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My wife just had her fist seizure at 31

Sat, 02/09/2019 - 02:24
Yesterday morning I was awoken to the sound of my wife yelling my name in our hallway. I hopped out of bed and was able to get out of our bedroom and find her still standing in our hallway with her upper extremities decorticate posturing, head turning left with jaw spasms and grab her and bring her safely to the ground. I am recent graduate of CRNA school and had worked for 5 1/2 years in the ICU prior and had witnessed many seizures during my time, but nothing I have seen prepared me for the moment I witnessed this happening to spouse. As I grabbed her my medical thoughts immediately went to 31 year old, healthy female, has been on birth control, she is having a stroke. As I laid her down she entered the clonic phase and began to convulse with dilated pupils and kicking the wall. I pulled her over to the middle of the hall way to get her away from the wall and rolled her on her side. I noticed she was "foaming" at the mouth and thought about shoving a towel in between her teeth before I remembered my training not to do so. I stayed at her side throughout the violent shaking until she stopped and started having agonal breathing and turning blue. I gave a jaw thrust to her at this point and noticed she spit out some blood and was just praying she did not bite her tongue in half. After she started breathing regularly I ran and grabbed my phone and dialed 911. I gave our information to the operator and stayed by her side attempting to call her name and shake her every 15 seconds or so until she started to respond. The "tonic" phase appeared to last 15-30 seconds and the clonic phase roughly 2 minutes (though it felt like hours), and she started to respond to me after about 5 minutes. The paramedics arrived within 15 minutes and by that time my wife was awake answering questions, however she did not remember when the paramedics initially arrived. She was able to wake down to the ambulance with them and was taken to the ED for further testing - CT scan and labs were all negative including pregnancy and thyroid testing. We are currently scheduled to have an EEG and MRI this Tuesday. This was my wife's first seizure and she has no family history of seizures. My wife is extremely healthy - works out 5'3 120 pounds and works out 5-7 days a week. She does have a history of anxiety and depression and had been switched to Buproprion (Wellbutrin) about 2 months ago, the same time we had stopped birth control). Her only other medication is a prenatal vitamin. Both of us have been very hyper alert to the possibility of another episode like this happening since. We discussed with her physician and stopped buproprion and switched to Zoloft for her depression/anxiety after the episode. My wife did say that her left hand started going numb (like she had sat on it and it fell asleep) and then her left arm started contracting before she starting heading down the hallway yelling for me - which she remembers, about 10 seconds before she lost consciousness, which upon researching sounds like a a focal to tonic-clonic seizure. We are both concerned about how everything will play out with this will play out and are curious if anyone else has experienced anything similar to this. Thank you.

Comments

Please understand that

Submitted by Amy Jo on Sat, 2019-02-09 - 13:11
Please understand that epilepsy isn't about how healthy one looks. That's a common stumbling block for people dealing with the initial seizure(s). But also remember that while one in ten people have a seizure in their lives only one in 26 has epilepsy. There's no age where epilepsy cannot start. While I hope that the medication could be related to her seizure, the ED tests probably eliminated quite a few non epilepsy causes. Clear EEGs and imaging happens for those who have epilepsy.

So I have to echo what Amy Jo

Submitted by Jazz101 on Sat, 2019-02-09 - 19:53
So I have to echo what Amy Jo said, which is "Epilepsy isn't about how healthy one looks." Neurological conditions are quite unique. And that's because the brain is quite unique. The other confusion is that a normal EEG or MRI means you definitely don't have Epilepsy. Not true. That is how my file looked. Normal EEG and MRI. I say looked because eventually we did push for the video EEG where they lowered the medication and just like that the results showed up during seizures.It's interesting that your wife said her left arm went numb. If that is the case then it is possible that the activity is more on the right side of the brain. So make sure you make that known to the neurologist. The brain and your body has that opposite side setting. Left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa. In terms of a neurologist? Make sure you find one who specializes in Epilepsy. Some neurologists specialize more in Strokes and other in Parkinson's. So in your case you need one who specializes in Epilepsy. If at any point you feel the need to change hospitals, a great source is US News and World Report. They do a great job of rating hospitals in various medical areas. In your wife's case it's neurology and neurosurgery. That is how they brand the field. Here is the link if you are in the United States. https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/neurology-and-neurosurgeryTry to make sure she is seen at a hospital with good ratings. After all, a hospital can be great in one area and not so great in another. In your case, again, neurology and neurosurgery is the specialty you should seek in your hospital.Best Regards

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