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Is it possible to have seizures while remaining conscious? PLS HELP!!!
Sun, 11/21/2004 - 19:19I've had these "seizure-like" episodes for 5 months now. The first one I had started while I was sitting at my desk at work and I had an aura for about an hour where I got this zig-zag line in front of my eyes and I couldn't really see straight. I also couldn't think straight or speak straight. And when I tried to read something, I couldn't even sound out a simple word. Then when my sight started to return, my legs and body got very rigid and I could barely move, so much so that I could barely stand up or reach my arm out to get the phone. My body started tremoring for about 15 minutes. I was rushed to the hospital, but remained conscious through the whole thing. The paramedics and everyone else around me never said seizure. They all thought maybe it was hypoglycemia, or something like that. Well, 5 months later (and many neurological tests later), I'm still having episodes. (I've had about 24) They aren't always the same. But for the most part, now, I will be sitting and all of the sudden I won't be able to hold my head up anymore (or I'll get a feeling in the pit of my stomach), and then my hands will get all fidgety. This will escalate, until my foot kicks out, or my hand and eventually it's my whole upper and lower torso and head tremoring from anywhere from 5-30 minutes. It will be hard to speak and my breathing might get labored. I'm unable to move my own body at that point, so wherever I am having the episode is where I will be until the episode over, unless someone physically moves me. Sometimes it slows down and stops. Sometimes it stops abruptly. I am always totally exhausted afterward and have lots of trouble with my legs afterward, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for days. They get very weak and heavy feeling and sometimes will give out when I walk.
They seem to come in clusters, like I will have 4-7 episodes within a 2-3 week period and then I won't have any for 7-10 days. During the 7-10 days, I will feel good. During the 2-3 week period, I will feel very lethargic and weak most of the time.
I've had an MRI, MRA, MRV, EEG, 24 hr. EEG, CT scan of the brain, EMG, ECG, EKG, blood work... plus probably some more that I'm forgetting about that have all come back normal. One doctor even suggested pseudoseizures during an 8 day hospital stay, after he witnessed one of my episodes. This was because I responded to him (remained conscious) during my "seizure" and he thought I was making it up, I guess. I have two young children at home who have witnessed these episodes--I would not do that to them! I was screened by a psychologist who does not believe they are pseudoseizures.
So my question is, could they still be seizures, even though I am conscious? Or have any of you have similar episodes while remaining conscious and figured out what these episodes are? I'm sick of the "pseudoseizure" label I've been getting. I know something is physically wrong with me and I am trying to get to the bottom of it, but need some help from someone besides my doctors. Thanks.
Theresa
Comments
I am so happy to hear that
Submitted by SunflowerPower on Sun, 2007-10-07 - 19:32
Re: Is is possible to remain conscious thread
Submitted by Buffy on Sat, 2008-02-23 - 14:21
It is reassuring to see some answers here that echo my own experiences. I have dodged the pseudoseizure/psychogenic seizure question for more than 11 years. It wears one down. When first I started having "events" thye were of unknown origin and without a name. Differential diagnosis included: Complicated migraines, seizures, MS, Lupus, and of course everyone's favorite, hysteria.
It was really frustrating to go through that process. The first time I had an event of unkown origin, I was hospitalized and the diagnosis of exclusion was complicated migraines. I was glad to have a name for it, but still was distressed to have had doctors question my mental health. (And yes, I know that it doesn't mean a person is crazy, per se, if he/she has this type of conversion disorder but it sure feels like your mental/emotional stability is in question.)
For the next eight years I struggled with complicated migraines. Mostly, it seemed like I'd have really bad migraines more than once a month, with a few episodes of more complicated migraines. I tried to take whatever medication was prescribed, eat correctly, sleep regularly and so on. But over time, the headaches got worse, not better. More frequent, insistant and debilitating. Finally, I ended up hospitalized 4 times in two years with severe headahces accompanied with shaking. Throughout all this time, I'd had the random EEGs, CAT Scans, MRIs, and so on, also I'd had numerous neuropsych and psychological evaluations. The result over and over again was that I did not have a profile consistant with a person who develops psychogenic phenomenon. Didn't stop it from being a question raised though.
I was given one random EEG back in Feb. '06 which showed an abnormal finding. I wasn't hopeful at that point that anything would come of it. I'd had others over the years that were later classified as "infarct," meaning useless information obscuring the picture. But the neurologist I was seeing by then sent me for a 24hour EEG, then a 3 day video monitoring EEG. The result was a diagnosis of nocturnal seizures, and "definitive right sided electrical discharge" which I believe she labeled as complex partial seizures.
