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I decided to take a page from Rae, and start an online seizure diary for my partner. Although he has yet to be officially diagnosed, we're certain that what he experiences are seizures. With it being online, I can update it and access it from anywhere, and I won't have to worry if my computer pooches out that I've lost all the info. I asked him if he was okay with it, and he said he was, so I'm going to do it.
History Part 1 (I tried to make it brief, but it's not to be):
He's had signs of seizures all his life. When he was little they were mostly at night -- he'd wake up on his knees sometimes, with one arm outstretched and the other curved behind his head in a fencing posture. He had terrible moods, which started and stopped suddenly, normally without any reason. He would also have small space-outs. He would refuse to go outside on sunny days, because the sun made him feel "icky". At age 6 he had a severe head injury from holding his breath in stubborness, then passing out and knocking himself out on the toilet bowl. His parents never took him to the hospital.
At around age 9 the space-outs became so bad he would sit down to watch his favourite show, then suddenly it would be over, and he realized he missed everything. His education was affected as well, and for months he's be placed in an advanced class, then switched to a remdial class, on and on for a few years. He began to twitch more when he went to bed and when he woke up. He had episodes of squiggling colours, flashes of light or shadow which made him duck, bad smells, nausea, dizziness, vomiting and pain that would travel through his body (eg it would start in his leg, then disappear, then reappear in his abdomen, then disappear and reappear in his arm). He continued to have severe moods which started and stopped for no reason. He sometimes just fell over without being dizzy or losing balance -- he says it feels almost like he's being pushed. He also began having extremely graphic and violent nightmares about the Vietnam war. Nobody in his family fought in the war, and his dreams never had people he knew in them. All of these things would happen several times a week. Everybody told him these were normal and to stop over-reacting.
At around age 12, these symptoms became daily experiences, affecting every aspect of his life. This is about the time the epigastric rising began, and serious bouts of depression where he felt as if he was floating over his body, and no matter how much he willed himself to move, his body wouldn't respond. He also began running away. He would always be caught and brought back and asked why he ran away, but he never knew. Had moments where his space-outs lasted much longer, and friends began to notice. Sometimes he would just sink to the ground slowly during these. He developed sporadic time loss and confusion. Teachers, students, doctors, and his family began assuming he was either stupid, making things up, or on drugs.
A few years later he began drinking, and experienced a night where he popped some tylenol for a headache before going out to drink with friends. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in a parking lot and couldn't move his body for at least an hour. When he was able to move again, he basically crawled all the way home. This was the age he began smoking cannabis and his addiction was instant, because, for the first time in his life, he was able to concentrate, the worst of his symptoms subsided. He stopped running away, he was able to focus enough to finish high-school and to work.
History Part 1 (I tried to make it brief, but it's not to be):
He's had signs of seizures all his life. When he was little they were mostly at night -- he'd wake up on his knees sometimes, with one arm outstretched and the other curved behind his head in a fencing posture. He had terrible moods, which started and stopped suddenly, normally without any reason. He would also have small space-outs. He would refuse to go outside on sunny days, because the sun made him feel "icky". At age 6 he had a severe head injury from holding his breath in stubborness, then passing out and knocking himself out on the toilet bowl. His parents never took him to the hospital.
At around age 9 the space-outs became so bad he would sit down to watch his favourite show, then suddenly it would be over, and he realized he missed everything. His education was affected as well, and for months he's be placed in an advanced class, then switched to a remdial class, on and on for a few years. He began to twitch more when he went to bed and when he woke up. He had episodes of squiggling colours, flashes of light or shadow which made him duck, bad smells, nausea, dizziness, vomiting and pain that would travel through his body (eg it would start in his leg, then disappear, then reappear in his abdomen, then disappear and reappear in his arm). He continued to have severe moods which started and stopped for no reason. He sometimes just fell over without being dizzy or losing balance -- he says it feels almost like he's being pushed. He also began having extremely graphic and violent nightmares about the Vietnam war. Nobody in his family fought in the war, and his dreams never had people he knew in them. All of these things would happen several times a week. Everybody told him these were normal and to stop over-reacting.
At around age 12, these symptoms became daily experiences, affecting every aspect of his life. This is about the time the epigastric rising began, and serious bouts of depression where he felt as if he was floating over his body, and no matter how much he willed himself to move, his body wouldn't respond. He also began running away. He would always be caught and brought back and asked why he ran away, but he never knew. Had moments where his space-outs lasted much longer, and friends began to notice. Sometimes he would just sink to the ground slowly during these. He developed sporadic time loss and confusion. Teachers, students, doctors, and his family began assuming he was either stupid, making things up, or on drugs.
A few years later he began drinking, and experienced a night where he popped some tylenol for a headache before going out to drink with friends. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in a parking lot and couldn't move his body for at least an hour. When he was able to move again, he basically crawled all the way home. This was the age he began smoking cannabis and his addiction was instant, because, for the first time in his life, he was able to concentrate, the worst of his symptoms subsided. He stopped running away, he was able to focus enough to finish high-school and to work.
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