Petit-mal seizures (Speech arrest)

[RanMan]

I've had epilepsy since 1979, controlled by meds.
I get a form of petit mal seizures that my Dr. calls "speech arrest". It only lasts a few seconds, I am aware of what is going on around me but I can't respond.

When I try to talk, my speech is slurred (more than usual).
Most people have no problem speaking but I have to concentrate to form every word. (all the time but twice as hard during a speech arrest).
Everybody thinks I'm stoned all the time.

Boy, I didn't realize that we take our speech for granted so much.

Randy

[Bernard]

The sad thing is that even if you learned sign language, you might have difficulties communicating with seizure activity.

I've had dreams where my body does not respond in synch with my mind (like the ubiquitous running in slow motion dreams). It's frustrating!

[Birdbomb]

aphasia n : loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words

Lovely word.

A part of my life. Not only from the simple particals but from the Dilantin. Damned if you do or damned if you don't. Sometimes an simple partial will be so bad I cannot speak, however I am aware of what is being said to me. I had a few of those in the hospital after my knee replacement. They sure did freak out the nursing staff, but then they always think the worse if you are unable to respond.

The Dilantin makes me trip all over my tongue I say things in reverse, wrong words of words that don't mean anything. At work I am on a microphone and deal with customers, one on one and when this happens, I just play into as a joke like being overworked. Most people are understanding and laugh about it. Hell, why not. I sound crazy half the time might as well enjoy it.

This aphasia does carry over into posting on the internet as well. My spelling stinks because my brain is saying one thing, my eyes see another thing and my fingers are doing whater the heck they want to do.
I proof read several times but still find errors later on.

Life is never dull. We ARE haveing fun now, damn it!

[Bernard]

...My spelling stinks ...

I haven't noticed any more typos in your posts than is normal for anyone posting messages to discussion forums.

[Elisa]

Ranman,
Same thing happens to me, I call them brain cramps though. I have to say it can get very trying at times. I spent the day yesterday not being able to think or talk. Of course I had a complex partial by the end of the day, they usually go hand and hand.

Donna-
Dilantin makes it so that I can't get two words out of my mouth without sounding stupid. hate it, hate it, hate it!!!!

[Shelley]

The last two days of the work week, last week, in the mornings, not one consonant was formed while I was speaking. There is another bitch in my work area that doesn't believe that I am sensitive to perfume.
Then there seems to be an increase in the number of times my eyes roll to the top of my head.

[drarvindr]

Had the same thing happen to me many times when i got absence seizures back when i was first diagnosed. Especially when i got excited and was in mid sentence it would go like this " But you can't seriously believe that ! (pause +blank stare) haaaaooooowwwww .....caaaaaaaannnnnnnn (feeling like i want to throw up) yeeeeeewu pppposssssssibbbbbllllly...... think that?" . Awed observer - "Dude are you on crack?". Doesnt happen anymore when i'm on meds. I usually get myoclonic seizures.

I think the best way of describing it is when you have a bad connection on the phone and can hear yourself speak as well so you talk really slowly and try to get your words out consciously

[RanMan]

aphasia n : loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words

Lovely word.

A part of my life. Not only from the simple particals but from the Dilantin. Damned if you do or damned if you don't. Sometimes an simple partial will be so bad I cannot speak, however I am aware of what is being said to me. I had a few of those in the hospital after my knee replacement. They sure did freak out the nursing staff, but then they always think the worse if you are unable to respond.

The Dilantin makes me trip all over my tongue I say things in reverse, wrong words of words that don't mean anything. I proof read several times but still find errors later on.

Life is never dull. We ARE haveing fun now, damn it!

I have observed over my 28 years of experience (not the web) that the "speech arrest" seems to be a side affect from the dilantin ~ not the epilepsy.

How did I find this out?
Over the past 28 years, there were several times when I had to disregard my dilantin for up to 2 weeks at a time due to my ulcerative colitis flare-ups (I had to double up on my UC medication which would cause the diantin to become toxic) and during this time I had no speech arrests however I did run a serious risk of a seizure.