You would imagine that this would make life better, and to some extent that is true, as I have finally been given two medications, first Keppra then also Lamictal. Yet still I've had breatkhrough seizures, and the diagnosis of pseudoseizure follows me. I have to the best I can tell several versions of seizure. I have had a diagnosis of ADHD since age 3, and I have long had a habit of "staring off into space" When I was a kid. I was literally paying more attention to my own thoughts then to what is going on around me. In recent years, it was brought to my attention that sometimes I just seem to "go away somewhere." This would be different from my deliberate looking out of the window and choosing to engage my thoughts outside of the childhood classroom. It's usually brought to my attention by someone asking me "Hello? Are you listening? Where did you go justnow?" and that's the first I know I'm doing it. I have begun to suspect this may actually be an abscence seizure, and it often shows itself preceeding more obvious "seizure like" events.
The nocturnal seizures were found via EEG while I thought I was sleeping. I would have no earthly idea otherwise that I have them. I noticed that I woke up stiff in the morning, creaky like an old lady in my bones. I noticed that I was fuzzy headed when I woke up and that I felt like I hadn't really gotten "any good sleep" I had no idea this was all related to seizing in my sleep. How on earth could I? I just thought I was a bad sleeper. I've always had some insomnia, and tossed and turned while sleeping. I plied myself with coffee during the day and talked about getting a better mattress. Those chronic headaches and fatigue issues I had during the days, turned out to be "post-ictal" or at least that's the current theory as they went away with time.
I do still carry a diagnosis of complex migraines, but some of the things that went with that, like the type of aura, the transient boughts of left-sided heaviness, seem to be related in part to the seizure diagnosis.
As to the other type of seizure, here is where it get's difficult. I have a kind of seizure, where I have not fallen down, but felt the need to sit down, lie down, or similar. I often wander around before hand, feeling tired, draggy, and inexplicably less connected or capable of speech. I get word searching or difficulty with saying the words I mean in the hours preceeding this issue. When the event hits, I flail my arms rythmically and shake my head, followed by a stiffening of my muscles, then a sense of fatigue. I am able to hear what's going on around me, but I can't really speak back and sometimes it takes me a few minutes afterward before I can get out words fully. Early attempts will produce sounds like "tuh-tuh-tuh." I used to think I was fully aware of the entire experience, and missed nothing, only to be told later about things I didn't remember, take in or perhaps understand at the time. (Who knows which.) I have often experienced left-sided heaviness, fatigue, and sometimes a curling of my fingers into my hand, with hand to arm, and arm towards chest. This does all go away, after some period of time.
Problem is, it can happen that way several in a row, or recurring more than once or twice a quarter. So it really messes up my quality of life. I have also struggled with athe ongoing fight between autonomy and compliance. i want to go out and have a cocktail once in a while. (Like once a month maybe?) I want to do more than go to work and come home during the week, without becoming run down. And to see my friends on Saturday nights. I'm not looking to party, but I want to be able to stay up late sometimes. I think my wishes are modest, and yet I have found that failure to keep enough sleep, nutrition, and stress in balance, gets me sick every single time.
When first I only had a diagnosis of migraines, I had doctors that gave me heavy duty pain meds. I took them because I couldn't make the migraines go away, but I had to go to work, and keep food on the table. So I did what I could and dulled the pain, threw up when I needed to and kept going. It was many years later that I learned that my use of narcotics was setting me up for "rebound headaches" and could "lower the seizure threshold." So in addition to the question of "psychogenic seizures" I also get to fight the prejudice of whether I was abusing drugs. I contend it wasn't so, as I never took drugs to get high, or escape. I took them, as prescribed by a physician, to treat intractable pain. But that argument goes nowhere.
Recently I ended up in the ER, with a continued set of seizure like events happening for more than 30 minutes that night. I got my records, so I can follow up and found those same old words, pseudoseizure in them. I am so terribly disappointed, again. I thought things would be different now that there was documented proof of seizures on EEGs. Where do I go now?
It is reassuring to see some answers here that echo my own experiences. I have dodged the pseudoseizure/psychogenic seizure question for more than 11 years. It wears one down. When first I started having "events" thye were of unknown origin and without a name. Differential diagnosis included: Complicated migraines, seizures, MS, Lupus, and of course everyone's favorite, hysteria.
It was really frustrating to go through that process. The first time I had an event of unkown origin, I was hospitalized and the diagnosis of exclusion was complicated migraines. I was glad to have a name for it, but still was distressed to have had doctors question my mental health. (And yes, I know that it doesn't mean a person is crazy, per se, if he/she has this type of conversion disorder but it sure feels like your mental/emotional stability is in question.)
For the next eight years I struggled with complicated migraines. Mostly, it seemed like I'd have really bad migraines more than once a month, with a few episodes of more complicated migraines. I tried to take whatever medication was prescribed, eat correctly, sleep regularly and so on. But over time, the headaches got worse, not better. More frequent, insistant and debilitating. Finally, I ended up hospitalized 4 times in two years with severe headahces accompanied with shaking. Throughout all this time, I'd had the random EEGs, CAT Scans, MRIs, and so on, also I'd had numerous neuropsych and psychological evaluations. The result over and over again was that I did not have a profile consistant with a person who develops psychogenic phenomenon. Didn't stop it from being a question raised though.
