My mom (aged 53) has had a history of seizures/epilepsy. She had one in her youth, one in Nov. 1995 and one in Dec. 2001. The 95 and 01 ones were grand mal and she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She had her first chemotherapy session one week ago Monday with Doxorubicin and fluorouracil. She had taken two 200 mg pills of Tegretol (since 2001, one at day and one at night), but she had the seizure yesterday morning (she was still coherent) and the neurologist told them to do 200 mg at day and 400 mg at night. She arrived at the hospital at 11-ish and came home around 4-ish. She was functional and coherent until 9.

She was very forgetful last night around 9:45 after she took the Tegretol at 9:30 (i.e. we asked her to count down from 100 but she kept on going 3...4...5, she thought the president was Clinton). She was coherent before she took the Tegretol. We talked to the neurologist in person today and he lowered her dose to 200 at day and 100 at night...since this morning she has been functional (motor skills are fine, can read and converse), but her short term memory (after ten minutes but no longer than 6 hours) is in decline. What could be causing this? (the Tegretol, chemo, seizure or other?)

She'll be going for an EEG and MRI next week, had bloodwork done at the hospital yesterday morning and the neurologist placed no restrictions for now.

The seizure could be causing it. I would give it a few days. I know my husband's memory was really bad after his grandmal seizure in March. He tried to pretend things were ok but his short term was so bad he was constantly asking things. For instance, a friend called him while I was out. He told me that he had called. The next night the guy called again and mentioned talking to him the night before. He questioned me about it but remembered after I reminded him. A lot of things were like that. Now, he SAYS he remembered when I reminded him but he was in a denial stage about. I would simply give a few more days and see if things get better. I would stress to your mom to make sure she's honest with you about if she remembers something or not (the good testing was asking the President, date.. etc) and then discuss it with the doctor.

The questions/tests I used last night:

- Count back from 100 (at first she went 3..4..5, but at 11:30 last night she did it correctly)
- Birthdays (she got it wrong at first, but knew later)
- Date (she guessed June 20-something 2004 - which was close enough)
- workplace (knew hers, but not my dads)
- number of breasts (she had a mastectomy, at 9:50 PM she said two, at 11 PM, one and she knew why)
- president (at 9:30 Clinton, at 11:00 she said Bush)
- school (thought me and my brother were in middle school --- we're currently in college)
- persons and pets' name (knew her parents, immediate family, didn't know one of the pet's name)
I also asked her to write down numbers after us showing or telling her. (she succeeded half the time, other times she was asked to write down 613 --- she wrote down 722)

She knew this stuff from the time from after the first potential episode in the morning until the double amount of Tegretol was taken at 9:30 PM.

She's seeming to get better with each hour so I'll wait until tomorrow or Thursday.

You might be overwhelming her a bit with ALL the questions. The seizure itself could of caused the short memory loss. I would stick with things like, the date, day of the week, your name and maybe the president. You've already talked to the doctor so again I would give it a few days and see where she's at and how she's feeling. My husband would get upset because I would quiz him. I learned I was asking too many questions at one time so I broke it down to just a few that I would ask every few hours. After about 3-4 days he did much better.

I asked her half of the questions up there at 9:50-10PM, three-quarters of them at 11-11:30 and the writing the numbers and reading today around 3PM.

She also threw up around 10PM...

Hi & Welcome!

Grand Mals/Petit Mals seizures affect people differently. Your mom has a lot going on with her body right now and she is probably very sensitive to things.

Grand Mals/Petit Mals have been known to wipe people out for a few hours and up to days after. Our daughter had one in the hospital that lasted 3 minutes and she was "out to lunch" for 4-5 hours after. Everyone is different. When we tracked our daughter, with questions after her seizures, you should ask a couple of "short term" type and "long term" type. i.e. "What did you have for lunch?" "What is the date today?" / "What is your phone number?" "When is your birthday?" Knowing the President would fall under "long term". And as mentioned, don't over do it, they tire quickly, and become more confused.

Hopefully she is doing much better today, and I would guess the seizures and Tegretol are creating the memory loss.

All my best to your mom as she works through her cancer and seizure issues...she has a lot on her plate right now :angel:

Vicki