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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 JeanMarie on Wed, 2007-01-10 - 21:33
Hi-I am thinking aren't our brains/bodies complex and confusing? It seems so strange to have things happen that we aren't used to and wonder if something new or bad is happening but it could just be a brain thing. Seizures-auras can cause confusion and amnesia like symptoms and it is scary. I want to know why and when and how and sometimes we just have to go with the flow!

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

Submitted by mygirl071980 on Thu, 2007-01-11 - 00:38
That is so true! Another thing is that nobody understands the way we feel after we have one. If you are like me you are out of it, don't know if you are coming or going, but you know you just had one. I also will think about it for days and have a fear of it happening again and going through that state all over again.

Re: Has anyone experienced this w/ a seizure?

Submitted by wendy girl on Fri, 2007-01-19 - 19:55
HI, I have cp's and have had something which seems similar. I can be talking or doing something and suddenly my mind is erased. Like a chalkboard- erased clean and I have no idea what I was doing or saying. Of course usually if I am sitting there looking at someone, I usually know we were just talking but don't know what it was we were saying. So I think yours is similar, only you may not have realized you were even talking to begin with. But you were woken from sleep and there is a certain amount of confusion that follows these, so maybe he was talking and your brain was still in a confused state. I assume you are one meds? Since taking meds, I have days where I have little aura's all thru the day but I am now finding out I had cp's too but did not know it. You could be having them and not even know as my husband catches them and tells me. I say something or make a movement or stare off and when I come out of it, if he tells me, I get very mad (don't mean too) and tell him it's not true (usually I yell it and feel like I am going to cry) After maybe 15 minutes I realize I was acting irrationally. I really think what happened and you thinking he was mad at you was because you were still in a confused state. Talking to your neuro may make you feel better. I don't get any headaches so I can't advise there. I know seizures can really make you feel upset and I find it's scary. It's like you have no control over what your brain is doing. I would call you neuro if you feel your pattern is changing. Good luck, Wendy

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