Once I went back on the dilantin, the speech arrests started again however, the frequency was dependant on the amount of stress I was under.

Randy

[munchy]

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I have to ask:

Yesterday I was trying to talk and my tongue felt like it was swollen, I was really having trouble getting my words round it and also couldn't talk loudly, which was fine if I was talking to the person next to me, but not to someone on the other side of the room. I had to slow down alot, it really got on my nerves, it probably lasted a couple of hours.

I must admit I only started Tegretol a couple of weeks ago, but I thought most of the side effects had worn off. Anyone else get this?

Munchy xx

[Shelley]

Mine does seem to be a part of the absence seizure process. Sometimes I think I'm talking, but not. Sometimes I think I am saying a particular word, but say something else, or the root derivative of a word, sometimes I cannot pronounce any consonant, and my tongue seems swollen. Sometimes (and I wasn't aware of doing this) when I'm tired, I start screaming.

[brain]

Did somebody post something? I must had missed it!



That's what it's like when I have an Absence....

However - when I talk funny, act like a drunk, talk
gibberish, slurring words, nonsense, "totally off the
wall" --- but it is NOT a Complex or Simple Partial;
for the behavior is different ---> especially the key
behavior is when I am repeating myself is the major
sign that an Atypical Absence is about to start.

This how it's like when I have an Atypical Absence,
and plus my speech becomes so slurred - like one has
given me far too many shots of Jack Daniels, or worse
they complain that I'm mumbling ...

I think Birdy can explain how I sound like when I
have an Atypical Absence ... 'cause I was on the
phone with her when my son slammed it down
not realizing who it was I was talking to, but of
course I didn't remember being on the phone until
I was out of it ~ I still have not a clue what I said,
but my son said I was out of it! But I did PANIC
and FRET for I had NO IDEA whom it was I was
talking to at that time of the night!



I cannot remember if I PM'd Birdy or emailed but
*whew* I got the response that she was the one
who was on the phone!



It just happens so quickly, so suddenly, and worse,
it can go "back-to-back" and grow worse, hence,
why my son sends me off to bed and I'm sound
asleep in a flash.

The strangest thing is - I have no memory of these
events at all, or what I have stated, did, or done!
I feel really like a jacka$$ at times when my son tells
me the things I had said or I would feel like one heck
of an embarrassed sunburnt sheep!

==============

For this reason is why I begin to question if there are
MORE Atypical Absence than Neurology / Neuroscience
realizes? If one reads all the postings from so many
who have been declared as Absence (but not Atypical
Absence) - there is a slight difference between the Absence
and Atypical Absence in the behavior, I've read up on it,
but when I looked into the EEG patterns, it's almost
really hard to detect because they are almost identical
in a lot of ways, but there is one tiny thing that gives
way to making it an Atypical Absence, very easy for
Neurologists & Epileptologists to miss it; and I am
almost positive that the computers are missing it as
well. You really have to look at it! When they told me
I had both Petit Mal (Absence), Non-Typical Absence
(I can't find any reference on this one, so I am
unsure what a Non-Typical Absence is, or it could have
been an old terminology that isn't being used anymore)
and Atypical Absence. Moreover, I had been informed
that one can have both - Absence and Atypical Absence.

[epileric]

I have similar problems after a seizure. Sometimes I feel OK but I'm told that my wording will make no sense, other times I can understand what's being said to me but I can't get my words together to respond to anyone.

Occasionally I am quite fine after a seizure & have no problem at all.

[epileric]

I also have trouble writing during the post-ictal phase. I just had a seizure an hour ago. I went to mark the time of the seizure down in my excel program but couldn't write anything down after the numbers (like seizure, noc etc). I looked at yesterdays seizure which I marked down as noc (nocturnal) so I copied the same thing by todays seizure even though it wasn't nocturnal. It's an hour later & I'm back to being able to type & understand what I read.

I also find when speaking post-ictallyI can't remember words despite being able to understand them.