I had gamma knife for a brain AVM on March 31st, my story can be found on here as well.
I remember someone mentioning brain swelling coming onto the 6month mark, however, coming up on my 6 months on august 23 I began having bad flank pain, I left school and the ER diagnosed me with a UTI and possible AVM on my kidney.
Leaving the hospital my friends say I began to talk about people behind us and began to become very agitated
Upon that I began to have a seizure . I have never had a seizure in my 22 years of living up until that moment . I was hospitalized for 2 days and hardly remember anything after getting into the car right before I seized
I now take keppra 500mg 2 each twice a day and I had a few questions:
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a seizure. I hope you get on well with the medication (I understand it is often quite challenging).
With regard to driving, you’ll need to check your local law. It is fair to say that in the UK, you have to stop driving and declare a seizure and the experience I’ve had reported by those in the UK is often difficult to get one’s licence returned. However, I know that things will be different state-by-state in the US.
Really sorry to hear about you seizure. I had gamma knife back in 2016 now, and around 6 months or so had some swelling, causing some headaches but not to the point where I was on steroids for the swelling. I am fortunate and did not have a seizure at any point, including when I had the bleed.
So, in Canada all drivers licensing falls under provincial law and while similar there are some variations from province to province. This is the same for each state, so I did a quick google and there are a few sites that can likely help. For me, when I had a bleed the Dr. asked if I lost consciousness or had a seizure, which was no to each. Although I have no recollection of the conversation, yes to either one and an immediate DL removal.
I have a different class of license that allows me to operate an emergency vehicle. Gamma knife treatment is one of a few items that triggered the need for a re-test, which I did. I did maintain my license the whole time.
One thing is the law other thing is safety. 1000 mg of Keppra is the lowest dosage proven to protect according to my neurologist. Briviact is supposed to protect more and has less side effects. Some doctors like Keppra some like Briviact some other drugs. Some neurologist say they don’t need EEG others do 1 hours EEG others do 72 hours EEG every 4-6 months. For me, whatever insurance pays, I’ll do that, the more data the better m, especially after surgery
Hi Jay, About the driving, ask your neurologist how long you need to be seizure free to drive. And there’s other factors like the kind of seizure and if it’s always day or night. Best wishes, Greg