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Syncope VS Seizure?
Fri, 02/27/2015 - 14:38Hi guys! My name is Melissa and I am a 21 year old girl with a pretty uninteresting medical history, that is until recently.
About a year and a half ago, I had my first “episode". All I know was that I felt really nauseous and I thought that I fell asleep and it turns out that I was apparently awake. I have no idea what happened so I had to ask my husband. I do know that when I came to, I could not understand what anyone was saying to me, nor could I respond back to them coherently. My husband called some paramedics, that just happened to be right next-door and they asked me if I knew where I was, who I was, who I was with and what year it was. I answered them for the most part correctly and my stats were normal. So, I didn’t go to the ER, so we don’t know and I just thought that it was because I was super stressed out and over-tired. I went to my primary care physician within the next few days, he asked me if I had ever had seizures before and since I hadn’t we just wrote it off.
This was in October 2013, fast forward about 6 months to March 2014. I had only slept about 5 hours and I had to get up early so I could do my OR rotation. (I was in nursing school when both of these happened.) I was in my parent’s room using the hair-dryer and that is the last I remember. I finally woke up, I was surrounded by paramedics and put on a backboard. My head really hurt and I had a nasty black eye.
I was very confused as to what happened and I tried to gather as much information as I could, but no one saw anything. My dad reported hearing the hair dryer hit the ground, instantly waking up, only to find me on the ground jerking my head back and hitting the wall, eyes glazed over and slightly tremoring. My mom got off the treadmill, she had only been on for 14 minutes, so she figured that this episode only lasted a few minutes. The first thing she noticed was that I had hit my head and now had quite a shiner. She also noticed that I had bitten my tongue. In response, they quickly called 911.
The paramedics arrived and asked them many questions about what had happened and then they came over to me. They asked me if I knew who my parents were or who Maverick (my dog) was, and when I answered, I did not know and also when I answered I did not articulate it very well. My speech was a tad slurred and garbled, so I was told. Eventually, as I came to and my speech was coming back. The remedial questioning continued. What day was it, and in what year, et cetera. Long story, short, I ended up in the hospital and it was a toss up between a seizure and syncope. They asked if I had ever had seizures before. I was all like, well there was this one episode, I don’t know if it was one. I had a normal CT, a normal MRI, and a normal EEG. So I left the hospital with a diagnosis of "seizure or syncope?” Seriously. I was put on generic Keppra, had problems, then Zonegran, which I found out that I was allergic to, and finally generic Lamictal.
I am almost a year ( I guess.) seizure-free. I have since had another EEG, which was normal. So far, nobody has used the term epilepsy, I noticed on one of the papers from my neurologist that my “diagnosis for this visit” was Seizure Disorder. I don’t know what that means and since nobody has used the term epilepsy, I don’t use it. This whole ordeal has been confusing and I still don’t know anything. Sorry for this super long post. Any advice or help is greatly appreciated.
seizure disorder has been
Submitted by just_joe on Sat, 2015-02-28 - 10:16
seizure disorder has been used rather then epilepsy fro many years. If you had a grand mal seizure then what hasppened when you fell could show that. I have hit my head in seizures at times. I have also hit my head in falls or playing football. There is a difference. If I hit it playing the bump does not necessarily leave a black eye. However if I was in a seizure and lost conciousness then my body becomes dead weight and hits the ground faster. As for biting your tongue. You might have but you might not have. In a fall your jaw may be open and when you hit it slams shut. If your tongue was between your teeth then your teeth could have cut it. Been there done that. I fell off a ladder and hit th steel rim. In that fall I cut my tongue and the inside of my jaw. I neededto get 32 stiches to fix them. The doctors were worried more about the 4 teeth I lost and fixing my jaw then they were about the bump on my head. Talk to your doctor about these issues and ask him what he thinks the diagnosis would or should be. Note things you want answers to so you can bring them up in the next visit. I will generally call mine and leave a message with my question. I get the answer the same day from his assistant. Or at times Doc calls asking for clarification. If neding an answer quickly by all means call...