Ok, Wierd SleepWalking Episode or Ep? [long post]

[BlueSkies2220]

Allrighty
Yes, it has been years, and i do mean years [about 6 in fact] where I haven't had a seizure. So nice to feel that comfort..until the other afternoon

Stupid me stays up all night and the next day. Misses a dose or two. Thinking that everything's all right. And so I take my husband's Lyrica, which i take once in a while, as a substitute for my own medication. It has helped me in times past and I even went an entire month while using it when I had no medication of my own to help me.

That afternoon, when i finally got to bed, i was feeling absolutely loopy. So tired. And so i remember getting up out of bed, feeling like i had to use the bathroom, but my pants were soaking wet, [sign #1] and i barely made it to the bathroom. I stumbled in there and by that time, it seemed like, whats the use? It was too late.

It was foggy but i remember being on the 'loo, and waking myself up when my head almost hit the side of the tub. I was so tired that i had fallen asleep on there. I don't remember walking in there, but i do remember getting out of bed. And i don't remember sitting on the toilet but i must have because I do remember leaving the bathroom. [sign number 2]

My cat meowed, so i went into the livingroom and got her food and poured some in her bowl. I took the catfood back to the bedroom with me [and i dont know why?!] and set it down. I literally fell on the bed from exhaustion.

Time passes and I fall asleep instantly. woke up with a splitting headache and when i got up out of that bed, the back of my legs hurt [that oh so familiar pain of what it was like to have a seizure, sign number 3]

So during the rest of the day, i kept commenting to my husband, that my legs hurt, just like they did whenever I had a seizure. I don't know why but my legs do hurt in that way, and sometimes my arms hurt. I have a history of complex partial seizures combined with generalized tonic clonic.

Now, the next night, as i sit here and write this, my tongue starts to hurt. And its hurting in places that it shouldn't...like the center of my tongue, as if i had bitten down on it, and on the side where it's raw, and underneath where its been scraped.

What's strange is that it did not hurt yesterday after i had gotten out of bed. and i ate today and my tongue felt fine. It wasn't until tonight, about 24hrs later that my tongue now feels raw!!

The thing that bothers me is the total lack of control as i was getting up out of bed. usually when i have to go, i have to go, but ive never in my life just let go while i was on the way to the bathroom. getting there was a haze. and when i have my complex partial seizures [complex partials] i have the habit of going to the bathroom to hide, its just what i've always done.

There is absolutely no reason for my legs to feel the way that they did unless I did have a seizure, becaue i remember being absolutely tired when i got out of bed, so i know that i rested for at least a few hours. and i remember taking a headache powder because my head was splitting when i woke up.

That afternoon I felt like i had a sleepwalking episode. I have never sleptwalked in my life. I thought i sleptwalked because i remember being half asleep while i was up.

Ok, question for those who are experienced with sleep seizure. I have a history of seizures in my sleep, tonic clonics. Is it possible to have a seizure, wake up from it, then in my post-ictal phase do something silly and irrational like i did by bringing the catfood into my room, then wake up a few hours later, without having the typical memory loss that i associate with it, but still feel a pounding headache, feel my leg muscles hurt, and then, 24hrs later feel the injury on my tongue?

For those of you who have experienced tongue biting, could it be more than a day before you feel the injury from it? Honestly, its been 6yrs since ive felt the pain that it causes and my seizures when they generalize typically cause that for me, but its been so long that I forgot what its like. If i could confirm that somehow then i would know, with absolute certainty that's what happened. you dont just bite your own tongue unless you are having a seizure and it does not hurt in the way that mine does just on its own. it feels raw and scraped and i can see where its cut.

From everything that I experienced, i am very worried that I had a seizure in my sleep. With no one around to see it, and with the experience being a blur in my mind, yet feeling injury from it, thats what it feels like.

I haven't had one in over 6yrs but i know that all it takes is something like staying up all night to lower my threshold.

Frankly, im kinda scared and half tempted to up my dose just for a week or so.

No, I dont have a doctor. Please don't tell me to go see one, ive heard it all before, and i know that you guys care, but im looking for answers to confirm what i think that i already know., thats all.

Oh, and before i went to bed, i was a total emotional wreck, crying, and i am not usually so moody. thats another sign that i look at. and prior to that, i had headaches every day that week, some of them incurable by my good old standby BC headache powder [which usually does the trick]

[CrunchyFrog]

I have sleep seizures and I can tell you it's absolutely possible for you to wake up and do strange things during the post-ictal state. I've been abusive, tried to jump down a flight of stairs and one time I got up and apparently walked up to the wall beside the door and started clawing at the wall shouting 'there should be a door here somewhere'. I also remember reading another person on this forum actually woke up on the other side of town, can't remember where it was though I generally have a vague recollection of what I did, it's very foggy and I don't remember all of it but, I do get snippets. Is it possible there might be more to what you did than you remember?

