Most of the time, a regular EEG which is about 45 minutes and is done during the day, doesn't find much for Me. A Video EEG which I'm in the hospital for about 3 to 4 days, They find everything with My Epilepsy...💜

And to add to what Randy pointed out, the 48 hour Ambulatory EEG is one where they hook your up with all of the monitor wiring and a vest (or at least that is what they did back in 1997) that holds the recorder to recorder the changes to your EEG readings during the 48 hour period) and sent home for 48 hours to hopefully get a better chance of you having a seizure in your life away from an office EEG room. From what I have been told by my friends on here who have done the longer EEG testing (at an Epilepsy Center), they will start with simply hooking you up like they do for any EEG testing, but it is only if this doesn't result in you having a seizure that they begin easing you off one anticonvulsant after another until they can trigger a seizure.

I have one friend on here that not only did they not succeed in triggering a seizure during her time there, but she finished off all medications and has remained seizure free for years now ever since. No idea for how many other friends here that this has been the case and for how many members that they simply could not have a seizure during their stay in the center but returned to having them after leaving the center.

I intend to do everything (in addition to the extra stress from being there) to assist (including reading a book that I know just reading the introductory chapter of it managed to trigger auras and simple partial seizures, thus I am hopeful that continuing on reading it will trigger complex partial and full seizures and nocturnal seizures -- if that is what I am having on those nights before awakening with the level of body pain that feels like I was beaten up in my sleep) in triggering as many different types of seizures as possible.

A 48hr EEG has the same procedure as a 4 - 12 hour EEG.. you don’t have to worry about medication reduction. You stay on you normally scheduled meds.

I've never had an office EEG show anything. It's just a snapshot in time, so if you don't have one right then, there is no data. I've done the 48hour one at home. Still just a snapshot, but with more time. It picked a nocturnal seizure I had. The ones in the hospital are longer and they wean you off your meds. Most people have a seizure after several days, but not everyone. I've never had the in-hospital EEG.

I think the 48 hour one is much more likely to catch something than the one in the office. I think they do the hospital one when they've tried the others and can't catch anything, even though you are still having seizures.

@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member The way to make the 48 hour ambulatory EEG more useful is if you know your triggers and do your best to bring on at least one seizure during the time that you have the portable EEG attached to you. One thing to do is to get as little sleep as possible and increase your stress levels as much as possible.

I was put on a portable EEG on the day of my first appointment with my first neurologist. I am a perfectionist when trying to do good things for others (being an empath as well), thus I borrowed the video of my best friend's wedding so that I could watch myself giving the toast (and what I didn't get in it because of the stress of speaking in front of a large room where 80% of the people were distant family of the bride -- thus I did not know them). It was tough enough having to do an oral report in junior high school, high school and college, but this was a larger crowd and thus increased stress.

And the extra stress from this (in addition to the natural stress from having an EEG attached to you for a couple of days at all times) produced the seizures. My current neurologist (soon to be my past neurologist) was the partner of my first neurologist, so when I first started with him, he told me that it was him that looked at the recording from my portable EEG and I had quite a few seizures during that 48 hour period.

When I am going into BWH Epilepsy Center for the extended 24 hour observation (the average I read is 5 days), I intend to be reading a few books that have caused me to have auras and simple partial seizures from just reading the introduction.

Mentioned Users

A MyEpile...