Can anyone suggest any other medication besides Keppra for seizures?

@beccahp
“They last from as short as 3 minutes to 15 or so, I guess.”
The timeframe you mention 3 to 15 minutes are those times when he is actually seizing or until recovery?
Jake

Hi @beccahp
The term frozen seizures is also new to me. Thank you for explaining it to us.
I have temporal lobe epilepsy and during my focal complex seizures I also freeze. I can not talk during or right after the seizure and can also not respond. My husband takes me to lie down or to sit down. My memory of those frozen seconds or minutes do not come back either and in some circumstances I can not even recall what was happening before the seizure. I understand that is common in most seizures (except auras - focal simple seizures), or is not? I had one experience of generalized seizure and also frooze during it.
Kind regards,
Santosha

@santosha
I was curious if you knew you had a seizure without anyone telling you.
even though I was on the floor sore, bitten tongue, Paramedics around or firemen or were in an ambulance someone always had to tell me what happened except the time I had a simple partial/aura. I still remember that experience.
Take care & no more seizures,
Jake

@jakedduck1
Hi Leonard,
Hope all is well with you!
Answering your question. I know when I have a seizure without anybody telling me because I feel changes in my body that start all of a sudden, My seizures always start with an aura (when my awareness is not yet impaired), mostly evolving to focal complex seizures (then my awareness gets impaired). I believe it is due to the auras that I know when I have a seizure. As you have also mentioned, you also remember you had a seizure when it starts with an aura. It seems this explains when one remembers or not he or she had a seizure, don't you think so?
Since I started to have my seizures, when I was a teenager, I have had the same feelings during a seizure. At that time I did not know that I had epilepsy, calling them hallucinations or visions with déjà vu experiences, that I can not recall after the seizure. With the yoga practice, I have started to pay more attention to my body, something Dr. Cynthia Li also recommends in her great book called Brave New Medicine in the chapter of Inhabit your Body. Very recently I have noted that at the start of a seizure, my body is involved in a wave of sudden heat, which might explain my feverish state after my seizures. This is something I will discuss in my next appointment at the end of this month with my doctor.
Have a nice weekend!
Santosha

hello - i am an 83 yr old women and i have been on keppra since july due to a fall and brain bleed. dr's put me on keppra as a preventive of seizures, but all hospital tests that was done did not see any definitive seizure as cause. my neuro has finally weaned me off keppra in october, same year due to too many side effects from the med. today is my 1st day of being totally off keppra, and i would like to know if anybody took this med and came off - are there any side effects that i should expect while this med is getting out of my system, beyond possible seizure?

hi 171dave - there are other meds beyond keppra but most are expensive, unless your prescription drug co. will pay cost? you should ask your dr to prescribe another seizure med unless they feel keppra is the only one for you. as i stated in my post, i finally came off keppra in 4 mos (dr did not agree to take me off but i insisted because of too many side effects it was causing. i was on keppra as a preventive after surgery for a fall that caused a brain bleed. i wish i could tell you other meds than keppra, but i don't know the names, your dr. should be able to prescribe other meds.

@santosha
“It seems this explains when one remembers or not he or she had a seizure, don't you think so?”
So you can remember the seizure but not the Aura?
I only ever remember 1 Aura/Focal Aware déjà vu episode. I wonder if it had progressed to an impaired seizure or a bilateral tonic-clonic seizure if I would have remembered anything. out of 13,000+ seizures I sometimes wonder if I ever had any auras before the tonic clonic seizures and just don’t remember. It seems odd to only remember one aura.
I took yoga classes for several years but no noticeable seizure improvement. I had quite a few in class and I thought I'd be limber like “gumby” but it never happened.
Take care,
Jake

