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Different Voice when comming out of seizure
Thu, 06/12/2008 - 15:57Hello there,
I am a 46 year old man that has had Grand Mal seizures for years. I took Dilantin for decade or so and have since been switched to Keppra. I do not have seizures contantly, but every now and they, the little buggers like to surprise me...just to remind me that I do have seizures. Recently I have had a couple doozys....but it has brought up a question I have had for a long time. My wife tells me that when I when I come out of the siezure, I typically begin to talk, and when I am talking, I am not utilizing the voice that I normally do, but seem to be a lot younger...in essence a small boy. I am in a panic and begging whoever it is that I am around for help, and of course crying at the same time. I have three questions.
1. Does anyone else do this?
2. Where does this voice come from....or what is it operating off of.
There was one time that I kind of came out of it, just in time from me to hear "Please help me"...via a voice I surely did not recognize, it was my own...but...again, I sounded very very young
3. Lastly, would this sort of thing help a nero pin point were the seizures might be comming from...(Certain part of the brain with that particular voice)....
Thanks in advance for everyones assistance
John...(and that other voice;) ((no I am not nutts....that I know of anyway) ;)
Comments
Re: Different Voice when comming out of seizure
Submitted by bilbostuff on Fri, 2008-06-13 - 11:42
Thanks Rowdy, I ask because the voice scares my wife a bit, she has seen it for 20 years, but I do not seem to have them often...(Stages)..gone for a long time, then bam bam bam three times in three weeks..etc....The voice thing really sounds like I am about ten...I am going to have to go back in soon because honestly I have had three in the last three weeks and it seems like this time I keep breaking parts of my body. During one I broke 4 vertebrae....then during another broke another vertebrae...then the last one, I broke my nose....as well as got some major carpet burns on my legs and my face....Seems like they are a bit wilder on the Kepra, although this could just be an obervation based on opinion.
I am going through a bit of a parinoid phase where for some reason I keep thinking I am going to have one...I am not having real auras, but somehow I justify thinking a feeling is an aura when it is not there...Then the real one comes and I think....Yup, this one is it...I wish I could just stop thinking about it....
Thanks John
Thanks Rowdy, I ask because the voice scares my wife a bit, she has seen it for 20 years, but I do not seem to have them often...(Stages)..gone for a long time, then bam bam bam three times in three weeks..etc....The voice thing really sounds like I am about ten...I am going to have to go back in soon because honestly I have had three in the last three weeks and it seems like this time I keep breaking parts of my body. During one I broke 4 vertebrae....then during another broke another vertebrae...then the last one, I broke my nose....as well as got some major carpet burns on my legs and my face....Seems like they are a bit wilder on the Kepra, although this could just be an obervation based on opinion.
I am going through a bit of a parinoid phase where for some reason I keep thinking I am going to have one...I am not having real auras, but somehow I justify thinking a feeling is an aura when it is not there...Then the real one comes and I think....Yup, this one is it...I wish I could just stop thinking about it....
Thanks John
Re: Different Voice when comming out of seizure
Submitted by cocoloco on Sat, 2008-08-16 - 08:51
My friend and I are both epileptics and we spend our lives paranoid a seizure is coming. The slightest twitch, the slightest tingle and we look at each other.... we're like "argh it's coming!" - but usually it never happens.
After my seizures, I am a bit nuts. I pull oxygen masks off my face and tell confused stories to paramedics about what medications I'm actually on. I even told one that I had been drinking "heavily". In actual fact, I'd been staying at my partner's house for a week and not had a drink in almost 2 weeks. It just felt like my drink had been spiked or something weird had happened... I was very confused and only had a handful of seizures.
I also demanded to see all my medical notes at the emergency room out of paranoia that they were writing offensive things. When the nurse put her notes in front of me, I was not even able to read them, LOL! I was like "Okay, thanks" and handed them back! I think they were just humouring me to shut me up. I am not violent I am "pleasantly confused" according to a letter I was CC-ed into by my Neurologist. But they're not going to say anything offensive. This post-ictal behaviour is really normal I think. I also sleep deeply after a seizure and then when I wake up I am normal again.
My friend and I are both epileptics and we spend our lives paranoid a seizure is coming. The slightest twitch, the slightest tingle and we look at each other.... we're like "argh it's coming!" - but usually it never happens.
