Newlywed to a husband with epilepsy and postictal psychosis
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UPDATED: Thu, 02/07/2008 - 1:12pm
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simply...
Newlywed to a husband with epilepsy and postictal psychosis
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Hi, I'm a 24 year old newlywed married to man who has had occasional seizures since his childhood brain injury. Since his last seizure a few months ago, he began showing wierd behavior--confusion, hearing things, talking to himself, barely getting sleep and losing things he never had before. We learned that he has postcital psychosis after going to see a psychiatrist and his neurologist. I hope to meet people like me trying to deal with such a serious condition. For two months I was angry with him over something I didn't understand. Also, although he takes his seizure medicine, he doesn't realize anything is wrong. He doesn't realize he is no longer able to work or drive and that I am his primary guardian now. We don't receive much emotional support from his family.
Please share your experiences.
By simply... at Thu, 02/07/2008 - 1:12pm | 27 views | 2 comments
Topic: New to Epilepsy.com
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Dear simplygenuine83's;
My heart goes out to you! This is one of those things in the Medical community that they haven't quite figured out yet... We've really been through the ringer with this one!
My wife whom I've been married to for 22 years (met her when I was 8!) has epileptic seizure clusters and afterward, is 'okay' for about a day (albeit very sleepy and tired), then on the next day, (around 36 hours after the clusters) she "Checks-Out"... e.g. Postictal Psycosis... she "sees things", "hears voices", etc. etc. ... it usually takes her about 4 to 6 days to recover... (for the most-part), but in actuality, more-like 3 to 4 weeks to really get her act back together... It's REALLY bad... has gotten violent at times, but as time has continued, we've simply learned how to deal with it.
In the early days, back in 1997-98, we'd find her in the middle of the night, in winter, wondering around the neighborhood barefoot (3 inches of snow on the ground), in her night-shirt and underwear (no knowledge of what she was doing)... we placed dead-bolt locks on the doors so she couldn't sneek out while we were sleeping.
Her condition has cost me Major Job loss(es), I've been in Engineering, have 2 US Patents, a Director of IT, all of which I've either been "Let-go" from or Terminated because I've put her first... at times having to take time off to be with her as otherwise, they'd put her in a Looney-Farm house... I simply can't stand the thought of that.
There is so very little known about what happens, but what I've been able to surmise, is that it is some sort of delayed Checmical in-balance that takes a few days to work itself out. It appears to occur predominantly in early to middle-aged african american women (though Kar is white)... the BEST thing we've been able to do is when she has her episodes is to use a drug called Seroquel itss a medication approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, it S-L-O-W-S her down and keeps things more in perspective. We've NEVER used it more than 2 or 3 pills, it's not something we need to utilize for extended periods of time, simply, after her seizure clusters to keep her mind 'organized'...
I've got a TON more I could share, but for now, this is it... again, my heart simply aches for ANYONE who has experienced this... it is so very wierd and most people (even the docs!) don't even have a clue!
Mark
Thnaks for that Mark I see its a recent post which is quite a relief to me that this might be seen
My partner (white 22 years old) had 3 seizures within a few weeks recently (last time she had seziuresshe was 11 ) After each seizure she was fine for around 3 days then started acting strangely. After first seziure she claimed the hospital was fake, after second it was memory loss and strange storys (claiming she knew the results of live tv game shows etc). 4 days after the last seizure she has been really bad. She physically attacked me and was convinced id been cheating on her with a person with the same name as her.
She moved down to her mum and Dads and the only topic of conversation was me cheating on her. She began calling people off her phone and rambling all sorts, phoning my parents etc it was a nightmare. Eventually she broke out of the house at 4am and they had to call the police. She has been commited to a mental ward which pains me but she has her own room and to be honest its a relief to me as i think she may have harmed herself or even those around her.
Week later (around 2 weeks from seizure) she is coming to terms with me and i met her today. She was on and off with me 1 minute loved me next minute hated me (literally that quickly). She is letting go of the cheating story and replacing it with other delusional things some now involving her sister.
From your comments and others im very worried about the future. She is on Lambtrigine (sp) which i understand will stop the seizures. I was under the impression that no more seizures would = no more phycosis, is this incorrect?