Epilepsy Talk
Catamenial epilepsy — do you have it?
3 Comments
Do you notice that your seizures worsen just before your period…or during the first few days…or at mid-cycle?
You could have “catamenial epilepsy,” or hormone sensitive seizures, a tendency for increased seizures related to your menstrual cycle.
Tags: catamenial epilepsy, estrogen, hormone sensitive, menstrual cycle, progesterone, TLE
The Trouble with AEDs…
4 Comments
At the very best, finding the right anti-epilepsy drug is a crap shoot. There’s always the hope that this one will do it.
Or maybe adjunct therapy will work. Or, sigh, the side-effects derail you and you’re on to the next.
Is asking for seizure control too much to ask?
Tags: AEDS, anti-epilepsy drugs, benefits, dangers, seizures, side-effects
Why you should AVOID going to the hospital… (If You Can!)
5 Comments
Medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer.
A recent Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors.
Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000.
Combined Meds — What They Are Doing to Your Body
7 Comments
For many of us, monotherapy just doesn’t work.
However adjunct therapy has its dangers.
For example, some seizure medicines can lower or raise the levels of other types of medicines in your blood.
Some combinations cause the levels of both medications to fall.
Some cause one level to fall and one level to rise.
And some cause unpredictable side-effects.
So I hunkered down to discover the unhappy marriages between anti-seizure meds.
Epilepsy and sleep apnea — a dangerous duo
5 Comments
Almost a third of people with epilepsy may suffer with undiagnosed sleep apnea, a sleep disorder which is dangerous because of the possible serious consequences.
Basically (as you probably already know), sleep apnea is characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing during sleep.
Each pause in breathing, called an apnea, can last from at least ten seconds to minutes, and may occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour, causing partial airway obstruction.
As sleep deepens, your airway becomes blocked.
Wrong diagnosis?
2 Comments
There are many ways that your medical care can go wrong. All of the phases from diagnosis to treatment can have some type of error.
Studies of error types: An Institute of Medical Report attempted to quantify the types of medical errors that occur in healthcare settings.
One cited study lists causes of errors as follows:
Tags: equipment malfunction, errors, lab results, medical mistakes, medication, misdiagnosis, procedure
Mail-Order Meds — Savings and Service
6 Comments
For some people, accessing the pharmacy remains one of the biggest barriers to retrieving prescriptions.
A lack of social support, time constraints and limited access to convenient transportation are commonly cited as reasons users cannot get their medication, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But it’s not just patients who have difficulty getting to the pharmacy who benefit from mail-order pharmacies: These programs offer flexibility, time and cost-savings to all enrolled.
About the author
Epilepsy Talk 