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| How can you be sure you've had a seizure? First, you need to see a neurologist. You may be given blood tests, an electroencephalogram (EEG), and a CAT or MRI scan. Other tests may be used when it's difficult to reach a diagnosis. |
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| Learning about your seizures |
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| Your doctor needs to know about your past episodes to help determine your future. That's why you may need to answer the following questions for your doctor to diagnose your epilepsy. |
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Did you have any warning of the seizure? |
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Were you very tired, hungry, thirsty, hot, or emotional before the seizure? |
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Did you feel sick, dizzy, faint, or out of breath before the seizure? |
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What happened before, during, and after the seizure? How long did it last? |
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What is your first memory after the seizure? |
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Were your muscles weak for the first few minutes after the seizure?
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| Diagnosing generalized tonic-clonic seizures is usually easy. Other types of seizures may be harder to identify—mostly in children. For example, absence seizures in kids may be thought of as daydreaming or the inability to focus. And people may think the weird behavior that often comes with partial seizures is just silliness. |
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| Learning about your health |
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| It's important for your doctor to review your medical history. Questions your doctor may ask you are: |
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Did you have any problems at birth? |
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Have you ever had any head injuries? |
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Did you ever have seizures with a high fever when you were a child? |
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Does anyone else in your family have seizures? |
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| For the record... |
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| It's a good idea to keep a health record of your medical history and a list of any epilepsy medicines you're taking. And you can start now. Just download, print, and fill out this Health Record, so you can keep all of your information in one place. Be sure that your doctor has an updated copy. |
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| Click here to download the Health Record (996 KB) |
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| It's easy... |
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PC Download:
Right-click on the link above and choose "Save Target As" to save the document to your computer.
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Macintosh® Download:
Download: Click and hold, and a drop-down menu will appear. Then choose "Download link to disk."
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