So over the course of the lastmonth my fiancé has had three seizures. Now it is important to note that before December she has never had a seizure in her life, or at the very least not to our knowledge. My wonderful girl already suffers from cluster headaches and PTSD and is at the ripe old age of 22. So as anyone here can imagine this was a shock as well as troubling to add to our already long list of problems. In December one morning I awoke to a god awful shriek, as I jump out of bed thinking something along the lines that I was in a waking dream, I find my girl twisting and contorting with a “ooze” draining from her mouth. Being as though I have never personally dealt with a seizure I panicked. I thought perhaps I was dealing with a seizure, stoke, or even some type of sleep paralysis. For what seemed an eternity I tried to get her to stop the motions thinking she was messing with me or would just snap out of it. Even though it felt like forever, maybe only two or three minutes went by. After the convulsions stopped she was taking short “sharp” breaths, kind of reminded me of a fish out of water. At this point I am already on the phone with dispatch 911, ranting and raving that she’s dying and someone needs to come quick. As dispatch tries to calm me down assuring me someone is on the way and everything is ok I notice that she has become ridged, and stiff.Now I have become quiet over the phone, I can tell she is breathing but her eyes are wide open and no response is made from my questions or gestures. A few more minutes go by and she starts to come back, I’m saying its ok, I’m here but she almost doesn’t even sense me. All she wanted was to sleep, and I did everything I could to prevent her from doing so. A few more minutes pass with a few more frantic calls for her to get up and be ok. Finally the paramedics arrive. So I run to let them in while at the same time locking the cat up. Not even a second after I swing the door open I hear her run across the bedroom floor into the bathroom. She began expelling vomit onto the floor, and into the toilet. She acknowledges the paramedics and I as we walk into the room and they promptly ask her if she was aware she had a seizure. She responds, no. wait what? So after about 10 minutes of Q and A while simultaneously checking her vitals, they swiftly whiskher away in the ambulance. We spent about five hours at the hospital. They took blood, urinalysis, and Ct scans. To only tell us they could not find the cause of the seizure. They cleaned up her tong a little and sent us on our way, with a new 3 thousand dollar bill to pay and an appointment with a neurologist 3 weeks later. So that brings us too yesterday. We had figured at this point that she would probably not have another seizure in her life, being as the doctors said it is very common to only have one, and then never get it again. But once again in the morning I am up to the sounds of a seizure. I promptly jump out of bed, hit the lights on and throw the covers back. I did this so fast while still in a daze that It seemed like i had the lights on before the covers hit the ground. My thoughts you might ask? I’m thinking I’ve got this, she will be ok. You see I read about it after the first one, but only briefly.
This time I reacted different, I rolled her on her side, pulled her hair back and placed the sheets in her palms so she didn’t stab herself with finger nails. I wait patiently for her to stop shaking, while quietly but firmly telling her that it’s ok, and that I loved her. She stopped the convulsions fast this time, and the ridged state she went into was brief as well. I did not call the ambulance this time,I waited her out instead. Once she stopped the fish face gasping and went into sleep mode I did all I could to keep her awake until she was fully conscious of what had happened. A couple more minutes went by, she is now answering questing’s for me, she’s saying that she doesn’t feel good and needs to throw up. I had the bucket ready this time, No cleaning Bilethis time, not me. Once I confirmed that her pulse was “ok” and that she did notbite a hole into her tong, we decided that the hospital probably wasn’t needed,she spent the entire day throwing up and bed ridden. She was very sore and her tong was a little chewed This morning wasthe same thing; I jump up, shrieks, shakes, and blood. I turn her over I waither out, I talk to her gently and I pray softly. The seizure on this day was short, the confusion after however, was not. For about 30 minutes she could not remember who I was, she wanted sleep; she wanted to be left alone. I couldn’t lether you see, I’ve read that if they fall asleep while still out of it they arelikely to have another. Once she had returned from Narnia and could remember who I was and where she was. I dressed her and drove her to the hospital. This hospital visit was much like the first, only longer. We spent I believe about 9 hours today,only to receive the same results, nothing found, less money, and an appointmenta too a later date. She was doing better though, the IV and Zofran help tremendously for the nausea. They also gave her a prescription saying confidently that she “shouldn’t” have another seizure while taking it. It’s not too late now as I write this, about 9’O clock.She is already tucked away in the bed and I lye next to her typing in the dark. I have never been so afraid to fall asleep.
My heart goes out for both you and your fiance. My son had seizures when he was a baby/toddler, and I have never experienced anything as scary. I hope you are able to get the help she needs. We ended up going through two rounds of MRI's, because the first one was done on a lower quality machine and they couldn't make out the details of his brain. Then there were the sleep studies where they hooked him up to machines for 48 hours and monitored his brain, trying to trigger the seizures, so they could see it in action. It is a long and draining process. Trying to be strong while the person you love is so helpless and vulnerable. I don't know what to say, other than I've been there and I feel for you. Shit. I'm crying just thinking about the memories. Get some rest. You deserve it. Hold her tight and hang in there.
Thank you Brilla, I wrote this as I just kind of needed to vent about it. I appreciate youre support and how is youre son? better I hope?
He's gotten a lot better. The doctor called them absence seizures/ petit mal. The MRI's showed a mass in his frontal lobe, but he has slowly grown out of the seizures. We were lucky in that the bad ones - with vomiting and shaking - were few and far between. In some ways, it's easier with a child. I was able to make a game of it, and teased him that his brain was too big for his head. I only had to carry my worries, because once he slept off the seizures (they wore him out) he would bounce back, like nothing had happened. We didn't have insurance at the time and dealing with all of the paperwork was - fuck. He is only 7 now, but he hasn't had anything severe in several years. Sometimes it was all I could do not to just fall apart.
Me too. The technology they have out there is pretty amazing. I was surprised at how much help was out there, once I asked.
yeah for sure, it's istablished that we cannot afford treatment so they have set us up with the proper paperwork, and people.
Have fun with all that. There's nothing quite like handing over all your vital information so some suit can look it over and demand more, before you get the treatment you need. *insert sarcasm*
Sorry to hear man, thats a scary thing. Ive only seen one seizure and it was way back when i was in highschool, at a camp party. A friend had one.. there were 75-100 kids looking on in horror as he convulsed, had foam around his mouth, and once it was done, couldnt remember anything, including who any of us were for about 20 minutes. I hope it gets better soon. I know how hospitals are, always fucking around.
Blunt you're a good man. My heart goes out to you two. Just chill and keep doing what you're doing. They'll find the cause. Sending good vibes your way.