How do you feel after a seizure?

[TexasTravel]

I am not exactly sure about how, those of you who actually have seizures, feel after a seizure but I would be curious.

My seizures, just like the one I had almost 12 hours ago, almost always happen when I am asleep but at least one, about a month ago, happened during a very active time.

Anyway, the characterists of my seizures, the sleeping ones that is, are huge, massive confusion upon "waking up". I also have a splitting headache. I am almost always alone so it scares me quite alot, just like this morning. I usually think it is about 10 years ago and that I am supposed to be at work and will get in trouble because I am not there. I am on disability now through my employer and the government.

It usually takes me about an hour to know where I am and even longer to know that I am married to my wife. I never remember who I can call to verify any of this information. My wife has gotten to be an expert on recognizing almost all types of my seizures and knows how to react and what to do to bring me back around and refresh my memory.

I still do not feel to well. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

I do not know the characteristics of all types of seizures and would be curious to know where I could find that info without having to go through some article. I would like to find a place that just lists, i.e. seizure type...characteristic....seizure type....characteristic...blah, blah, blah.

I would also be very curious what your symptoms, after your seizure, let you know that you had one. How do you feel? Are you confused? Do you have a headache? How much time does it take you to "come back around" after a seizure? Do you have any while sleeping?

I do not know all of the types of seizures but the sleeping kind is my most common.

 

[RobinN]

Rebecca has a period of confusion, a headache, some brain fog, oxygen does help eliminate this quicker. She has lack of memory for many hours previous to the seizure, which does not seem to come back.

Her seizures are of the tonic clonic variety.

Thankfully her seizures have been reduced with neurofeedback therapy.

 

[speber]

Man, sorry about that Texas Travel......

I do not know the characteristics of all types of seizures and would be curious to know where I could find that info without having to go through some article. I would like to find a place that just lists, i.e. seizure type...characteristic....seizure type....characteristic...blah, blah, blah...

Epilepsy 101 - Part FAQ, Part tips and advice ...a very good jumping-point thread!

...I would also be very curious what your symptoms, after your seizure, let you know that you had one. How do you feel? Are you confused? Do you have a headache? How much time does it take you to "come back around" after a seizure? Do you have any while sleeping?...

I almost always have a chewed-tongue...little spots(blood blisters?) covering my eyelids all the way up to my eyebrow...SERIOUS headache that isn't gonna go away until I've stayed up for a day to enjoy it----then get a full night's rest. I'm very confused for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours...then slightly confused for a couple of days! My head feels like my brain has 'shrunk' and can be 'bounced around' inside my skull. ALL MINE (thank God!) are while sleeping-----and (again, thank God!) only when I'm REALLY taken down by something such as illness or SEVERE stress!

Luckily (knocking on Birdbomb's head)...I've gone almost a year without a full-on tonic-clonic like I've had in my past. My epi says the smaller two episodes I've had were more like building up to a seize!...and then a relative zilch.

I can deal with that!.....CWE and music must be heppin' it!
:rock:

 

[Nenne]

For me it depends on what kind of sezure it is, If i have a abstens attack i dont even notice it, mine are so short that most people dont notice. My mum says i get red cheeks but thats it.

If i have drop attack, I get really tired and confused, i will also cry and feel embarrassed the first few minutes.

During the nighttime's ones i will if its a bad one just feel really really tired when i wake up, like having a hangover but not feeling sick.

And my very rare tonic clonic, i just cry and feel extremely tired.

For me somehow i always cry does not really matter withc one have if i notice it i will cry and feel really small. I have this feeling inside of deepest misery like somebody just died. It goes away pretty quick.

 

[epileric]

I never know how I'm going to feel. Sometimes I don't feel any different than I did before. Other times I"m really confused mentally & find it hard to talk.

The odd thing is that how I feel afterwards does not seem to depend on how strong the seizure was.

 

[RobinN]

Neene - I just found this:

http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/43/10/2113
http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/67/2/255
http://www.jle.com/fr/revues/medecine/epd/e-docs/00/04/2A/ED/article.md?type=text.html

I found reading this interesting because....
When Rebecca was seen out at UCLA, one doctor told me that due to Rebecca crying after a seizure that was a good indication that it was a psychogenic seizure..
Once again... another area that we were told something that is not true. There is a gelastic seizure, and that includes crying.

...and don't you think in the initial stages of having seizures, if you found yourself in places where you had lost your memory, that you might cry too. Especially if you were 14.

My goodness I want to go sit some of these guys (and gals) down and ask why they told us so many things that I have learned to be untrue.

 

[Nenne]

Im not sure its untrue for everybody, i think for some its correct and for some not. My first doc said to me when i asked him about alcohol that its just like for "normal" people that everybody is different and u cant say it wont or will work before trying it. He also said EP is very interesting because of this. That everybody is so different and u cant treat one patient the same as u would treat the next.

