I have been diagnosed with absence seizures. I forget the new name. I forget a lot. Anyway, it seems most people have 2 or 3 minutes of blankness. I have up to nearly 10 minutes. Anyone else go this long?
@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member Unfortunately, the memory issues are common in most of us who have Epilepsy -- even when it has been quite some time since having the last seizure. I am lucky that I live in the house of one of my sisters along with our parents and that I have in an in family (8 siblings ) support system in addition to all of the great friends that I have on here. And this is why it is very important to talk with members of the team to help reduce stress in addition to seeking answers to questions. Venting is huge for reducing stress.
@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member Do you live with someone who can watch out for your during an Absence seizure? The typical absence seizure is not a risk (other than injury from what you might fall on or hit while your subconscious is in control which also depends if your move about while in the absence seizure).
My neurologist is not worried about any seizure that I have (from a neurological perspective) as long as the Complex partial AND especially the full seizures as long as they are less than 5 minutes long). However, if you have experienced a longer one and not had any long-term effects from it (like memory that does not come back as opposed to gone for just days), then you are not a risk that needs you to go to the ER.
I have had the very long ones, but I have been lucky that someone else is present to look out for me during the time and I have had no long-term effects after them beyond a day or two. NOTE: All of my Complex partial and Full Seizures are absence seizures. And when I get the aura (simple partial seizures) barrages, it can have similar effects that can last a day to recover from.
However, the only risk from most seizures is seriously injuring yourself during the seizure OR having effects after the seizure that last more than a couple of days (my neurologist's words, not my own).
I have partial seizures as well. I have absences every two minutes . It doesn’t surprise me that you lose memory. I do either by the seizures or the medication. I can’t lose the epilepsy it doesn’t seem despite I take 5 different pills. I have never had aura and I can sometimes be almost blanked out for a whole day if I have a grand mal early in the day!
I have a combination of absence & focal onset partial seizures with impaired awareness. Each event starts with an obvious episode ,where I know something has happened.This may last a couple of minutes I then have confusion before heading back into other partial seizures I have clusters of back to back seizures for about 24 hours
I have had short term memory problems since getting a VNS implanted.