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Has anyone experienced this w/ a seizure?

Thu, 12/28/2006 - 00:09
Hi, I had a scary experience last night after having a seizure and would like to know if anyone else has had this happen, too. First, let me give you a little background: I started having partial complexes 15 years ago. The docs found a lesion in my RTL in '03 that we believe to be the source of the seizures. Over the past 3 years, the seizures have reduced in number and severity quite a bit. They changed from happening frequently and a loss awareness to only happening while I'm sleeping to what they are now. Now, they occur one day out of the month at most and are very light - more like partial-partials, if there were such a catagory. I'll usually feel strange the whole day, but the auras themselves will come and go throughout the day but are usually light and short with the exception of one "big" one during which I'll panic and sometimes gag. That one will last a minute or so. Anyway, I haven't had one while sleeping in a long time, but last night, about 5 minutes into my sleep, I had one. My husband said that I reached for the water on the nightstand, moved around, etc, all the 'normal' things I used to do. No biggie, I suppose. It lasted about 40 seconds. After coming out of it, I got up and went to the bathroom and then laid back down without saying a word to him. About 2 minutes later, I asked him what I was doing before I went to sleep cuz I had no memory of what I did. He told me I had had a seizure and explained what I did during it and that I had just gotten up to go to the bathroom. None of that sounded familiar to me at all. In the past, if I had a seizure while sleeping, I always knew when I woke up - I could feel it physically. It also doesn't take me a long time to come out of them so not remembering getting up is a little weird. We kept talking about the seizure for about 15 minutes(I don't remember having this conversation with him) when suddenly I became really confused - kinda like my brain shut off. I started thinking I'd had 2 seizures and that I'd fallen asleep again. I had NO clue that I'd been talking to my husband just seconds before. It was like amnesia struck - I had no memory of the 15 minute conversation we'd just been having. He started retelling me everything, and in my confusion, I started thinking he was getting upset with me. Then, my head started to hurt like never before. I get a lot of headaches, but I've never had one like that and in the spot that it hurt. It hurt above my right eye and the back of my neck on the right side, but the strange spot was on the back of head on the right side where it starts to slope down to your neck. My head has never hurt there before - it was so bad. When I woke up this morning, my head didn't hurt, per se, but I could feel where the pain had been. You know how it feels when someone yanks your hair really hard? It leaves your scalp kinda sore? That's what that spot on the back of my head felt like this morning. Other than being tired, I've been fine today. I don't know if this sounds scary for anyone else, but the amnesia-like confusion was scary for both my husband and myself. It was like someone erased everything from one second to the next. Has this ever happened to anyone?

Comments

Re: Has anyone experienced this w/ a seizure?

Submitted by cannas on Thu, 2006-12-28 - 06:41
yes, if I have a bad CPS someone else will tell me my hands did this and it lasted this long and I won't have any memory of it. It's something to tell the neuro because sometimes a change could mean it's getting worse (like meds aren't working as well?). I have headaches after CPS's esp. after sleeping but again i think you need to tell your neuro if headache quality has changed. take care~

Re: Re: Has anyone experienced this w/ a seizure?

Submitted by MarieV. on Thu, 2006-12-28 - 10:00
I have CPS and what you are describing is very common for me as far as the amnesia is concerned. I'll have my normal small convulsive seizure which only happen in the evening, according to my family immediately following the seizure I will begin to walk around the house, talking outloud or to my family but not making too much sense I've even gone as far as taking showers. I will put my pj's on, if I'm not already wearing them, then go to bed. I'll wake up a couple hours later with no recollection of it. My "episode" will last 30 min. to 1 hour before I or my family put me to bed. The aura I have with each seizure can usually warn me and sometimes if I think about it really hard I can remember going into the seizure but that's about it. Strange how you can be told that you do and say all these things but you have not recollection of it. I've asked my husband if maybe one day he can record me. This is a "typical" seizure for me it happens every time along with the headache afterwards. My headaches aren't as severe as you described so I too suggest that you follow-up with your neuro.

Re: Has anyone experienced this w/ a seizure?

Submitted by carrieb on Thu, 2006-12-28 - 10:11
No, I've never had any visions. Why do you ask that? As far as the hand movements, headache, etc, that was pretty much the norm when I was having partial complexes. What I'm more concerned about is the memory. It wouldn't be a big deal if I would've gone to sleep and woken up not remembering anything. That wouldn't be anything new; it used to happen a lot. But that's not what happened. What happened was I was sitting there talking to my husband for 15 minutes when suddenly, in mid-sentence, everything was erased. The past 20 minutes had vanished from my memory in the blink of an eye, from one second to the next while I was awake and in my right mind. That's never happened, and it's scary. The headache concerned me cuz of where it was located and the severity of it. Headaches are an everyday thing for me (i take lamictal, so it's expected during the day), but this one after the seizure was really bad. We pay much more attention now to changes in the headaches after seizures because of the lesion. I see my epilep. on Jan. 8th, so I'll talk to her about it then, but I'd just like to see if it's happened to anyone else before she starts increasing my meds.

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