Saturday, July 1, 2017

Daily Life . . . Epilepsy



I've been dealing with the chronic illness, complex partial epilepsy for thirty years, and just when I think I've figured out how to manage it, another ugly snake rears it's ugly head. This time the ugly snake was Gluten. I've never really paid a ton of attention to what I eat outside of shellfish because I am allergic to it. I started eating gluten free cereal about a year or so ago because a friend who has celiac disease told me that eating less or eliminating gluten from my diet could help control my Rheumatoid Arthritis and give me some seizure control. Not thinking about it, I bought a different cereal at Costco on Thursday, and yesterday morning, I had a bowl. I felt a little weird but thought nothing of it. Later in the afternoon I had a small bowl because I was hungry and we weren't going to eat for another two-three hours so I thought it was a perfect snack. Our dinner was Stromboli which is loaded with gluten, and shortly after I ate it I had a seizure and then two more. Then just before I went to bed after taking my evening medication I had an aura that lasted at least ten minutes. This morning I ate the gluten free cereal and all's well. I see my epileptologist, Dr. Robert Wechsler in August and I am going to be asking him if by some small chance my diagnosis of epilepsy could be due to a sensitivity to gluten.

I read this article last night and I think the description fits . . .

https://www.glutenfreesociety.org/leaky-brain-seizures-epilepsy-gluten-sensitivity/

I think it's important to pay attention to your body no matter if you have a chronic illness or not, but it's especially important when you do have a chronic illness because you never know what could possibly trigger the illness to become hyper-sensitive.


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