Confused about what happened on Friday

[sjconner]

Friday, I started my day normally. I taught my first two classes and they went well - no problems. The entire hour of my third class was awful! Everything I said was wrong. I might make one or two mistakes but not one mistake after another for an hour! I thought I was saying the right things but what came out of my mouth was not what I was thinking. The other staff member in my classroom asked if I was ok. He commented that, in all the years he had observed me teach, he had never seen me like that. I have taught that material for years, all day, every day. I can teach it in my sleep. It was in understandable English and not gibberish. I also wrote a note, on my hand, to myself. It did not make any sense at all. That is the first time my note to self didn't make any sense. I wrote "color page" ... don't have any idea, certainly not what I intended.

The beginning of the week wasn't good either. Tuesday, I woke up and didn't know what day it was. Thursday, I woke up with tenderness in my left arm (arm that jerks).

 

[arnie]

Kinda scary, isn't it? I've had a number of times when odd words will come out of my mouth when I'm actually having a partial, but it only lasts for a few seconds. Forgetting the day happens more frequently. At least a few times a week immediately post-ictal. Just another joyful effect of epilepsy! I hope it doesn't continue for you. It would be hard to teach if gibberish came out! Keep us posted if you find out anything.

Cheers!

 

[giveasmile]

If all those things are new for you, you should mention to your doctor.

To me they sound similar to what happens to me when I am having extremely brief, but frequent, partial seizures. People can be speaking perfect English and I hear the words but can't make sense of them. Or I try to write something down that I am saying in my own head but get words that don't make any sense. Only one time I realized what one note meant and it turned out to be a sound alike. I might have written "color page" when I was trying to write "other days" or anything else that sounds similar. I've also had odd things right as I come out of a tonic clonic where I see words instead of hear them. It's very, very, hard to describe but my Neurologist had heard it all before. Losing track of what day it is or what time it is, also very common when I'm having partials.

 

[sjconner]

This is very frustrating. I can't be sort of there at work. I teach at-risk 17-18 year olds; they have lots of issues. I just added tegretol about a month ago. I thought I was doing well until this week. Last summer I went 4 months without any activity and then wham! I want my life back ... at least the one I thought I had.


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[lindsayschu2]

Same here--three weeks almost completely seizure free, then Friday, non-stop deja vu simple partials for 2 hours--had to go home to get whacked out on clonazepam to make them stop, and ended up leaving things I had to get done, undone. I really feel for you, and empathize. I'm trying to see it as a temporary setback and not erasing the progress I've made (at least I'm hoping it's that).

 

[giveasmile]

I just added tegretol about a month ago.

Maybe the partials-like stuff on Friday was just from getting started on the Tegretol? Let us know how you've been doing since then.

 

[sjconner]

I generally have simple and complex partials. The "being there but not" is not really anything new. I just haven't had it happen at work (that I know of) and not quite that way. I usually just disappear for a minute or so and am done. I am going to assume it is seizure activity.

My employer knows that I have seizures. If my employer knew that I can "be there but not", I would probably be out of a job. I told them about the simples but not complex ones. My union rep knows. With my students, I have to be on my toes all the time (many of them have been expelled from prior schools, trouble with the law, drugs, fighting, etc.). I had to request ADA accommodations because of the driving thing.

I am ready to get off the med go round. My neuro is trying to get me into an epilepsy center. I wonder what his reaction is going to be to the soccer thing. I also need to get his take on the double vision/drunk sailor thing. He has been pretty quiet the last couple of appointments ... just typing away. It should be an interesting appointment.