My husband's seizures came on suddenly, in adulthood, with no known cause. The first ever happened at the end of February, with a second at the end of March (coincidentally, both have occurred at exactly the same time of day -- 1:30 p.m. -- about an hour after he ate for the first time in the day). He hasn't had any in April, thus far, but the month is young.
The first seizure happened while in a meeting with his student government (less than a dozen kids), from a sitting position, falling over onto the floor. It seems to have been a classic tonic clonic, pretty severe, lasting 2-1/2 minutes with tongue biting and peripheral injuries to his thumbs (I think he now has permanent nerve damage from the incident, with continuing sensitivity on the back of his thumbs; he wears braces at night to give him support and to prevent him from grasping his thumbs). The remarkable thing about that seizure is that the student secretary had a tape recorder going, because he was taking minutes. The entire seizure -- including the onset of the epileptic cry, the crash of the chair onto the hard floor when he falls over, the students calmly calling 911 within a few seconds and dragging the tables and chairs out of the way, someone going to get the nursing program instructor down the hall who comes rushing in, and his postictal state when he is heard whimpering from the pain in his thumbs, then seeming to be responsive with nonverbal feedback to the instructor -- was recorded. I was able to listen to it, with my heart in my throat. However, he does not recall any of it. The first memory he has, post seizure, is the doctor in the ER asking him questions, to which he had no idea of the answers, which occurred 30 minutes later.
And, because I was able to hear the initiating cry, I recognized it when I heard it in March, at the onset of his second seizure. I was around back, planting seeds, while he was up front, talking to someone by the driveway. Suddenly, I heard the familiar sound and knew exactly what was happening. I ran like the wind and found him in the clonic stage. According to the witness, my husband, in mid sentence, apparently had stumbled backwards and fell over the split rail fencing, into the yard, as the seizure commenced. He was already on his left side, with bloody spittle coming out of his mouth, his eyes wide open, sweat pouring out of his head, and again, clenching his thumbs beneath his fingers as he shook. Once I slid onto the ground, I laid his head on one leg while trying to ease him away from the rose bush that was biting at his back and calves. Then, I carefully pried his thumbs out of his grip. Luckily, this prevented him from further injury. I went ahead and called 911, because judging from the witness description, I was afraid he might have hurt his neck or back.
While we waited for the EMTs to arrive (I live in a rural area, on a farm), he stopped the clonic phase and started to roll around a bit, so I helped him sit up. He immediately fell asleep in that position, with his head dangling forward. I noticed he was not able to breathe well, so I tried to get him to lie down again. Before long, he became agitated, then somewhat aggressive, eyes wide open and staring (lights on, nobody hom look) and gritting his teeth, while trying to pull me down to the ground with brute force. That was scary. Then, he turned onto his stomach, in an attempt to get up on his hands and knees, all while cursing and spitting nonsensical words out. I mean, it was total gibberish, except for the "F" word, he got right every time. If it wasn't such a serious moment, I might have laughed. When the witness got concerned and reached out to help me, my husband grabbed the guy's arm and tried to pull him down, too.
After a couple of minutes, he calmed down and laid down. Not long after that, the EMTs arrived and lifted him onto a stretcher. I rode along in the ambulance and could overhear the attending personnel, asking my husband questions, to which he replied fairly coherently. He knew his wife's name (me), could spell it, definitively thought he was at the college instead of home, responded with a chuckle and, "that's a good question," when asked what day of the week it was. Once again, however, he recalls none of this. The first recall is the same scenario, of the doctor in the ER asking him questions, about half an hour after the event.
It IS scary to witness a loved one go through what appears to be a traumatic experience. However, I forced myself to remain calm and made sure he was safe. I suppose he could have hurt me without realizing it, but I was able to quickly retreat from his reach. I don't understand that part of the seizure causing aggression, as I haven't read much about it. However, thanks to the many resources out there, and, particularly, groups like this with people who share their own experiences, I was able to get through it okay.
So far, he's doing okay on his meds (low dose 25 mg Lamictal, as we're new to this and in the process of working up to a therapeutic level; 500mg x2 Keppra, in the interim). I do notice that he's a little pale, however. Otherwise, no noticeable side effects yet. On both occasions, it took him a full week to recover to his old self. Occasionally, about twice a month, he has these spells that last about 30 seconds, where he's unable to focus and loses his train of thought. I don't know if that is a different type of seizure, but the last one he had, he was in the middle of lecturing and was able to power through it. He said he never stopped talking and managed not to alert the kids to it. Apparently, he's fully conscious of it happening. He's told me he has had two of these types of episodes, days apart, prior to each of his tonic clonic seizures. So far, since the last seizure, he's had one such episode, so I'm on the look out.
If he has another tonic clonic, I think I will be more prepared, both during and after.
