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From: amandab
Wow... Well, I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 17. I had a "seizure" when I was 8 years old and then none until I was 17. At 17, I had a series of attacks. All of my attacks have always had a trigger such as falling down the stairs or bumping any nerve point. I was put on Tegretol back then and I was eventually taken off of it after having no other episodes. I'm 24 now and just a few days ago, I was having blood drawn at a doctor's office when I had another attack. I had gone in for a sore throat and not being able to find anything wrong on the outside, he decided to do some bloodwork. This led to my attack. First came nausea, then dizziness, extreme sweating. I laid down and the next thing I remember is seeing my husband standing next to the bed telling me I'd had a seizure. My doctor sent me straight to a neurologist (a different one from the one I had seen at 17). He is the one that talked to me about Vaso Vagal Syncope. The more I read about it, the more I realize that this is what has been happening to me all along. During the attack, I experience an odd type of dreaming sensation that seems to be in fast forward. I hear a shrill screaming noise or high pitched tone. I never can remember what the fast paced dreams are about but I do know that they jump from one situation to another that is completely unrelated and at a fast pace. It's almost like watching your VCR run in fast forward through many unrelated scenes. Witnesses to my attacks say that as soon as I become unconscious, I try to "get up" but that I keep falling down (like a turtle stuck on it's back), then after a few seconds of that, I fall down completely and begin to convulse and my eyes roll back in my head. I'm scheduled for another EEG (my third ever, the other two came back normal) and a tilt table test. I'm terrified about the tilt table. The last think I want to do is actually force an attack to occur. I don't want to do it. But I guess I have to to find out what's really wrong. I'm just glad to have maybe finally found a cause for my attacks.