After my seizures, I am a bit nuts. I pull oxygen masks off my face and tell confused stories to paramedics about what medications I'm actually on. I even told one that I had been drinking "heavily". In actual fact, I'd been staying at my partner's house for a week and not had a drink in almost 2 weeks. It just felt like my drink had been spiked or something weird had happened... I was very confused and only had a handful of seizures.
I also demanded to see all my medical notes at the emergency room out of paranoia that they were writing offensive things. When the nurse put her notes in front of me, I was not even able to read them, LOL! I was like "Okay, thanks" and handed them back! I think they were just humouring me to shut me up. I am not violent I am "pleasantly confused" according to a letter I was CC-ed into by my Neurologist. But they're not going to say anything offensive. This post-ictal behaviour is really normal I think. I also sleep deeply after a seizure and then when I wake up I am normal again.
Re: Different Voice when comming out of seizure
Submitted by Texas_med on Thu, 2008-06-12 - 22:00
I can answer a couple of the questions based on what I've seen with myself when I had secondary generalized seizures and also what I see in my job as a nurse in the dept. of neurology. The one thing that is probably contributing to the voice change is the fact that you are having Grand Mal seizures. When you go into a Grand Mal seizure, virtually every muscle in you body contracts. This sometimes includes your heart which can stop for a short amount of time. The Grand Mal seizure is the one that has the maximum output of excess electrical activity throughout your nervous system. This usually causes your vocal chords to tense up and have a change in voice until you use them enough to loosen them back up when you get your normal electrical activity back.
It is also very common to have sudden outbursts or screams whenever one goes into a Grand Mal seizure. I actually witness it more often than you might think in the hospital where we run tests and help diagnose the patients who think they have seizures. I'm not completely sure why you say "Please help me" but I was in a point where I would always swear and become really violent when I was coming out of a seizure. Thankfully I don't do that anymore since I was switched to Keppra.
On the diagnosis, this may and may not help the neurologist pinpoint the origin of the seizure. I know some are able to pinpoint the origin if your wife can tell them the stages of the seizure and your actions while having the seizure. I know sometimes when neurologists go just by symtoms and stages of seizure, they misdiagnose the origin. I was misdiagnosed twice with neurologists saying my frontal lobe was causing my seizures but an EEG proved it was my left temporal lobe. You may be able to get a sleep deprived EEG and be able to diagnose the origin of the seizure since Grand Mal seizures are usually the easiest to find the origin on since we find abnormal activity on a large number on our patients who have Grand Mal without them going into a seizure. Hope I've helped. If you would like any more info, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I can answer a couple of the questions based on what I've seen with myself when I had secondary generalized seizures and also what I see in my job as a nurse in the dept. of neurology. The one thing that is probably contributing to the voice change is the fact that you are having Grand Mal seizures. When you go into a Grand Mal seizure, virtually every muscle in you body contracts. This sometimes includes your heart which can stop for a short amount of time. The Grand Mal seizure is the one that has the maximum output of excess electrical activity throughout your nervous system. This usually causes your vocal chords to tense up and have a change in voice until you use them enough to loosen them back up when you get your normal electrical activity back.
It is also very common to have sudden outbursts or screams whenever one goes into a Grand Mal seizure. I actually witness it more often than you might think in the hospital where we run tests and help diagnose the patients who think they have seizures. I'm not completely sure why you say "Please help me" but I was in a point where I would always swear and become really violent when I was coming out of a seizure. Thankfully I don't do that anymore since I was switched to Keppra.
On the diagnosis, this may and may not help the neurologist pinpoint the origin of the seizure. I know some are able to pinpoint the origin if your wife can tell them the stages of the seizure and your actions while having the seizure. I know sometimes when neurologists go just by symtoms and stages of seizure, they misdiagnose the origin. I was misdiagnosed twice with neurologists saying my frontal lobe was causing my seizures but an EEG proved it was my left temporal lobe. You may be able to get a sleep deprived EEG and be able to diagnose the origin of the seizure since Grand Mal seizures are usually the easiest to find the origin on since we find abnormal activity on a large number on our patients who have Grand Mal without them going into a seizure. Hope I've helped. If you would like any more info, just e-mail me at [email protected]