Question:
i am 49, began havingsez.about 11 years ago,,which started differently than they are today... theystarted with strange tingling sensations....that i felt move from one part ofmy body to another (lower to upper)....then absence sez...not knowining whatwas being said and not being able to read and comprehend a written word...orspeak and make sense....than finally at least 2 grand mal sez that i knowof......?medication did not help.....i am still in denial and have resigned myself notto bother to take med except maby 30 or 60 mg of pheno at bedtime....MY QUESTION IS THIS......my tingling sensations are long gone, no more grandmals for at least 5 years.....BUT....i get these damned absence sezures thatlast from 10 minutes to 1 hour (lately getting longer)....the sezure isthis........the TOTAL inability to understand what is being said ,,,,the TOTALinability to speak and make any sense........i know that this is happening whenit happens and im not smart enough to go and hide somewhere....thesesenstations very gradualy subside... and gradually go away...ARE ANYONES SEZS.OUT THERE THE SAME ????

Answer: Based on the descriptions of your symptoms, and PRESUMING you have epilepsy, you DO NOT have absence seizures, On the contrary, a good case could be made that you have COMPLEX PARTIAL SEIZURES (CPS) which have, in turn, caused you to have a (i) somatosensory seizures and (ii) a species of AGNOSIA. Moreover, you seem to have Grand Mal Seizures as well.

MY DIAGNOSTIC HYPOTHESES:

(a) The "tingling sensations" are probably somatosensory seizures resulting from either (i) seizures originating in the parietal lobes, or (ii) seizures propagating from the initial focus to the parietal lobes.

(b) When you speak of your not knowing what was/is being said, this condition is called either "Auditory Aphasia" (i.e., The inability to understand spoken words – "Word Deafness") on the one hand, or Auditory Agnosia (i.e., the mental inability to interpret sounds) on the other.

(c) When you speak of not beaing able to read and comprehend the written word, this is called Visual Aphasia (i.e., the inability to understand the written word).

(d) When you speak of the TOTAL inability to speak and make any sense, this condition COULD BE (i) Anomic/Nominal Aphasia (i.e., the inability to name objects; loss of memory for words), or (ii) Motor Aphasia (i.e., aphasia in which patients know what they wantto say but cannot say it), or (iii) some combination of both. However, in this particular case, I am not so sure that the possibilities (i), (ii), and (iii) are the correct ones – but they are the ones that most readily come to my mind. For better diagnostic options on this one, you really do need the counsel of an Epileptologist.