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Epilepsy and Assault (warning adult topics)

Fri, 01/05/2007 - 12:30
So I've had to build myself up to asking this question, but I feel like it's okay to do so now. Hopefully you all can offer me some advice and answers. In July, three months before my diagnoses, I was going through a very stressful time. I hadn't slept in several days, and I went over to a friends house to talk about what was going on in my life. He wasn't up yet, so I decided to sit and wait downstairs. Stupid mistake number one, I'm on anxiety medication, and it wasn't working, I wanted to stint the panic attack I was about to have, so I drank a little bit...which turned into a decent amount over the next hour or so. That being said, remember this, I had no idea at the time that I had epilepsy, so the idea of drinking wasn't a no no to me at the time. Said friend was also going through some issues, and his way of helping me was to go ahead and help himself. The next WEEK of my life is a blur. Things I do know for sure, are quickly followed by periods of totally memory loss. There are two days I cannot remember at all. At one point I was brought to the hospital in full tonic clonic siezures. The time that they lasted, and the back to back nature, was later seen as "status epilepticus." At the time however, I wasn't even told I was having seizures. The nurses said I was, but when the doctor came to see me several hours later he said no...even though he'd never seen me before, and he didn't even ask me what had happened. Two days later I returned to the hospital with severely high blood pressure, and low blood sugar. I hadn't been eating, and I was very sick to my stomach. I can't really even remember talking to the doctors and nurses, but I know that they kept me for the night, and gave me a bunch of xanax. The day they released me from the hospital isn't clear, but I do know I was assaulted that night. This adds in the new trauma factor of general shock and dissasociation. Sometime in that following day I drove to a clinic for EC, but I refused an exam, and didn't report the assault. At the time I wasn't even accepting that I had been assaulted. The scary thing is that I don't remember driving to the clinic, or driving back to my assailant's place to get my stuff. The next thing I remember is that night, coming to concoiusness with my assailaint on top of me yet again. I locked myself in a bathroom after that, and he left for two days. Within those two days my head completely cleared, and I was realizing what had happened, but I remained obviously confused. He'd taken my keys and my phone so I was essentially stuck until he returned when I took all of my stuff and fled. By the time I reported it to police the evidence wasn't enough to pursue a trial or anything like that. What DID happen was that I insisted my sleeping medication be changed. I was missing seven or so of my Ambien CR pills, and assailaint had asked prior to all of this what would happen if the pills were crushed and taken. (The result can lead to unconciousness, memory loss, etc. since it's technically an OD of controlled release). They changed me to seroquel, which can lower your seizure threshold, and within two months I was having enough myoclonic seizures to result in a neuro visit and an EEG. MY QUESTIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS: I haven't talked to the guy who assaulted me since all of this ended. He denies everything, of course, and even contacted my husband the day the restraining order was lifted to ask us what we were going to do now. This man has talked about wanting to drug his wife...so it's not a far stretch that he was somehow drugging me, but I don't know what he was giving me aside from (most likely) my ambien. He was on atavin, and some anti-depressant. He also had connections to other substances, since he later tested positive for cocaine and pot and was kicked from the service. Should I worry that something he gave me could cause more frequent seizures and try and find out what he gave me? Secondly, I'm not going to press more charges because there was no physical evidence to definitively prove that he was the one who assaulted me, although he admitted to having relations with me, but insisted they were consentual. Anyways, could my diagnoses have made a difference in my ability TO consent? I had been drinking, but not directly prior to both assaults, so I don't know. Still, I've heard of cases where the victim isn't compitent to consent because of various forms of mental state...I'm just wondering if repetive seizure activity could have been one of them. Thank you for your support on this in advance to all who respond.

Comments

Re: Re: Christina, Sorry for

Submitted by Christina41586 on Sun, 2007-01-14 - 00:19
Thank you to everyone who responded. I haven't been near my computer so I haven't been able to respond. Actually, I was back in the hospital, sick yet again, blah! To sum up a few key points: My assailaint was my husband's best friend, and a close friend of mine. So thinking that drinking over there wasn't a horrible miscalculation, we've all drank together before, just never alone. My intention wasn't to lose conciousness or even get drunk, I just wanted the anxiety meds to kick in. I did go to the police about ten days after the fact. They did a sexual assault kit, and while I had what the doctor said was evidence of some sort of trauma, ther wasn't anything specific, i.e. semen etc. The detective in charge of my case never returned my phone calls, spent more time talking to my assailant, and even after signing over my medical records, never contacted me again. I got some sort of message from the detective asking me to call him, and I did several times and left messages, but he never called me back. At one point shortly after the rape, but before I reported them, he through glass at me, and I went to the police to report it. I mentioned that night that we'd had sex but I said no, I couldn't say the word rape at the time I was to scared still, but the police got it because they gave me the sexual assault pamphlets. I had a victim's advocate go to the trial for me and everything, and she did a shitty job, everything was dropped, even though I had glass all over me. So yeah, the legal system screwed me majorly, but I think I'm just going to try and let it all go.

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