Hi Leonard!
The other way around. I see I have not expressed myself very well, I am sorry. I can remember my aura (simple partial seizure), as at this point I am still aware. But I can NOT remember my complex partial seizure as at this moment my awareness gets impaired. I believe I know that I have had a seizure because all my seizures start with an aura and about 95% of them evolve to complex partial seizure. If my seizures would start directly with a complex partial one, I ask myself if I would be able to know I had a seizure??? Additionally, a few times I also get a feeling of seizure risk, some hours before it I have it.
I can not tell you if yoga has decreased or not my seizures, but for sure it has helped me in many ways since I was diagnosed with epilepsy some 3 years ago. I have been practicing hatha yoga and yoga nidra since 2018. It has for sure helped me to calm down and decreased my anxiety, a symptom of my epilepsy. With yoga, I have also learned to listen more to my body and to hear what it is trying to tell me (inhabit your body) as well as to develop more my intuition (right side of my brain that has no sclerosis). Those feelings of a seizure risk I have developed with my yoga practices after learning to better listen to my body. Yoga nidra helps me much to recharge my batteries during the day. As I have already mentioned in other posts, I have sleep problems, getting tired during the day. Therefore, almost on a daily basis, I practice yoga nidra after lunch, feeling reenergized after it. It is said that 30 minutes of yoga nidra can correspond up to 2 hours of deep sleep. Interestingly, I have observed that my chances of having a seizure are higher when I do not practice my yoga nidra (bad or lack of sleep is one of my main triggers). Last not least, yoga philosophy has helped me to better deal with my epilepsy for example, to live more in the present moment rather than the past and/or the future. This has taken much off weight off my shoulders. If we observe, many times our mind is in the future trying to solve problems that do not exist yet or to anticipate problems that have not already happened. Somehow, with this way of thinking, much of my fear of a next seizure has vanished (I have refractory epilepsy with about 5 to 8 seizures a month).
Nowadays, there are many lines of yoga. Hatha and Haja yoga are traditional yoga lines with uncomplicated postures (assanas). Just a curiosity, I have heard that those complicated postures of yoga have been mostly developed in modern yoga, when India was a colony of Britain. This was a way Indian people could show the strength and vigor of their body to the British.
Curiosity, what kind of yoga have you practiced, Leonard? Could you share your experience with us?
Have a nice day!
Santosha

Hi @louisez79
I have not tried Keppra, but as far as I know, those medications (AEDS – antiepileptic drugs) should not be withdrawn from one day to another, unless the dose is small or the med has been replaced by another AED. I have refractory epilepsy and the last AED I took (Vimpat – Lacomsamide) has been withdrawn slowly in a period of 6 months as it has not been replaced by another AED, but by CBD (cannabis). My doctor has been very careful in this transition so as reduce/eliminate potential side effects of this change. I am also a person very sensitive to antiepileptic drugs.
Has your doctor replaced Keppra by another med @louisez79? Did you take a high dose of Keppra?
Take care!
Santosha

hi santosha thank you for the information. i was on vimpat back in july when i had my surgery due to a fall and brain bleed. when i had to refill it the cost was too expensive for me and my neuro then switched me to keppra (august). i was on 750mg twice a day, which caused many side effects. my neuro then told me to take half pill twice a day (since early september). i had requested the neuro to take me off keppra now, mid october - (causing too many side effects and i was now on seizure meds since july thru october while reducing the meds all along, as a preventive of seizures (no test done for seizures while in hospital ever showed me having a seizure which could have caused me falling and having a brain bleed). i understood neuro taking preventive measures, but this med was causing me to feel awful every single day from july to october and i just did not want to live my life with these side effects without trying to wean off them.

neuro finally told me, reluctantly, that she disagreed but would wean me off. i was told last week to take 1/2 tablet of keppra once a day, for three days, then stop the med, which i have done. this is my third day of not taking this med now, and thank the lord i am not having most of the side effects that i was having while on this med, hope it continues - but i will stay conscious of any changes that may arise and immediately notify my neuro (hoping for no changes and i just keep getting better each day).

i hope that you will stay healthy and get better each day also. let me know your thoughts that my neuro did wean me off keppra sufficiently, as i would love to hear back from you.

louise