Anyone had a seizure like this?

[Matthew74]

When I was in the monitoring unit I was trying to give myself a seizure. I was already having a sensory simple partial (fuzzy feeling in my head and arms), but those don't show on EEG. I got on the exercise bike (a trigger) but didn't have any luck. So, I laid down while I was still out of breath and decided to try hyperventilating. The first thing that happened was the fuzzy feeling got mor intense, then my breathing became irregular, finally my face, arms, front torso, and thighs felt like they were tensing up. Eventually my mouth made a funny face, and my left hand tightened into a posture. The fuzziness got so intense that it felt like a high frequency vibration. From the beginning it reminded me of how I feel just before I generalize, so I got scared and cried for a minute before I decided to stop. I wasn't entirely aware of my surroundings, but I could talk to the EEG guy. Eventually I started fighting it, breathing deep, and shaking or touching my arms and face to make it stop. It faded away. I've never had one like that, but like I said it was like one of my more common simple partials, but a lot more intense, and felt a lot like before I generalize. The EEG showed nothing, but my everyday simple partials don't show either. The weirdest thing was the left hand and full face posturing (my tumor is on the left, and my seizures mostly affect my right hand and face.)

The doctor came in the next day and thought I had a panic attack. I was scared and did get upset, but did not panic or "loose it". I'm certain it was a seizure. I was upset because I was upset about the whole deal. I got upset because of the seizure, and don't think the seizure had much to do with my being upset. This was my 9th day in the EMU and I was getting worn out. The worst part of it came after I stopped crying and started fighting it. I was fairly rational through most of it.

 

[Bidwell]

Matt. You have thought about this a lot more than I have. I have never had a full scale seizure that I know of. However, from your description, up to the point when it felt like high frequency vibration, it seems to me it could all be explained by hyperventilation -- the mouth and hand posturing........but from that point on out it does not.

I am drawn to thinking about this because when I sculled[rowed] I would freeze when I got to the anaerobic barrier and could not row through it -- which is what you do if you want to win a race. In the end you collapse. But in my mind the next step after the experience of being frozen that way was to have a volcanic seizure. I was terrified of that and I froze. I never did have a seizure on the water. But since then I have fallen out of bed with my legs and arms in contorted cramps -- painful. From hyperventilating? Don't know. The epileptologist did not think it was a seizure. I hope you can make sense of this so that it can be grist for your mill!