Heart Arrhythmias and Seizures

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Suzanne H

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Hi there,

So here I was this morning feeling very proud of myself. My husband has had 2 nocturnal seizures since Feb. and both times I called 911. Last night he had his third one and I did exactly what the neurologist told me to do - time the seizure, then call his name. If he answers it shows he's not unconscious, so just let him sleep it off. So I did and I was proud at the way I handled it although I thought it was odd that he got up and went to the washroom over 10 times.

Anyhow, he woke up early this morning saying he felt sick. Meanwhile, I stayed up all night watching over him. I asked him if I could take his blood pressure and to my great shock, his pulse was over 140bpm. I took him to the hospital and sure enough his arrhythmia that has been under control for 7 years, was back full force. And - they had a hard time getting it back in control.

So he's home now and I'm just stunned. Not only did he have a seizure while his seizure pill level was perfect, his sodium was low and his pulse was out of control.

Anyone have this experience? Could his seizure and going to the washroom over 10 times exhaust his heart and made it beat out of control???

Thanks,
Sue
 
Electrolytes in the body (like sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium) play a role in both the neurological and cardiovascular systems (among other things), so there could be a variety of things going on.

One possible scenario is that his anti-seizure medicine caused his low sodium levels, and his low sodium levels caused his arrhythmia. Over time, as people age, they have a reduced capacity for retaining sodium, so it could be that with the addition of the anti-seizure med, other things in his body got out of whack. What medicines is he on?
 
This might be of interest:

Adverse effects of AEDs—drowsiness, tremor, problems with thinking or memory, coordination difficulties, behavioral effects, and hyponatremia (abnormally low concentrations of sodium in the blood) —are magnified in elderly patients because they are so likely to have other disorders and take other medications.
Click to expand...
from http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/medicine_seniors
 
Well done for keeping your head and doing everything so right Sue. Hope the medics can get to the cause of it soon.
 
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