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From: tak@ceres.physics.uiowa.edu (Tak Sakurai)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Epilepsy
Message-ID: <16437@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 90 05:09:09 GMT
References: <16375@bunker.UUCP>
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Reply-To: tak@ceres.physics.uiowa.edu (Tak Sakurai)
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Organization: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa
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Index Number: 12511

In article <16375@bunker.UUCP>, Donna.Siren@p19.f5.n396.z1.fidonet.org 
(Donna Siren) writes:

>           I wish I could reduce the medication that I'm taking now,
> because I think that it's what's causing my memory loss.  For
> example, I never used to have to write down phone numbers, but
> unless it's a number I dial all the time, there's no way I'll
> remember it.  I can read a good book, but a month later, if you ask
> me about it, I can't tell you very much about it, except that I
> enjoyed it.  

This is exactly what's happening to me.  Even though I haven't had
a seizure for more than two years, I am still on medication.  Every
time I go back for a check up, the doctor tells me about the possibility
of reducing my medication, but he hadn't done so.  And recently I have
noticed my memory loss just like Donna.   I am not certain if I can
blame it on my medication, or I am not as sharp as used to be.
As a Ph.D. student, it is very frustrating and sometimes embarrassing
not being able to recall something, especially in a discussion with
professors.

> The strange thing is that I can remember phone numbers
> ETC. that I knew years ago and haven't thought about since I was a
> kid, but give me a phone number or address ETC. and if I don't
> write it down, I'll forget it by the next day.  I'm pretty sure
> that it's the medicine.

I have the same problem.  Are you sure the medicine is responsible?
Could anyone give us more information on anti-seizure medicine and
its effect on memory?

Tak Sakurai
tak@ceres.physics.uiowa.edu