Maybe this doc was special, i loved him so much he was just the best ever. It was horrible when i had to over to the adult clinic. But he never made me fell like just case. He was always full of new ideas of how to make it work. And he always took time to ask me how my life was he could even remember the names of my friends

I did ask him about the crying and he said it had to do with that ur body is working so hard during a attack that when its finish u just let go and for some it results in crying and for some in anger.

 

[Georgiagirl88]

Hi Texas,

I understand how you feel..my seizures are nocturnal also. I do have different feelings during them..but the after feelings sound similar to mine. For a day or two after, I am severely fatigued,headache,also weird head feeling and dizzy. Muscles so weak I can barely walk or lift an arm. I always feel sad and just depleted. It can last from after the seizure to a few days for me. The Drs. said this is my body in recovery mode. Very bad post ictal feeling. I actually had a bad seizure the night before last and still feel bad today. Hope you are doing well!

Michelle

 

[TexasTravel]

Thanks everyone. It does answer some questions. That is one of the main reasons that I joined this forum was to really find out how other people feel...before, during and after a seizure. I have read articles blah, blah, blah but never really sat down and talked to someone who had a first hand account of a seizure. So, thanks so much Speber. I will definitely read the article but to hear everyone's accounts are much better for me.

My seizures rarely happen at night, they usually occur during a nap during the day. I have no idea why. I do not know if there are any particular reasons. I have never really noticed if I was tired, from working, BEFORE my seizures or not. Grand mals are rare for me although I had one about 6 weeks ago and was rushed to the hospital because of it. I was completely out for hours. All that anyone said is that I woke for a minute or two, after the physical seizure, and wanted my wife very badly and then went right back out for a long time. I do not remember any of it.

They usually leave me extremely confused for at least an hour and then slightly confused, and depressed, but not crying sad, for the rest of the day. I still do not feel to emotionally excited yet. I am usually not very, just scared.

I do miss my morning medicine sometimes but never miss my night medicine. The interesting thing is that I have never noticed any seizures happening because of or during the times that I MISS the medicine. I do remember having seizures after increasing my dose though. Yesterday, I increased my dose of Trileptal by half a pill.

Alchohol has never affected me. I do not drink very much at all, only 1 container of beer about once a month while out eating.

I never really had any seizures when I was in school. I suppose it would have been kind of dramatic not really recognizing where I was. But, I am pretty strong and would have told any mockers where they could put it. I did have seizures at work and it is what put me on disability. I could hear sneers, mockery, whispering under my coworkers breathe for a while after I had a seizure. They acted worse than a bunch of kids, get that for ya. Adults act worse than kids alot of the time.

Thanks so much again everyone. This is what I have always wanted, someone who can relate and that I can relate to as you know exactly how I feel and not just some family member who is trying act like they do but do not really. It is always condecending to me when my mother, for example, after a seizure, says she knows exactly what is going on and that she knows how I feel......she does not, take my word for it...she has no idea.

 

[skillefer]

Let's see...for me, I usually get really energetic before the seizure, and than after I feel exhausted. Sometimes I have a headache. I have tonic clonic's, so that explains the exhaustion.

 

[hawke86]

After a seizure I feel like I ran a mile in eight seconds. I always feel extremely tired after a seizure. This is how I feel after a seizure. After a seizure I don't have the energy to do anything. Sometimes my seizures happen a lot. How do some of you people feel after a seizure? My seizures can happen anytime,anywhere.

 

[Nenne]

Its nice to have somebody to relate to, but i dont think u should give ur mum a to hard time, sometimes i think its worse to see it then to have it actually. especially for a parent. Can u imagine the one thing u love more then anything, ur child hurting? I think that feeling most be the worst thing u can ever go trough. I know when my baby brother was very ill a couple of years ago and i saw him lying in the hospital bed crying in pain i have never felt so helpless in my entire life, if i could have i would have traded place with him in a sec, And the pain in seeing him like that was the most horrible experience i have had before or after and still when i think about it it pains me. So i think ur mum if somebody in ur surrounding is the one that knows what ur going trough because she feels inside of her.

aja thats just my point of view im not a parent maybe im wrong.

 

[CQ:)]

Most of the time after I take a seizure I have a headache or feel tired. Sometimes the headache eventualy goes away. There are other times when after a seizure the headache is so bad or I feel so tired that I have to go lie down.

There have been the rare occasions where after I have taken a seizure that I have felt fine.

 

[brain]

Most of the time I'm exhausted, drained, and have the urge
to go to sleep. And if a major seizure, usually I become injured,
if serious enough, would warrant a trip to the Hospital.

