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Megan’s Story: Have you heard of vertiginous epilepsy?

image-1024x768This personal story was submitted by Megan who is living with vertiginous epilepsy. I hope you enjoy getting to know Megan’s story and benefit from her experience as much as I have. 

Megan’s Story

I have a very rare type of epilepsy known as vertiginous epilepsy, or commonly known as epileptic vertigo. My case is especially rare due to the fact that its nocturnal, I only get it if I’m asleep.

I have memory of when I do have one, and I can recall what I saw and felt during them. I guess you can say it’s a rare case of simple partial seizures. Epileptic vertigo is the vertigo spell you get usually before a tonic clonic seizure and it continues throughout the duration of the seizure.

The room was spinning

I was diagnosed early 2015 after I woke up out of a dead sleep in a simple partial seizure. It began around 12 am and all I could see was my room spinning vertically and it felt like I was spinning with it. It lasted for 2 hours, finally stopping at 2 am. Once it stopped I tried to get someone’s attention and told them what happened and how long it lasted, I was rushed to the ER as I just entered the stage of fatigue, being dazed, confused, and just overall uncomfortable. The doctor examined me and told me what I just experienced was a spell of epileptic vertigo. She told me it’s very similar to a simple partial seizure and can have the same aftermath of side affects that a normal seizure can have.

Not alone

If you are like me, first of all.. Hi! Second of all.. It’s not the end of the world.. You’ll be ok. Push through and fight.

More on Vertiginous Epilepsy

Below is an abstract from a peer reviewed journal article on vestibular epilepsy that was published in Neurology in December 2000.

Epileptic vertigo: evidence for vestibular representation in human frontal cortex.

Neurology. 2000 Dec 26;55(12):1906-8.

Abstract

The authors report a 5-year-old boy with episodes of epileptic rotational clockwise vertigo without nystagmus. Video-EEG monitoring showed a left frontocentral onset of epileptic discharges accompanied by complaints of vertigo. MRI showed a small low-grade astrocytoma in the left frontal middle gyrus. After lesionectomy, vertiginous seizures ceased. The patient’s vertigo seems to be induced by epileptic discharges in a vestibular representation area within the frontal cortex.

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