Seizures

[tkpwa_er]

I've been diagnosed as having a brain tumor that compresses brain tissue, in my case, the left temporal lobe.

About 2 years ago, I had 2 days of what I thought were seizures; the first day's "activities" lasted about 6 hours. The 2nd day's "activities" lasted more than 8 hours.

The first day's problems followed some heavy work in my house, heat, dehydration, and not enough sleep.

The 2nd day's problems followed heat and dehydration.

The 1st day, my mother thought I had been doing too much for too long and told me to sit for a while. After sitting for a few minutes, my right fingers started to move involuntarily, followed by my right hand which shook from left to right and then converted to up and down at the wrist. Then, the right leg moved up and down. Then the left hand/wrist/arm kicked in. Finally, the head also kicked in.
These events would alternate, although primarily on the right side, and although there were small periods of a minute to 10 minutes without events, it basically was non-stop for about 6 hours.

Through most of it, I'd get a funny feeling when it was about to begin, and/or, I'd get a funny "clicking" feeling at the tip of my tongue.

The 2nd day, I went to a friend's house and sat outside in the sun. It began again as it had the prior day.

I had myself taken to a hospital. The nurses felt it was tonic/focal seizures (even various parts of my face twitched either individually, or in turn, or all together); the doctors felt I was "doing it to myself" and that it was not neurological or seizures A CT scan confirmed what I had told them about my cranial tumor, at which point I was admitted. On the 2nd day, an EEG was done. It showed activity consistent with compression of the left temporal lobe and the neurologist diagnosed epilepsy The internist put me on Keppra. However, there is no record of the actual EEG as the hospital's EEG machines don't keep copies in any form.

One of the reasons the doctors were skeptical at first was because when my arm or stomach was stroked lightly, the events slowed very quickly and stopped.

I have found out a few days ago that another probable reason for their thinking was that seizures of the left temporal lobe tend to be one-sided and not bilateral.

Keppra did work in stopping the events.

I've not been able to afford the medication and from time to time, it begins again, although not as badly as the first time. Over the last week, it returned in all it's forms, but for short periods.

Most of the most recent events have happened in bed, either while trying to go to sleep, or on awakening. Some happen while sitting or standing.

I also had a spinal cord tumor taken out about 6 years ago and have what appears to be spasticity. One example of this is when seated, my right leg would rise suddenly and quickly, be hard to push back down, and would slowly go back to normal. This changed after a long time to both legs moving left to right and often squeezing hard against each other.

Well, most recently, when I'm lying down, on my back, the right leg goes at a 45 degree angle (bent) towards my face (same motion as the original seated event). And this happens while the other events are taking place.

So, is this seizure activity? Or is it some neurological/brain disorder? Or is it something else?