 

[Cinnabar]

My experience with tonic clonic seizures...the first symtom is that I find myself hyperventilating. This usually occurs after a poor night sleep the night before and the following day, if I'm extreemely upset, I find that my breathing is out of control. That's all I remember before the "fall" were I've injured myself in some way eg threw my rotator cuff out of whack. When in the ambulance, coming to, I can barely breath. Then that passes. My memory, at first, is a complete fog then after about two days it starts to return but I'm very tired. About nocturnal seizures. Sometimes, I hear a blurt of a loud voice. Only two or three syllables so I can't make out what's being said but I get the sense that they're meant to terrorize me. I've come to understand that this can be common with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Also, during sleep I sometimes wake to find that I've lost powerful loss of bladder control. I've heard that this is a relief from after having a tonic clonic seizure during sleep. Why I'm having a seizure in my sleep unaware... is a question I'll be posting for myself. Epilepsy is complex and manifests itself differently in so many people.

Please keep posting about your experiences and any questions have. I think different symtoms can emerge. I hope I've been helpful is some way. You're not alone!
Always - Laurie

 

[TexasTravel]

Thanks so much for everyone's info, it is a great help!
It is interesting hearing about everyone's different experiences...some similar but many different. Actually, and I do not wish anyone any harm or to sound sadistic or anything like that, I wish that I could SEE someone having a seizure...especially myself. I have no idea what I would do if I saw someone having a seizure. It sounds kind of strange. When it is you, it is one thing but to be able to see someone else would be something different, it would help just to see or feel the other side.

Sounds like there are some similarities though. I do not get tired or exhausted but it sounds like many of you do. A temporary loss of knowledge for at least some of you makes me sound no so strange or different. I do not lose control of my bladder but I have always suspected that some do. The most interesting thing to me, so far, is that so many people have them when they are asleep, interesting. All you ever hear about, from the public, is full grand mals and people freaking out.

And, Nenne, I do understand your point but you have to understand mine too. Many people, and I have read alot here, just want support and not critic....understanding and not fear. My mother could do her research just as I do. She has a computer. But to start condescending to me and even trying to overpower me when and when I am not having a seizure is critical, IMO. For example, when I have a seizure, my wife kind of lets it go for a while. She takes notes for the doctor and makes sure that I do not do anything dangerous afterwards but lets me come around before approaching me. From there, she slowly starts a conversation...kind of. She does not freak me by asking what I did to cause it 5 seconds after I gain reality...my mother does. After my wife sees that I have some kind of faction, she tells me that I had a seizure, the date (so that I do not think that I have to be at work), and just tells me to rest and asks if I need a drink or something. She justs lets me rest and come as fully around as possible before getting into any deep conversation and the such. My mother could not catch all of this if I wrote it on her arm and she has known me for 32 years longer than my wife. Geees.

 

[TeeTees]

I always feel tired when I 'come around'. Not necessarily sooo tired that I have to go to bed, but just kinda drained for a while. I also feel a state of depression, and self-pity with the 'why me' question entering my mind....

...oh, and the 'normal' state of confusion doesn't always happen for me as I'm always 'aware' of when I'm having a sz....

....oh, and another point for me is that when I go to bed on the night of the sz, I tend to wake up early the next day too....a real head-banger of a situation !

 

[BuckeyeFan]

Hangover

The worst hangover you can imagine is how I describe it. After my tonic clonics, I have a VERY bad headache, but the pain is not sharp, usually more constant, throbbing, and I feel pressure. I also have naseau, though I don't always vomit. The confusion was much worse when I started with E years ago, but now 90% it clears out within an hour or so. I just seem to realize what happened better now. My memory from prior to the seizure varies, but I have never had long term gaps.

One thing I have found 'interesting' is that I seem to come around faster if I have injured myself (except the near drowning). I have always theorized that the pain is what brings me around.

Emotionally, I am VERY resigned. Not always depressed, more like no fight left in me. Giving up and just wanting to sleep. I have had a lot of fear and anger prior to the seizure.

When I have not had a tonic clonic seizure for awhile, I feel like my brain is a spring getting wound tighter and tighter (like the last year). Though I hate the seizures, sometimes I have a feeling of release over the next couple of days. The longer I go without a seizure, the worse that spring feeling can get. I guess that is one positive about the postictal stage.

As far as seeing myself seize, I have very mixed emotions. I was an EMT for a long time and witnessed plenty of others having seizures. They are not pretty events, though I handled them like any other emergency. The one reason I might want to see myself is to make it more real to myself and maybe easier to accept.

:twocents:

 

[hawke86]

Having seizures can be interesting sometimes.

 

[hawke86]

The weather where I live is hot enough to cause a seizure. Has anyone ever have a seizure brought on by hot weather.