For various medical reasons, I do carry to orders with me at all times and I have the legally required bracelet. I have a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order and a Medical Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST). You can read more about all of that.
As I mention in that article, I do have a seizure disorder. However, until today, I had gone over a year without a seizure. I had a pretty bad seizure at work this morning, hitting my head on the floor in the locker room. But why? What changed? Nothing, except for the fact that, a couple of months ago, I resumed smoking cigarettes.
Now, this could have just been a coincidence, but when I got to the emergency room via ambulance, I learned the truth: when people with seizure disorders smoke, their risk of seizures jumps sky high. That’s why the ER doctor and the neurologist were not pleased with me. One of them asked that if I know I have a severe seizure disorder, why would I smoke?
I had no answer for them. All I know is that I need my cigarettes, usually eight or nine per day. Well, now it looks as if I have to stop altogether unless I want more seizures, which I don’t.
Never in a million years would I think that smoking and seizures are related. But I guess I have a choice to make. Do I continue to smoke cigarettes or do I sacrifice that in the name of returning to a state of not having seizures? I will have to mull that over tonight.
The reason why I have had no seizures in over a year is because I have been given an awesome medication. Levetiracetam, maybe better known as Keppra. I have been taking it as prescribed, but what ended up happening was that my neurologist was told that I don’t smoke, which was true at the time. He prescribed my dosage accordingly.
The effects of the tobacco slowly overtook my dosages and today the dam broke. They are increasing my dosage effective immediately, and I have been ordered to throw my cigarettes out immediately, never to smoke again. If I continue to smoke, I was told, my seizures will get worse and I could die.
So…cigarettes or living without seizures? Time will tell.