The Neurologist is In

Today I went to the Brain Health Fair at the convention centre, put on by the American Academy of Neurology, which is having a conference here this week.

It was cool, largely geared toward kids but still interesting for adults. I got to hold an actual human brain in my hand (!) and the guy showed me the temporal lobe.

They also had booths where you could speak to a neurologist so I went to the epilepsy booth and talked to a neuro there. I told him I'm in the process of being diagnosed. He asked me to describe my episodes so I tried, and told him about the testing and meds I've been having. He said that it definitely sounds like temporal lobe seizures. A few things I gleaned from the conversation:

• Seizure meds often deplete folic acid stores, so it's a good idea for me to take a folic acid supplement, especially since I'm in child-bearing years (he asked if I plan to get pregnant; I said no, but he recommended the folic acid anyway, "just in case").
• It's not weird that my symptoms started so late in life; they can start at any time with no prior symptoms (I kind of knew this but wanted to double check)
• It's definitely possible that it has been caused by early childhood brain trauma. When I was a toddler I fell out of my high chair and hit my head, lost consciousness, and stopped breathing briefly. I asked if this could be the ultimate cause, and he said it definitely could be. 
• Even though my MRI did not show brain damage (per previous point), he said that many MRIs are not powerful enough to show things like what I may have had, and if I had a more powerful MRI it might show. However, he said it wouldn't change treatment so it would just be for curiosity if I were to have another MRI.
• He was happy to hear that the Keppra seems to be working already, and said that my dosage is quite low and there is room to up it a bit. He said that as long as my seizures are responding to meds, then surgery won't be an issue, but sometimes they do surgery when people aren't responding to meds.
• He said it sounds like I'm "in good hands" and on the right track. 

Even though I trust my neurologist, it was great to get some validation of what we already thought, from a third party.

I've now been on the Keppra for a little over a month, and it does seem to be helping. Not 100% yet. I did have a small cluster of strong ones last week, but this cluster was only 3 episodes over 2 days, which is an improvement over past ones. Also, I've had virtually no other activity since starting this med. Before, I was having mild activity daily plus the strong clusters. Now the daily mild activity is almost completely gone. So if that continues between now and June (when I see the neuro again), it looks like I am on the right med. Even though I did have the cluster last week, that may mean that the med needs more time or I may need a slightly higher dosage. It's looking promising though!