I'm writing a story where a character has epilepsy, and while I've done a fair amount of reading on it, there are a few things that I'm unsure on.
Here the scenario: Character is an adult man in his early 30's. He was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy as a child, and was on medication for it throughout his teens. As an adult, he stopped taking his medication without a doctor's supervision.
After being seizure-free for several years, he begins having seizures again. At one point, he has a tonic-clonic seizure, during which he falls and hits his head. The paramedics are called, and by the time they arrive he's awake and somewhat responsive, but still a bit dazed from the seizure. They take him to the hospital, partially because he needs stitches for a head wound sustained in the fall.
Under circumstances like these, would the ER doctor likely order an MRI for him or prescribe medication to try to prevent future seizures? Or, since he has a known history of epilepsy, would the doctor just send him on his way with the recommendation of seeing a specialist ASAP? I know that in general, seizures aren't seen as medical emergencies if they're explainable. But I wasn't sure if, because the character has been without medical treatment for a while, the ER doctor would want to give him a more thorough exam. Also, he's not currently on any medication to manage his condition.
Two, I've gotten the impression from my reading that it is plausible that someone who's been seizure-free for a while could start experiencing seizures again. Especially if they didn't grow out of their epilepsy as a young child, but continued to suffer from it as they grew up. But I would appreciate opinions on that. I do want this part of the story to seem plausible.
Thanks for the help!
Here the scenario: Character is an adult man in his early 30's. He was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy as a child, and was on medication for it throughout his teens. As an adult, he stopped taking his medication without a doctor's supervision.
After being seizure-free for several years, he begins having seizures again. At one point, he has a tonic-clonic seizure, during which he falls and hits his head. The paramedics are called, and by the time they arrive he's awake and somewhat responsive, but still a bit dazed from the seizure. They take him to the hospital, partially because he needs stitches for a head wound sustained in the fall.
Under circumstances like these, would the ER doctor likely order an MRI for him or prescribe medication to try to prevent future seizures? Or, since he has a known history of epilepsy, would the doctor just send him on his way with the recommendation of seeing a specialist ASAP? I know that in general, seizures aren't seen as medical emergencies if they're explainable. But I wasn't sure if, because the character has been without medical treatment for a while, the ER doctor would want to give him a more thorough exam. Also, he's not currently on any medication to manage his condition.
Two, I've gotten the impression from my reading that it is plausible that someone who's been seizure-free for a while could start experiencing seizures again. Especially if they didn't grow out of their epilepsy as a young child, but continued to suffer from it as they grew up. But I would appreciate opinions on that. I do want this part of the story to seem plausible.
Thanks for the help!
