizure.That is the only test they are going to run.I feel that I could be off the meds for a lot longer than three or four days like a month or maybe more.Can the doctor induce a seizure.If not i feel this will be a waste of time plus my insurance will not pay for me to sit there for who knows how long before a seizure comes on,
Thanks for any info you can provide
Dave

@1710dave
How long has it been since you’ve had a seizure? Just an evaluation with an Epileptologist would no doubt be beneficial. If nothing else you can discuss your mercury concerns.
Jake

This is a new doctor and I am meeting her an hour before i get admitted.I thought she would like to go over my history first but I guess she is in a hurry to admit me.I had a seizure 3 weeks ago.I seem to have one about every two years.Do you think that a lot of stress can bring on a seizure.I have been to soo many doctors I have lost track of how many and everyone of them refuses to admit mercury can cause damage.They cut that conversion short quick.So as more things keep happening to me they just keep denying mercury but they cannot give any answers to my issues.What are the odds everything happening to me is listed under mercury poisoning and there is a lot.I feel like i am rotting away and these clowns ignore everything I say.Do you know anyone that had this done and had any thing become of it to make things better for them or is this just for them to make more money off of people.
Dave

@1710dave
I am afraid I agree with the other doctors, I don’t believe you’re problems are from your filling, but of course I’m not qualified to make that determination. Perhaps you’re allergic to it, if you could be allergic to mercury or maybe you’re just super sensitive to it, who knows. How many fillings do or did you have? Are your symptoms getting better or worse? Yes, i’ve known quite a few people who have benefited from going to an epilepsy center and others who have seen Epileptologists who changed their medicine also benefited.
Jake

You seem to be up on a lot of things.What is the reason for the eeg,I have had three and they show the spikes coming from the right frontal lobe.Two of them did the third one there were no spike the eeg was normal. so I am a little confused why they want to do it againl.I stopped taking valium and what they called mini seizures have stopped(a feeling that comes over me and last about two minutes and I feel a little dazed).I would like to get my meds changed since i have been taking them for six years.I seen a news report a couple of months ago this kids father was a dentist and for whatever reason he had mercury fillings in the house from work the son put them in a pan and heated them and the vapors from the mercury killed their pet.This happened in cleveland,ohio.People for some reason do not believe mercury is a neurotoxin the second most dangerous chemical next to plutonium.Just like cigarettes we said they did not cause cancer and look where a lot of people are now.They already proved mercury causes autism in kids and some people were diagnosed with ms but it was the mercury.I hope people would take mercury more serious.There was a class action lawsuit against the fda that was won and they had to reclassify mercury as a toxic substance.That is why dentist are getting away from it.Vaccines have mercury in them also and people should stay away from them also.

@1710dave
Hello,
I would Imagine the main reason for the EEG is too more precisely pinpoint your seizure focus.
There has been significant improvement in EEG technology since I’ve been to an an Epilepsy Center. EEGs can be done using as few as four electrodes or as many as 256 electrodes if a High Density EEG is done although all 256 channels may not always be utilized.
They may also want to do a functional MRI to check the blood flow in your brain. Or other types of scans.
There is a trace amount of mercury in a substance used in some flu vaccines. If you do get a flu vaccine make sure they have single dose vials because that substance containing mercury isn’t in single use vials. The substance that contain trace amounts of mercury has been eliminated from children’s vaccines all together. I believe that happened in 1999 but I’m not positive. As far as I know there has been no credible medical evidence that amalgam filling‘s cause any health problems from fillings. I don’t believe there has been enough large long-term studies to say definitively one way or the other But again I’m obviously not qualified to make that determination or to talk talk about it intelligently.
Best of luck in the epilepsy center,
Jake