My son’s seizures are always 25 to 30 minutes after he wakes up.

Posted by galords @galords, Jul 22, 2018

My 33 yr old son started having seizure’s 9 yrs ago. He is currently on a high dose of 2 meds that do not seem to be working. He has not been able to drive now for 3 years after a head on collision occurring 30 minutes after got up to go to work because a worker called in sick. Any suggestions on what to do. He has had 6 seizures in 7 weeks & all have been 25 to 30 minutes after he gets up. He has had several injuries from the seizures requiring emergency room visits. Any ideas on what to do next?

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@galords

My first question is does your son get at least 8-10 hours of sleep? Does he have any sleep disorders,
like insomnia or sleep apnea or sleep walking etc?

Although some people with Epilepsy can drink alcoholic beverages without seizures others can’t and it can affect sleep habits and also be seizure triggers.
This type of seizure is frequently associated with going out drinking and getting to bed late. Could this be possible?
I would imagine your son is having Tonic Clonic seizures. Has anyone said he’s having myoclonic seizures? You didn’t mention what meds he was on. Is one of the them Depacote / Divalproex by chance? You mentioned he was on two medications. Has he only been on two medications or has he been on others?
Jake

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Unfortunately injuries and seizures go together. Be careful and don’t take chances.

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Welcome to Connect, @galords,

As a parent, I can see how worrying this must be! After a bit of research, I found this information, particularly about the fact that your son's seizures occur after he wakes up:
In juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), seizures often happen within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up in the morning or after a nap. A cluster of myoclonic jerks may be a warning sign that a tonic-clonic seizure is coming. https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-seizures/myoclonic-seizures
I'd also like to bring @sarahlou @dawn_giacabazi @sall and @kerivb into this discussion as they have talked about myoclonic, nocturnal and/or tonic-clonic seizures in the past.

@galords, may I ask if you would share a few more details? What medications is your son taking? Have the doctors offered an explanation as to what may be causing the seizures to occur so frequently?

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Need more info, son’s age, what is his epilepsy diagnosis, and same questions as @galords? From what I know that is pretty common, if they have Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy

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@kanaazpereira

Welcome to Connect, @galords,

As a parent, I can see how worrying this must be! After a bit of research, I found this information, particularly about the fact that your son's seizures occur after he wakes up:
In juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), seizures often happen within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up in the morning or after a nap. A cluster of myoclonic jerks may be a warning sign that a tonic-clonic seizure is coming. https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-seizures/myoclonic-seizures
I'd also like to bring @sarahlou @dawn_giacabazi @sall and @kerivb into this discussion as they have talked about myoclonic, nocturnal and/or tonic-clonic seizures in the past.

@galords, may I ask if you would share a few more details? What medications is your son taking? Have the doctors offered an explanation as to what may be causing the seizures to occur so frequently?

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My daughter only has seizures at nights between 1am and 3am could this be JME? Doctors are not sure if this is epileptic or not her seizures emulate epilepsy but a lot of times she controls the jerking through breathing and it goes away

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HI, @galords - wanted to touch base with you and see how your son is doing recently? Is he still having seizures?

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Interested to know more as my Daughter has only had 3 grand mal seizures, and all 3 were within 15 minutes after awakening. She had her 1st one at 15 years & all few months apart. It is exactly same time in the morning roughly and same place. Is this a common thing for juvenile epilepsy?

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Just an FYI follow up. So we had a visit with our doctor. She said a lot of people with Seizures will have them around the same time. Especially now that my daughter has had all 3 of her seizures in the mornings right after awakening. She is on Keppra 2x a day at 5 ml/500 mg. So to try and control the morning awakening seizures, she raised the night time before the bed dose to 10ml/100mg. And taking the other 5ml/500mg right when waking up. We also are trying B6 & B supplements. Flax seed oils for the omegas. Magnesium and Melatonin for sleep help.

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