I don't know whether it would take a day to feel the injury, although one of my seizures I woke up and my partner was on the phone at 3am and telling family I'd had another seizure, at this point I was still being diagnosed and I just jumped back into bed in frustration and then realized the sheets were full of blood, it wasn't until then I felt the pain of the swollen tongue.

Sounds like you did have a seizure, although I have started sleep walking since been on medication but, it sounds like you've been on medication for a while without any sleepwalking episodes. Are there any other changes in your lifestyle that might lower your seizure threshold? I think being sick, overtired, stressed can all be triggers.

[BlueSkies2220]

Totally!
I have a really strange sleep schedule. After what I had been through I know it was a seizure. I plan on taking a whole dose instead of a half this week and then cutting back to my usual half-dose.

What had happened prior was that I had been up for almost two days, and I don't usually do that, but we have a lot going on here at the house and I had stayed awake to help out around here. My husband talked me into going to bed finally and he left for work after that, and while he was gone at work, all that happened to me.

I guess it was about 12hrs or so when i really started to feel the pain on my tongue, but after all of what i had been through, i think i know what really happened. Missed doses of my medication combined with lack of sleep, stress..yeah, not a good idea. It only takes an event like that to lower my seizure threshold. I will be more careful next time..and i will try to remember that I am not invincible!!

[bazpa]

Most of my seizures are in my sleep. I have found myself 2 blocks from home at 2 in the morning. I know I shouldn't smoke, but have become aware that I was outside, had lit a cigarette, and it was happily burning on my deck, or blanket ect. I was having so many at one time, and doing this that I cannot believe I didn't burn the house down. I have gotten burns on my legs too! It's so odd that a I don't feel pain or anything during these. I always am loopy afterwards! Slur my words, or cannot think of them, my balance in horrible, and I feel like I have had 1 too many drinks. I also know when I have had a bad night, because when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I got hit by a train. My back and body hurts so bad. I have wet myself on a few occasions, which caused me so much worry, that if I even thought I needed to use the bathroom at work, I would go. 8 trips a day-at least I got some exercise! I still get irritated when I think of all the things that doctors have treated me for, when in the end, the problem was seizures. I have stopped taking my meds, because I could not handle the side effects, and could not get the doctor to call me back. I have an appt in 3 weeks. I know I will have to start a new medicine, as my seizures are back, getting worse, and then I end up with these god awful headaches, that feel like an ice pick! I have tried 5 other medicines, and 3 of them had hives from. I am not looking forward to taking another. I hope you better soon.

[Cint]

Missed doses of my medication combined with lack of sleep, stress..yeah, not a good idea. It only takes an event like that to lower my seizure threshold. I will be more careful next time..and i will try to remember that I am not invincible!!

You're right. Neither you are any of the rest of us are invincible! Despite what measure of treatment you may use for your seizures, stress can/does play a huge roll in seizure activity as does messing with your medication doses and lack of sleep. I listened to my doc's advise, took the medications she prescribed, had surgery and I still had seizures. So I never pretended to be invincible. S**t can/does happen to all of us.

[BlueSkies2220]

Yes, it does, it does.. and i know now that on 10/5/2011 I have to start my count over, and that my 6yrs is now gone... GRR!!

I knew, just knew that there was a reason why I came here two weeks ago. I wanted to be around my own kind, and to help others who are like me [with E] if possible.

I came here knowing that anytime, any day it could happen to me again. I also came here to this site to make sure that I did take my medicine every day. I had been slipping up in the past month or so, and so coming here every day helped to remind me that even though 6yrs had past, it was not all behind me.

I want to thank you guys for being here when I needed help, even if that help was some confirmation on the things that i had experiencing. Now that I had that event, i must be careful for the next few months to make sure that I don't repeat it.

I even plan on staying close to home for the next month or so, just to be sure. No long trips, and no staying up for as long as I did.

Thank you

[Endless]

Hi, Blueskies,

A sleep study would help clarify things. Sleep disorders can mimic seizures. There are over 80 kinds of sleep disorders, so it takes a doctor to figure out if you have one of them and if so, which one. Here's a list of some of the more common ones:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_disorder

During a sleep study they have an eeg and video going, as well as other measures. It could help clear up what's going on.