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Nocturnal seizure... what is it?!
Tue, 07/24/2007 - 22:24Comments
Re: Nocturnal seizure... what is it?!
Submitted by Nafles101 on Sat, 2010-09-11 - 02:20
Hi everyone.
I started with the nocturnal seizures about 10 years ago. When they come, I get what I've just discovered is called an 'Aura', which apparently is a kind of warning sign. Whatever it is, it's always absolutely terrifying. When I first developed the epilepsy, I was about 15 and due to the nature of the 'auras' I passed them off as nightmares. So did my mother and father. That was until, during a particularly frightning one, I screamed out "SOMEBODY WAKE ME UP!!!!" The next day, my mother told me what I said, and all I could say to her was "......you heard that?". That was when I knew that these seizures were very real.
I was diagnosed and put on Sodium Valporate to treat the seizures, with the doctor assuring me that they generally go away for people at that age. It didn't...
What led me here today was that last night was particularly bad. I didn't actually HAVE a seizure, but I felt as though I was going to. The familiar flickering of my vision in the dark. The overwhealming feeling of dread. I had to get up, and so I thought I'd do some research, since I seemed to be the only one I knew who suffered with this kind of epilepsy.
Typically, the seizures will occur as I'm either falling asleep or waking up. The 'aura' I described is overwhealming and, even after 10 years, still so frighening that at 25 years old I scream out. It's hard to describe, since it tends to differ from time to time. There's always flickering of some sort in my vision, which intensifies as it goes on. I get a strange feeling of dread and displacement. Like "this is my room, but something's not right with it...'. The walls and ceiling seem to close in as it intensifies, and sometimes I see patterns on the walls, and objects that shouldn't be there. Since I'm waking up into this, sometimes I have known there to be things from whatever I was dreaming about at the time (in the worst cases, In the case of one of the earliest ones I can remember, try having a nightmare about dogs chasing you and then waking up in a room full of dogs!). Then, amidst all the chaos, I just lose time and next thing I know I'm coming round and can barely string a sentence together, or take in my surroundings. Then I fall asleep again (or 'pass out', rather). When I come around for the 2nd time, my body aches. My head aches. I feel weak. And in the worst cases, this can last for days, especially if I should fall from my bed when it happens (nothing like waking up stuck to the carpet because you bashed your face on a desk of drawers on the way down). I've been told that my seizures can last anything from 2-15 minutes. Sometimes longer too, but I'll have to take their word for that.
While, for the most part, the medication works well, I'm still getting these seizures. And lately I've been getting a lot of the familiar warning signs.
I know this post seems long, but I've never really been able to relate to anybody about this. Has anybody on here experienced seizures like mine? I'm sure I'm not alone.
Many people who get nocturnal seizures apparrently know nothing about it, and just "Wake up" in their rooms or in the hospital (in some cases mentioned on this thread previously). Does anybody suffer with the same things as me?
Take care,
Nathan Canavan
Hi everyone.
I started with the nocturnal seizures about 10 years ago. When they come, I get what I've just discovered is called an 'Aura', which apparently is a kind of warning sign. Whatever it is, it's always absolutely terrifying. When I first developed the epilepsy, I was about 15 and due to the nature of the 'auras' I passed them off as nightmares. So did my mother and father. That was until, during a particularly frightning one, I screamed out "SOMEBODY WAKE ME UP!!!!" The next day, my mother told me what I said, and all I could say to her was "......you heard that?". That was when I knew that these seizures were very real.
I was diagnosed and put on Sodium Valporate to treat the seizures, with the doctor assuring me that they generally go away for people at that age. It didn't...
What led me here today was that last night was particularly bad. I didn't actually HAVE a seizure, but I felt as though I was going to. The familiar flickering of my vision in the dark. The overwhealming feeling of dread. I had to get up, and so I thought I'd do some research, since I seemed to be the only one I knew who suffered with this kind of epilepsy.
Typically, the seizures will occur as I'm either falling asleep or waking up. The 'aura' I described is overwhealming and, even after 10 years, still so frighening that at 25 years old I scream out. It's hard to describe, since it tends to differ from time to time. There's always flickering of some sort in my vision, which intensifies as it goes on. I get a strange feeling of dread and displacement. Like "this is my room, but something's not right with it...'. The walls and ceiling seem to close in as it intensifies, and sometimes I see patterns on the walls, and objects that shouldn't be there. Since I'm waking up into this, sometimes I have known there to be things from whatever I was dreaming about at the time (in the worst cases, In the case of one of the earliest ones I can remember, try having a nightmare about dogs chasing you and then waking up in a room full of dogs!). Then, amidst all the chaos, I just lose time and next thing I know I'm coming round and can barely string a sentence together, or take in my surroundings. Then I fall asleep again (or 'pass out', rather). When I come around for the 2nd time, my body aches. My head aches. I feel weak. And in the worst cases, this can last for days, especially if I should fall from my bed when it happens (nothing like waking up stuck to the carpet because you bashed your face on a desk of drawers on the way down). I've been told that my seizures can last anything from 2-15 minutes. Sometimes longer too, but I'll have to take their word for that.
While, for the most part, the medication works well, I'm still getting these seizures. And lately I've been getting a lot of the familiar warning signs.
I know this post seems long, but I've never really been able to relate to anybody about this. Has anybody on here experienced seizures like mine? I'm sure I'm not alone.
Many people who get nocturnal seizures apparrently know nothing about it, and just "Wake up" in their rooms or in the hospital (in some cases mentioned on this thread previously). Does anybody suffer with the same things as me?
Take care,
Nathan Canavan
Normally I don't write on
Submitted by Lindsay5683 on Mon, 2017-10-09 - 20:10
Normally I don't write on these type of subjects, but something has lead me here because I am going through the same thing. In 2013 I had a CAT scan and an MRI (which showed nothing) then an EEG done, the neurologist sent me by mail that I have a lesion on my brain, which can be a source for seizures. As time moved on and now we are in 2017, my seizure activity has gotten worse and more frequently. Looking more into this type of problem, I noticed that nocturnal seizures, are and can be real. Noticing my problem is getting worse, I told my primary care physician. I knew it would be a mistake because I was so humiliated in 2013 when everyone was so called telling me nothing is wrong. So with my PCP ( primary care physician) knowing about my issue I felted as if I was reliving my failure in 2013. My PCP received my results from my EEG in 2013, but didn't schedule me to take another which, I found odd because my seizures are getting worse and things change. However my PCP ordered a sleep test and a CAT Scan. Well I got the results of my CAT Scan, and my sleep test. Like always, I hit a brick wall when I heard CAT Scan revealed nothing. But on my sleep test I have mild sleep ABIA. Ok....I'm thinking what does that mean, did the sleep test show my problem? So, what happens now, is there anything I can do or preform to have this situation finally diagnosed?