I was given one random EEG back in Feb. '06 which showed an abnormal finding. I wasn't hopeful at that point that anything would come of it. I'd had others over the years that were later classified as "infarct," meaning useless information obscuring the picture. But the neurologist I was seeing by then sent me for a 24hour EEG, then a 3 day video monitoring EEG. The result was a diagnosis of nocturnal seizures, and "definitive right sided electrical discharge" which I believe she labeled as complex partial seizures.
You would imagine that this would make life better, and to some extent that is true, as I have finally been given two medications, first Keppra then also Lamictal. Yet still I've had breatkhrough seizures, and the diagnosis of pseudoseizure follows me. I have to the best I can tell several versions of seizure. I have had a diagnosis of ADHD since age 3, and I have long had a habit of "staring off into space" When I was a kid. I was literally paying more attention to my own thoughts then to what is going on around me. In recent years, it was brought to my attention that sometimes I just seem to "go away somewhere." This would be different from my deliberate looking out of the window and choosing to engage my thoughts outside of the childhood classroom. It's usually brought to my attention by someone asking me "Hello? Are you listening? Where did you go justnow?" and that's the first I know I'm doing it. I have begun to suspect this may actually be an abscence seizure, and it often shows itself preceeding more obvious "seizure like" events.
The nocturnal seizures were found via EEG while I thought I was sleeping. I would have no earthly idea otherwise that I have them. I noticed that I woke up stiff in the morning, creaky like an old lady in my bones. I noticed that I was fuzzy headed when I woke up and that I felt like I hadn't really gotten "any good sleep" I had no idea this was all related to seizing in my sleep. How on earth could I? I just thought I was a bad sleeper. I've always had some insomnia, and tossed and turned while sleeping. I plied myself with coffee during the day and talked about getting a better mattress. Those chronic headaches and fatigue issues I had during the days, turned out to be "post-ictal" or at least that's the current theory as they went away with time.
I do still carry a diagnosis of complex migraines, but some of the things that went with that, like the type of aura, the transient boughts of left-sided heaviness, seem to be related in part to the seizure diagnosis.
As to the other type of seizure, here is where it get's difficult. I have a kind of seizure, where I have not fallen down, but felt the need to sit down, lie down, or similar. I often wander around before hand, feeling tired, draggy, and inexplicably less connected or capable of speech. I get word searching or difficulty with saying the words I mean in the hours preceeding this issue. When the event hits, I flail my arms rythmically and shake my head, followed by a stiffening of my muscles, then a sense of fatigue. I am able to hear what's going on around me, but I can't really speak back and sometimes it takes me a few minutes afterward before I can get out words fully. Early attempts will produce sounds like "tuh-tuh-tuh." I used to think I was fully aware of the entire experience, and missed nothing, only to be told later about things I didn't remember, take in or perhaps understand at the time. (Who knows which.) I have often experienced left-sided heaviness, fatigue, and sometimes a curling of my fingers into my hand, with hand to arm, and arm towards chest. This does all go away, after some period of time.
Problem is, it can happen that way several in a row, or recurring more than once or twice a quarter. So it really messes up my quality of life. I have also struggled with athe ongoing fight between autonomy and compliance. i want to go out and have a cocktail once in a while. (Like once a month maybe?) I want to do more than go to work and come home during the week, without becoming run down. And to see my friends on Saturday nights. I'm not looking to party, but I want to be able to stay up late sometimes. I think my wishes are modest, and yet I have found that failure to keep enough sleep, nutrition, and stress in balance, gets me sick every single time.
When first I only had a diagnosis of migraines, I had doctors that gave me heavy duty pain meds. I took them because I couldn't make the migraines go away, but I had to go to work, and keep food on the table. So I did what I could and dulled the pain, threw up when I needed to and kept going. It was many years later that I learned that my use of narcotics was setting me up for "rebound headaches" and could "lower the seizure threshold." So in addition to the question of "psychogenic seizures" I also get to fight the prejudice of whether I was abusing drugs. I contend it wasn't so, as I never took drugs to get high, or escape. I took them, as prescribed by a physician, to treat intractable pain. But that argument goes nowhere.
Recently I ended up in the ER, with a continued set of seizure like events happening for more than 30 minutes that night. I got my records, so I can follow up and found those same old words, pseudoseizure in them. I am so terribly disappointed, again. I thought things would be different now that there was documented proof of seizures on EEGs. Where do I go now?
Seizures and dumb doctor's!
Submitted by Denaadcock on Sat, 2018-08-18 - 11:17
Hello Anna, My name is Dena, I am 42 years old I have also been having sezuires, for 2years, I went a norgologist, and they did some brain test and while doing this test I had a sezuires, the tech went and got the doctor, and he was asking her questions about how it started, and I answered him, I shocked him, cause I was with it and able to talk to him, and he stopped the test, and then he signed off on me and sent me to a pchoyo therapy doctor, and I still have no answers of why I have these sezuires, I am going to a different norgologist in October Maybe get some answers then!