Possibly TLE?

[mara]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I wanted to ask if this sounds familiar to anyone...

Just over a year ago I had a strange occurrence while I was at work. I'm an LPN, and I was in a medical office with a patient. We were talking, and all of a sudden I got the strangest feeling... I could still tell that the patient was talking, but I have no idea what he was saying. I had "flashes of dreams" (I don't know how else to describe it) go through my head (but I have the impression they are outside my body, to the left, and back from my left ear)... but they didn't feel like dreams I have had before, and I have no idea what they were about. I didn't lose consciousness, I remember trying briefly to understand what the patient was saying, but I couldn't. He left the room, and I felt really dizzy, nauseated, and then tired.

I've had at least 4 of these episodes since last year (I have a feeling that it's been more than that, but I don't know why I feel that, I only remember it happening 4 times). They are all similar. Once I thought that I had spoken to my friend during one of them, but when I asked her about it after she told me I hadn't said anything while it was going on, but that it took me a long time to recover afterward.

I've also had one other 'weird' thing going on, and until very recently I thought that it was 'normal' and that it happened to everyone. Sometimes when I'm sitting in a room for a while something from across the room will suddenly seem to be very close to my face. Usually this happens with peoples faces when they are across the room from me. I feel kind of funny, things get a little 'dream-like' and I really have to focus on what the person is saying to understand them, and I find myself leaning back to try to move away from their face. I know they haven't moved. I can always fake that nothing weird is going on (I had one of them during my last job interview 3 months ago... lol). Has anyone else ever experienced this? Does anyone know if this is a type of seizure? I can remember having this happen once when I was 6, and I just figure that it happened to everyone, but apparently that is not the case.

My doctor is referring me to a neurologist.

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any feedback!



Mara

[Bernard]

Hi Mara, welcome to the forum.

Your experiences sound like possible simple partial and/or complex partial seizures. The dream like distortions sound like temporal lobe seizures.

Your neurologist will likely order some EEG testing to try and confirm epileptiform activity in the brain. If you are aware of any common trigger for your episodes, you should tell him about it and try to recreate that situation for your EEG (in the hopes of having the EEG record your brain waves while you experience one of these episodes).

[mara]

Thank you for the feedback. The only thing that it seems like they might have in common is that they seem to have been premenstrual (although my cycles have always been very irregular). Does anyone know if menstrual cycles are something that have been linked to seizures? My doctor just put me on birth control pills, so if it is related I might be able to figure out a connection.

[Bernard]

It can be:

catamenial epilepsy